Artful Codger: works, clips, notices

Subject: Artful Codger: Short entries for songs
From: Artful Codger
Date: 10 Mar 12 - 10:56 PM

The Animals' Carol: Christmas carol sung by field mice in Kenneth Grahame's book The Wind in the Willows (1908). I wrote a jaunty Mixolydian tune for it; no significant revisions to the text.

First lines: Villagers all, this frosty tide, / Let your doors swing open wide
Mudcat thread: Wind in the Willows carol: http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=134368#3272400 (lyrics, ABC with lyrics)
My Skydrive repository: Song settings (MIDIs, PDF)
(Back to song index)

Click Clack: a poem about a miller who loves his late wife, his daughter and his maid, but they share a common failing: they never shut up (reminding him of the perpetual noise made by his mill). Charles Dibdin, jr wrote it, probably as a light theatrical song, and published it in his poetry collection Mirth and Metre (1807)--this is the only trace I've encountered of it. I wrote the patter chorus and musical setting, and made some wording changes to the text.

First lines: A miller I am, well-respected my name, / And it's three or four years since I buried my dame;
Mudcat thread: Click Clack: http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=139941 (original and modified texts, ABC with full lyrics, MIDI)
My Skydrive repository: Song settings (MIDIs, PDF)
(Back to song index)

The Good Old Concertina (A.B. Patterson, 1891): in this Australian bush song, Patterson waxes nostalgic about evenings spent singing bush songs round the campfire to a concertina accompaniment. My setting includes a reel (used as an introduction and break) and a polka (played afterward).

First line: 'Twas merry when the hut was full of jolly girls and fellows
Mudcat thread: The Good Old Concertina: http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=11304
The thread includes Bob Bolton's setting (with ABC) and mine (with ABCs for the song, reel and polka).
My Skydrive repository: Song settings (MIDIs [with combined version], PDFs)
DigiTrad (lyrics, MIDI for Bob Bolton's setting): The Good Old Concertina
(Back to song index)

[There's] Life in the Old Dog Yet: A jovial codger outlines the approach he took to ensure a satisfying life in the well-seasoned years. The song was written by Joseph Edward Carpenter, by 1878. Finding no music, I wrote a tune for it; text unaltered.

First lines: They call me "old fellow" and only because / My beard has some patches of grey;
Mudcat thread: Life in the Old Dog Yet: http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=144052 (text, ABC with full lyrics)
My Skydrive repository: Song settings (MIDI, PDF)
(Back to song index)

Lone Dog: A mongrel revels in his tough outcast life. The tune (sort of radio-cowboy) is mine, the text is unaltered.

First lines: I'm a lean dog, a keen dog, / A wild dog and lone
Mudcat thread: Lone Dog (lyrics, ABC, MIDI)
Rutherford: Songs to Save a Soul (1916; p. 89): Lone Dog (poem)
My Skydrive repository: Song settings (MIDI, PDF)
(Back to song index)

Streams of Crimson Blood: A young man (John Stacey) breaks into an old man's home and brutally murders him and his housekeeper. He is tried for the murders and sentenced to be hanged.

This ballad was printed in an 1829 broadside along with an account of the true story it describes. Paul Slade researched the story and wrote an article about it for the murder ballads section of his PlanetSlade web site. In response to Paul's request for people to set and record versions of these murder ballads (bringing them back to life, as it were), I tried my hand at this one, and Paul posted my recording on the Tindeck site. I wrote the tune and refrains, and did some minor rewording of the original text.

First lines: A barbarous, foul and horrid deed / I shortly will recite
PlanetSlade article, with the original broadside text
Recording on Tindeck: http://tindeck.com/listen/oirv
Mudcat thread: PlanetSlade Gallows Ballad Project: http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=143241
(Back to song index)

Subject: Artful Codger: Quick index to works
From: Artful Codger
Date: 10 Mar 12 - 10:56 PM

Quick Index

Song settings

I've split these into two categories: those for which my music has been posted online in some fashion (ABC notation, MIDIs or recordings), and the rest. When I've posted music, you should be able to find MP3s or generated MIDIs and PDF scores in my SkyDrive Mudcat folder (particularly in the Song settings subfolder).

Music posted:
• The Animals' Carol (Kenneth Grahame, 1908): Christmas carol [entry below]
• Click Clack (Charles Dibdin jr, by 1807): music-hall song of domestic discord [entry below]
• The Good Old Concertina (A.B. Patterson, 1891): jolly Australian bush song [entry below] [UPDATED]
• Life in the Old Dog Yet (Joseph Edward Carpenter, by 1878): music-hall song of a jovial codger [entry below] [NEW]
• Lone Dog (Irene Rutherford McLeod, 1914): A mongrel with attitude [entry below] [UPDATED]
• Streams of Crimson Blood (broadside, 1829): murder ballad [entry below]

