Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Death of Fred Lowry-Australian Bushranger From: GUEST,Roger Date: 05 Aug 12 - 08:06 AM Thanks everyone for helping to revive this forgotten piece of Crookwell history. I'll pass it on to some local musicians and see if they can rattle up a version of it. As for posting the other version of the poem, I will do so as soon as I've asked permission of the descendants of the writer. Will be away at work for the next week, talk to you then - Roger. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Death of Fred Lowry-Australian Bushranger From: GUEST,Grishka Date: 02 Aug 12 - 10:10 AM I see, Joe: when Roger posted his message, the MIDI file had not been there yet. Now I do not want to analyze the MIDItext, but I bet the manifestly wrong pitches in measures 9 and 13 of Bob's ABC text are not the programmer's fault. (The problem with MIDItext seems to be that it fails to administer upbeats, but here the author solved the problem by simply lengthening the upbeat to a whole measure.) A tool "nwc2abc" that takes NWC files to ABC text is rumoured to exist. Do you use it, or would you if it were better? Are you convinced (as I am) that ABC text in Mudcat messages is useful, so that we can read the key signatures, bar lines, preferably lyrics, etc.? (Admittedly, MIDI files can have lyrics as well, as yours had, but browser-internal MIDI players do not display them.) Some of the excellent free ABC software available, playing the song and displaying its written music, should be on every 'catter's computer. -- Like Bob, I am now waiting for Roger's version. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Death of Fred Lowry-Australian Bushranger From: Bob Bolton Date: 01 Aug 12 - 10:16 PM G'day Gerry, I hadn't sighted the re-surfacing of this thread ... and your 'proof-read' of 01 Aug 12 - 05:25 AM. You would be right ... although it wasn't exactly my "typo" so much as low-grade OCR from John Merediths publication. I probably ( ... err ... back just some 11 and a half years ago ...) started to lose critical proofreading concentration ... by line 72! - X - X - X - X - GUEST,Roger Bayley - PM Date: 01 Aug 12 - 02:08 AM: G'day Roger, I missed you post of a day or so back ... and I would be very interested in the poem you collected up round Crookwell - indeed, if it is suitable, and you agree, I should like to publish it in the Bush Music Club's Mulga Wire Magazine - probably in the Singabout supplement! If you sign up for Mudcat ... no cost ... lots of fun and information ... you can PM (Private Message) me with a suitable contact - and I can reply with my contact details ... off the public view. Regards, Bob |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Death of Fred Lowry-Australian Bushranger From: GUEST,Grishka Date: 01 Aug 12 - 04:41 PM Y'welcome, but I refreshed the thread only by less than five hours. Guest Roger Bayley did the main refreshing. Hope he finds it again, being a newbie. Although I have no more been down under this millennium, I welcome any decent opportunity to refresh my memories. But I would not dig up an old thread for mere nostalgia. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Death of Fred Lowry-Australian Bushranger From: Artful Codger Date: 01 Aug 12 - 01:17 PM Thanks, Grishka, for the corrected ABC (and for refreshing this thread). |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Death of Fred Lowry-Australian Bushranger From: GUEST,Grishka Date: 01 Aug 12 - 01:07 PM PS, Roger: Any notation software in the world can read Joe's MIDI file and print it. "Modern format"? Indeed not, but still known everywhere. Alternatively, copy the above ABC text (from the "X:" to "... his name." into the entry box at Folkinfo - you will get the sheet music as a PDF file or an image to print - modern enough.
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Death of Fred Lowry-Australian Bushranger From: GUEST,Grishka Date: 01 Aug 12 - 10:02 AM Worse typos seem to be in Bob's ABC rendering. Since Joe says he is using the same source, presumably more faithfully, here is a (software-generated) ABC from his MIDI file: X:1 T:The Death of Fred Lowry I:abc-version 2.1 I:abc-creator MidiZyx2abc 1.08 I:linebreak $ M:6/8 L:1/8 Q:3/8=80 K:C A, | C2C C2C | C E2G2E | D C2C2A, | A,11/4z9/4G | A2A c2B | A G2G2A | % 7 w:Come all young men and gen-tle maids, Come list-en now to me; 'Til I re-late a cru-el fate Of E G2E2D | E11/4z9/4G | A2A c2B | A2G G2A | E2G E2D | E11/4z9/4D | % 13 w:one both bold and free, Who fell while fight-ing the po-lice, He to the last was game; A D2C D E2| G2A G2E | D2C A, A,2| A,11/4|] % 17 w:gal-lant fine young man he was, Fred Low-ry was his name. But I agree, Gerry, that a bushranger deserves a "no-frills funeral". |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Death of Fred Lowry-Australian Bushranger From: GUEST,Gerry Date: 01 Aug 12 - 05:25 AM Typo alert - back in the first post in this thread, 3rd last line of the lyrics, presumably "frill" is supposed to be "full".
