beautiful tunes

Subject: beautiful tunes
From: Andy7
Date: 19 Dec 18 - 09:11 PM

There are certain tunes that are really, really beautiful. And I don't know why!

I'm talking about the inherent beauty of the tunes, quite separately from whichever well-known or well-loved words they happen to be attached to (and which, in some cases, actually detract from the beauty of the music) - tunes that are really beautiful in their own right.

Here are just a few of my choices ... remembered at random, there are many more besides:

Banks and Braes
Battle of the Somme
Brahms' Lullaby
Bunch of Thyme
Coquetdale Waltz
Cwm Rhondda
Grandfather's Clock
Meeting of the Waters
Michael Turner's Waltz
Rose of Allandale

Which other tunes would you add to this list?

Subject: RE: beautiful tunes
From: Joe Offer
Date: 20 Dec 18 - 12:19 AM

We had a song circle last Sunday, so of course there were a lot of seasonal songs. I noticed that some of them had really wonderful tunes. Several were from the Piae Cantiones songbook from Finland, so I started a thread on the songbook.
One woman, Lonna, doesn't quite realize what a beautiful voice she has, and she sang four gorgeous songs: Good St. Wenceslas (and I sang the Flower Carol to the same tune); Coventry Carol; The Holly and the Ivy; O Tannenbaum. Other songs with beautiful tunes that people sang were Huron Carol, Turning Toward the Morning, People Look East, Wexford Carol, Lo How a Rose, and O Holy Night.
Lots of good stuff, and it made for a delightful afternoon with some of my favorite people.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: beautiful tunes
From: Anne Neilson
Date: 20 Dec 18 - 05:27 AM

What about 'The Lark in the Clear Air' and Handel's 'Silent Worship'?

Subject: RE: beautiful tunes
From: Jack Campin
Date: 20 Dec 18 - 05:55 AM

Fy Gar Rub Her O'er with Straw
Lament for Will Starr
The Braes of Auchtertyre
The Captain's Apprentice (aka Oxford City)
Queen among the Heather
Lamma Bada Yatathanna
Hasta Siempre, Comandante Che Guevara

Subject: RE: beautiful tunes
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 20 Dec 18 - 10:27 AM

Amazing Grace
Eleanor Plunkett

Subject: RE: beautiful tunes
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Dec 18 - 10:40 AM

The Broom of Cowdenknowes

Subject: RE: beautiful tunes
From: Jos
Date: 20 Dec 18 - 10:47 AM

'I dreamt I dwelt in marble halls'
Usually one only hears a brief snatch of the tune.

Subject: RE: beautiful tunes
From: Senoufou
Date: 20 Dec 18 - 11:04 AM

'Na Laetha Geal M'Oige'. Enya sings it so beautifully. Always makes me weep.
I've chosen it for my funeral.

Subject: RE: beautiful tunes
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 20 Dec 18 - 11:08 AM

Several from Ivan Drever:
Leaving Stoer
The Rose of St Magnus
El Caballo Blanco
The Flower of Kristiansand
Several older ones:
Niel Gow's Lament for the Death if his Second Wife
Rosslyn Castle
The Nameless Lassie
The Music o' Spey
Some Shetland ones:
Da Auld Resting Chair
Da Slockit Light
Da Day Dawn
Shingly Beach
Some pipe tunes:
The Sleeping Tune
Anada Pa Gael
A couple of Irish ones:
Ar Eireann Neosfainn ce Hi
Inisheer
Marino Casio and others by John Sheahan

And plenty from "classical" music.

Ask me tomorrow and I'll probably give you a different list!

Subject: RE: beautiful tunes
From: Stewart
Date: 20 Dec 18 - 12:00 PM

Bendemeer’s Stream (a.k.a. Carrigdhoun and Mountains of Mourne)

Subject: RE: beautiful tunes
From: Helen
Date: 20 Dec 18 - 02:27 PM

O Holy Night

So many of O'Carolan's tunes:

Michael O'Connor (aka Michael Ward) - the second set, (e.g. as performed by Arty McGlynn & Nollaig Casey on Lead the Knave)
Carolan's Welcome
Mrs Judge
Luke Dillon
Eleanor Plunkett
Princess Royal
The Fairy Queen

- I could go on and on about O'Carolan's tunes.