My music not available online:
• Bachin' (Charles Badger Clark, 1915): about bachelor cowboys [poem]
• Bark Gay Head (ship's journal, 1860): about the crew of a whaling vessel [thread]
• Billy Peg-Leg's Fiddle (Bill Adams, 1921): a peg-legged ship's cook plays the fiddle [poem]
• Boston Lullaby (James Jeffrey Roche, 1900): a lullaby to a rather bigger baby [poem]
• Chantons noël à haute voix jolie (French: Let's sing in a loud, merry voice; Nicolas Martin, pub. 1555): Christmas carol; see Martin: Vieux noëls..., vols. 2 & 3
  (I have extended Martin's tune.)
• Cowboy's Wild Song to His Herd (Wesley Beggs, 1905?) [poem] [post]
• Coyote (Bret Harte, by 1869): a sympathetic picture of this outcast [poem]
• The Disheartened Ranger (M.B. Smith, ca.1874): a Texas ranger kvetches about hard life and politicians [post/poem] [thread]
• The Hardware Line (Harry Clifton, 1865): music-hall song of class-crossing domestic bliss [lyrics]
• The Jolly Vaquero (anon., 1883): extols the virtues of cowboys [var. excerpt]
  See Westermeier: Trailing the Cowboy; Lingenfelter: Songs of the American West
• the Little Brown Bulls (trad.): lumber-camp song of a log-skidding contest [thread]
• Lone Dog (Irene Rutherford McLeod, 1914): a mongrel with attitude [thread]
• the Long Road Home (Cicely Fox Smith, 1914): homeward-bound sea poem [thread]
• Night Herding Song (Harry Stephens, 1909): lullaby to cattle [thread]
• A Norrible Tale of the Suicidal Family (E.L. Blanchard, by 1865) [post]
• Old Buck's Ghost (Frank Benton, 1903): a cowboy song for Halloween [poem] [backstory]
  (My setting expands the poem to include some backstory.)
• The Old Cow Man (Charles Badger Clark, 1915): lament on the passing of the free range [poem]
• The Ride of Paul Venarez (Eben R. Rexford, 1889): frontier hero saves a settlement--and his sweetheart [thread]
  (This poem mutated into the cowboy song "Billy Venaro".)
• A South Sea Absurdity (Sam T. Clover, 1898): tall-tales on the briny [poem]
• The Stern Old Bachelor (A.L. Stockesberry, 1887): the joys of bachelorhood [orig. lyrics]
  (My version is a collation with some new verses and a better tune.)
• Two Bits (Sharlot M. Hall, by 1902): horse heroism at its finest [poem] [story]
• Unhappy Bella (trad.): naive girl comes to a dismal end [thread]
• The Vigilantes (Margaret Ashmun, pub. 1907): vigilantes justify their actions [poem]

Translations

L = literal translation; S = singable translation

• Adieu, cher camarade (French: Goodbye, dear friend; L) trad. sea song on the hard life of a sailor
• Ej, od Buchlova (Czech: From Buchlov [the wind blows]; L)
• Hosanna Fawr (Welsh: The Great Hosanna; John Williams, ca. 1840?; L/S [partial]): Plygain carol [thread]
• Heilige Nacht, ich grüsse dich (German: Holy Night, I Greet You; L): Christmas song [thread] [NEW]
• Když jsem koval koníčky (Koníčky) (Czech: When I shoed ponies; L): love song
• Lasko, Bože, Lasko (Czech: Love, my God, love; S/L): lament of an unloved girl
• Rybák/Rybář (Czech: The fisherman; S/L): boastful song of a fisher lad [thread]
• Seděl sokol (Czech: A falcon sat; L): a falcon converses with a rifleman
• V Hodoníně za vojáčka mňa vzali (Czech: In Hodonina they took me for a soldier; L)
• На сопках Манчжурскии (Russian: In the hills of Manchuria; L) waltz/song for those fallen in war

Subject: RE: Artful Codger: works, clips, notices
From: Artful Codger
Date: 10 Mar 12 - 10:56 PM

Change history:
• 2012-03-28 Updated entry for Lone Dog, for which I'd posted music some time ago.
• 2012-03-27 Posted music for The Good Old Concertina
  Added translation listing: Heilige Nacht, ich grüsse dich.
• 2012-03-26 Added link to my SkyDrive repository for Mudcat-related stuff (MIDIs, PDFs, MP3s).
• 2012-03-25 Added song setting: Life in the Old Dog Yet (music posted).
• 2012-03-10 Thread created

Subject: Artful Codger: works, clips, notices
From: Artful Codger
Date: 10 Mar 12 - 10:55 PM

NOTE: MODERATED THREAD
Quick links: Song index -- Change history

This thread provides lists and links for various works I've written or adapted: poem settings, reworked lyrics, parodies and tunes.

General discussion of individual songs (history, other versions, etc.) is better placed in separate threads on those songs; I'll link primary ones below.

Please let me know (preferably by PM) if you have an interest in these works--whether you'd like to see one not yet posted or whether you enjoyed a setting I've made. That's the only way I'll know it's worth the bother.

ABC notation: I often post musical settings in ABC format. Due to my use of ABC version 2 features, I strongly advise using the online mandolintab.net ABC converter to generate MIDIs and PDF scores from my ABCs and others you'll find scattered about Mudcat. Most other ABC tools (notably, the Concertina.net online converter) will choke on or misapply most "advanced" features.

I've put MIDI and PDF scores generated from the ABC notation under the Mudcat folder of my Skydrive repository; although you can't hear or view them directly at the repository, you can download them. This repository also contains MIDIs and PDFs for some other Mudcat projects I've helped on, notably the Notre Dame des Doms carols.

Copyrights: I own the applicable copyrights on my contributions and revisions to these works, though not on the public domain works from which I have derived. You can assume I wrote all the music, except as noted.

Irascibly yours,
Artful Codger (Rob Wahl)

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This is an edited PermaThread® for folk musician Artful Codger, intended to provide performance schedules and other information about his work and performances. This thread will be edited by Artful Codger. Feel free to post to this thread, but remember that all messages posted here are subject to editing or deletion.
-Joe Offer-