Hector the Hero
Archibald McDonald of Keppoch
Buachaill ón Éirne
Rosbif Waltz
Inisheer
King of the Fairies

Marches:
Return from Fingal
Lord Mayo
After the Battle of Aughrim
Brian Boru's March


Then there is my classical list
Adagio Appassionata - Max Bruch
Domine Deus, Rex Coelestis - Vivaldi (this one is #1 on my list for my funeral)
La Campanella by Paganini, but especially Liszt's piano version

I could go on and on and on. So many beautiful tunes.

Great thread idea!

Subject: RE: beautiful tunes
From: fat B****rd
Date: 20 Dec 18 - 02:48 PM

Jesu, joy of man's desire
Here, there and everywhere

Subject: RE: beautiful tunes
From: frogprince
Date: 20 Dec 18 - 04:16 PM

Colorado Trail
Going Home (Largo theme from Dvorak's 9th)
Oars (Tide and the River Rising), Cindy Kallet

Subject: RE: beautiful tunes
From: GUEST,Banjo flower
Date: 20 Dec 18 - 04:46 PM

Calla's waltz

Subject: RE: beautiful tunes
From: Gallus Moll
Date: 20 Dec 18 - 05:09 PM

Senofou, I have a theory about funerals in particular the 'after' part (purvey and session, particularly in the case of a folkie who has passed): after a certain age / stage in life we should periodically be hosting a pre-death wake - so we can be there to enjoy the session in person!
So -- perhaps annually, perhaps less frequently --but so much better than being dead and missing the party! (well, apart from when the inevitable happens -- ?)

As for lovely tunes - like Tattie Bogle's selection plus a few of the other submissions (scratching my head at some tho!)
Didn't notice any Pipe Major Jock McLellan of Dunoon tunes ? He was a great composer - and as well as pipes he played fiddle, piano; his harmonies really enhance the lovely tunes and he is well worth seeking out.
(not to be confused with the more recent Captain John Maclellan who also composed/es)

Subject: RE: beautiful tunes
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 20 Dec 18 - 05:33 PM

Already mentioned most of my favourites.
My Lagan Love
Dark Island
Rhoisan Dhu
Boulavogue
The May Morning Dew
Greensleeves
All the variants of Dives and Lazarus
Margaret's Waltz
O Carolan's Concerto
Golden Eagle hornpipe
Belfast Hornpipe
Miss McCleod's Reel
St Anne's Reel
The Tinkerman's Daughter/Plains of Waterloo
Derry Down
Cecilia Costello's Grey Cock
Lady Franklin's Lament

Some I forget their names.

Subject: RE: beautiful tunes
From: StephenH
Date: 20 Dec 18 - 06:20 PM

These just spring to mind because I am presently learning to play them on the fiddle:

Mi'm shuidh' an deireadha bata (Sitting in the Stern of a Boat)
Flitter Dance
Peter O'Tavy
Old Molly Oxford

The first one is an air, but I tend to play them all slowly as I'm not that good!
But it does have the advantage of bringing out the beauty of the melody.

Subject: RE: beautiful tunes
From: Andy7
Date: 20 Dec 18 - 08:05 PM

Some tunes from the world of classical music that are incredibly beautiful:

Bruckner - Locus Iste
Faure - Cantique de Jean Racine
Handel - La Paix, from Music for the Royal Fireworks
Mendelssohn - For He Shall Give His Angels Charge Over Thee, from Elijah
Mozart - Andante, from Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
Schubert - Morgengruss, from Die Schone Mullerin
Vivaldi - Spring, from The Four Seasons

Subject: RE: beautiful tunes
From: CupOfTea
Date: 21 Dec 18 - 02:42 PM

I'm fond of much on Tattie Bogle's list.

Tom Anderson's Da Slocket Light & Da Auld Resting Chair are favourites, but mostly I gravitate towards waltzes when I think of beautiful tunes:

Flowers of the Thorn
Wood Duck
Penobscot Memory
Ashgrove
Ashokan Farewell (despite being played so often)

From the Irish top ten:
Planxty Irwin,
Lord Inchiquin,
Fanny Poer,
SiBehg, SiMohr

The one that brought me to tears the first few times I heard it is Brian Peters "The Twenty-Sixth of Forever" Wish I could work out how to play it myself, but I'm much more paper trained when it comes to orchestrated pieces.

Joanne in Cleveland

Subject: RE: beautiful tunes
From: GUEST,Geordie boy
Date: 22 Dec 18 - 10:38 AM

Carrickfergus tune

Subject: RE: beautiful tunes
From: The Sandman
Date: 22 Dec 18 - 02:43 PM

Grandfarters Cock? are you serious ?

Subject: RE: beautiful tunes
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 22 Dec 18 - 04:00 PM

Looking at Gallus Moll's post, and hoping I've got the right J McLellan (or even MacLellan!) but 2 very good tunes are:
Lochanside - a 3/4 pipe march, and
The Bloody Fields of Flanders - the tune that was slightly adapted by Hamish Henderson to become his famous song "The Freedom Come All Ye".
Lochanside has also had words put to it by Jim Malcolm, among others.

Subject: RE: beautiful tunes
From: GUEST,Folkie
Date: 22 Dec 18 - 04:55 PM

Add one heard in Whitby at folk week,played by a lady Morris musician on a melodeon, while waiting for the rest of the side to arrive up at the Cpn Cook monument, a haunting Russian waltz called "The hills of Manchuria" a lovely tune :)

Subject: RE: beautiful tunes
From: Tootler
Date: 22 Dec 18 - 05:05 PM

Alloa House
Westmoreland (Playford)
Purcell: Evening Hymn
Handel: Almost anything from Messiah, Zadok the Priest
The Arran Boat
Bonny at Morn

Subject: RE: beautiful tunes
From: Helen
Date: 22 Dec 18 - 05:09 PM

I forgot to mention tunes played by the Scottish harp duo called Sileas:

The Little Cascade, composed by a Scottish Pipe Major George S. McLennan

(That's tops on my list of their tunes, far and away above everything else they play. That's saying something, because their baseline is "brilliant".)

Miss Gordon of Gight (which they play slowly, and a comment on The Session website was that the person for whom the tune was composed was unable to keep still so it was originally a lively tune. IMHO it's beautiful when played hauntingly.)

"Fraser started a trend of playing this tune at a funereal pace, and everybody I have heard doing it has followed suit. There is absolutely nothing in the original publication to suggest that. It’s a reel. It ought to go FAST.

"I have the story behind it in the "Embro, Embro" pages on my website: it is named after a wealthy young woman who seems to have been publicly emotional to the point of hypomania. Combine that with the historical situation she was in, and the obvious way to see it is as a frenzied explosion.
# Posted by Jack Campin 6 years ago." https://thesession.org/tunes/8465

The Judges Dilemma/The Inverness Gathering
Margaret's Waltz/Dark Island
Dusty Windowsill, composed by John Harling
Da Day Dawn
Kate Dalrymple/John MacNeill's Reel

Subject: RE: beautiful tunes
From: Anne Neilson
Date: 22 Dec 18 - 05:45 PM

Looking back at Tattie Bogle's post, I must second her proposal of Lochanside -- absolutely one of my favourite pipe marches!

A great tune with a great melody that pulls you in.

Subject: RE: beautiful tunes
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 22 Dec 18 - 05:48 PM

I'll play it for you sometime, Anne!

Subject: RE: beautiful tunes
From: Jack Campin
Date: 22 Dec 18 - 05:48 PM

There are other tunes associated with Gight Castle and the area around it that really were meant to be slow - Hector MacAndrew's "Gight Castle", James Scott Skinner's "Corgarff Castle" and the ballad for another battle in the same feud as that, "The Burning of Auchindoun" which also has a haunting and dramatic tune. But the story of Miss Gordon of Gight is so extraordinary it really deserves to have her tune done right.

Subject: RE: beautiful tunes
From: Helen
Date: 22 Dec 18 - 10:50 PM

Hi Jack, I understand what you are saying and I do think that a tune or song named for someone should match their personality.

The issue for me is that the only version I have heard of the tune is the one by Sileas and it is a beautiful tune when played at that tempo. I was surprised to learn from your post on The Session website that it was originally played at a lively tempo and also the reason why.

A reel has a totally different feel to a slow air, but it works - for me, at least - as a slow air.

One of the reasons I love the O'Carolan tune, Mrs Judge, is because it starts in the 4/4 time signature and then changes to 6/8 in the last section. It's like two tunes for the price of one, and the 6/8 section seems to add another dimension to the 4/4 section.

Subject: RE: beautiful tunes
From: GUEST,Terray
Date: 22 Dec 18 - 11:47 PM

Love Walked In
For All We Know (the one from the 30's)
Here I'll Stay (Weill)
Nuages (Django's)
Our Love is Here to Stay
I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan
Reverie (Debussy)
Afro Cuban Lullaby
Sukiyaki
Killiecrankie (or Planxty Davis)
Tabhair dom do Lámh (Give Me Your Hand)
Old Paint
Cherokee Trail
A Maiden's Prayer
Midnight on the Water
Midwinter Waltz
Oopik Waltz
Tombigbee Waltz
Out on the Ocean (overplayed but still beautiful)
The Miller's Maggot
Christmas Eve (Tommy Coen's Reel)
Spirit of the Dance
and I agree about Lochanside and many others up the page

Subject: RE: beautiful tunes
From: JennieG
Date: 23 Dec 18 - 12:32 AM

Valse Frontenac.....a lovely tune for dancing, playing or just listening

Subject: RE: beautiful tunes
From: GUEST,Jude
Date: 23 Dec 18 - 10:53 AM

The Fureys 'Lonesome Boatman'and 'Sweet Sixteen'
'Who's Side Are You On?' Spine-tingling version recently on Desert Island Discs by Natalie Merchant.
And yes, 'Bonny at Morn', especially sung by the Lucky Bags,
'Annachie Gordon', 'Master Kilby' and several others sung by Nic Jones,
'Night Visiting Song' esp by Jackie and Bridie,
theme to The Piano by Michael Nyman...
so many. Aren't we lucky?

Subject: RE: beautiful tunes
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 23 Dec 18 - 12:11 PM

Yes! The Lucky Bags were great, especially at their local Northumbrian songs and tunes.
But, ah, The Piano: original tune or not? Many have debated this! Accidental or not? The tune is pretty much the same as the 18th Century Scottish Strathspey "Lord Balgownie's Favourite" used for decades as the music to Robert Tannahill's "Gloomy Winter's Noo Awa'", written in the early 1800s and something of a Scottish folk standard?. (See Dougie Maclean sing it - on YouTube.)

Subject: RE: beautiful tunes
From: PHJim
Date: 24 Dec 18 - 12:25 AM

I love O'Carolan's Blind Mary.
Margaret's Waltz is a beautiful tune.
Although the words are terrible and unsingable, I think the tune to "Massa's In De Cold, Cold Ground" is lovely, especially the part that starts "Down in the corn field, hear that mournful sound. . ."

Subject: RE: beautiful tunes
From: MudGuard
Date: 24 Dec 18 - 01:33 AM

Traditional:

Planxty Irwin (already mentioned)
Gentle Maiden
Lonesome Boatsman
St. Patrick's Cathedral (Dubliners)

Baroque:

J.S.Bach: Orchester Suites, Brandenburg Concertos, Violin Concertos ...
Pachelbel: Canon
Jeremiah Clark: Trumpet Voluntary a/k/a Prince of Denmark's March
...