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Death of Fred Lowry-Australian Bushranger From: Joe Offer Date: 01 Aug 12 - 04:59 AM Hi, Roger- I transcribed a MIDI from the same source Bob Bolton used. I hope that will do the trick for you. If you have other versions or more information, we'd appreciate it if you could post them in this thread. Thanks. -Joe Offer, Mudcat Archivist- Click to play (joeweb) |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Death of Fred Lowry - Australian Bus From: GUEST,Roger Bayley Date: 01 Aug 12 - 02:08 AM G'day Bob, I am a newcomer to this forum,who came across it while researching the Lowry story. I have a similar version of the poem which I collected in the Crookwell district, where many descendants of the people involved in the events described still live. This version is said to have been written by the sister-in-law of Larry Cummins, Lowry's partner-in-crime. I would be glad to share it with you. The two versions, viewed side-by-side, both make a lot more sense. I have showed the music file from this thread to local musicians, but I am told that it needs to be converted to a more modern format so that they can read it. Is there anyone in the group who can do so? The locals are all keen to hear the tune that their ancestors would have been so familiar with. Cheers, Roger. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Death of Fred Lowry - Australian Bus From: Bob Bolton Date: 05 Feb 01 - 06:52 AM G'day again ~Susan, Ah ... a book ... I still can't place the one of which you speak - although The Fatal Shore, Robert Hughes, (my copy) Collins Harvill, London, 1987 (first published Alfred A Knopf inc, 1986) would be a strong contender. Hughes takes a line inherited from Manning Clark and looks for much of the Australian character in the convict experience. There is a lot to be said for this and it provides an good-sounding explanation of our "larrikin" streak, but we need to remember that this is something we hold in common with America - for hundreds of years the favoured place of exile of Britain's unwanted lower and criminal classes - sentenced to exile for minor crimes (any major crimes were capital offences). Australia only received convicts after the succesful American Revolution - starting with the First Fleet in 1788 and pretty much stopped before the Gold Rushes of the 1850s (otherwise, the authorities would have suppressed all reports of gold, as they had done for 30 years or more). I think we have to credit those migrants who got up and went somewhere, anywhere, that might bring a living denied at home with a lot of Australia's character (and, once again, we are not far from American experience). Anyway, perhaps you could tell me if that was the book you had in mind? Regards, Bob Bolton |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Death of Fred Lowry - Australian Bus From: The Sugar Dog (inactive) Date: 05 Feb 01 - 01:15 AM Aw, I were DUMB. It was a book! I didn't specify, so of course this being a music site-- sorry! BTW, I thought you were great in the nasty thread. I went to do the music at church Saturday night and saw the pile of home made rhythm instruments lying in a pile with the other stuff we bring out for concerts. I almost laffed my butt off, thinking of sending them ALL to add to your collection! However I kept them for our own use, or as some would say, misuse! ~Susan |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Death of Fred Lowry - Australian Bus From: Bob Bolton Date: 04 Feb 01 - 10:33 PM G'day Susan (aka WYSIWYG / The Sugar Dog / Praise), Sorry! I didn't notice this posting (I was distracted by the mess the local computer shop made of the addition of a 30 Gb drive last week and my slow rebuild). I'm not sure I can put a finger on the specific song you mention. I reckon that " ... how Australia came to be a country ..." depends very much on who you ask ... and when ... and where - and runs very close to sounding like one of those self-congratulatory songs that I usually avoid like the very plague. There have been a few good songs in this line, but they sound better to those that don't have to hear them endlessly repeated by broadcasters ... and I did just list off all the excuses they have had over the past year or so. If you can give me a few more clues, such as a line or two (a singer and or a date would be nice ...) I will see if I can track it down. Regards, Bob Bolton |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Death of Fred Lowry - Australian Bus From: The Sugar Dog (inactive) Date: 30 Jan 01 - 12:17 AM Ooops!! (giggling)... forgot to reset cookie. Praise became WYSIWYG but I am also the Sugar Dog! (Long story!) ~S~ |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Death of Fred Lowry - Australian Bus From: The Sugar Dog (inactive) Date: 30 Jan 01 - 12:15 AM G'day Bob, I forget now what the title was, it was very famous when published, but it was the story of how Australia came to be a country... the beginnings. Ever since then I think that when I have thought of things Oz, there is this resonance that tells me that the Australians are likely to have a pretty good handle on knowing how things actually ARE in life. And I value this tremendously-- a reality-based view will get me every time. Maybe it's a stereotype, in which case I aplogize for being simplistic and presumptuous... maybe it's all too long ago to matter... but I don't think so. Anyway it makes me see these sorts of songs in a wider context, and what had begun as an effort to just refresh the unposted-to threads became this breathtaking sense of the scope of what you had shared. So... gee. I wish I could HEAR them. ~Susan (AKA Praise, I had a name change) |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Death of Fred Lowry - Australian Bus From: Bob Bolton Date: 29 Jan 01 - 09:41 PM G'day WYSIWYG, I'm glad you enjoyed this song and, especially, The Men Who Made Australia. What with the half-cocked millennium, the Olympics, the Paralympics, the real millennium (the exact and real millennium of an inexact and unreal date), the Centenary of Federation, Australia Day and Chinese New Year (and we won't even mention the cricket!) ... the mind seems to naturally turn to bushrangers and the more strident Australian larrikins. Regards, Bob Bolton |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Death of Fred Lowry - Australian Bus From: wysiwyg Date: 28 Jan 01 - 11:04 PM Lovely! ~S~ |
Subject: ADD: Death of Fred Lowry From: Bob Bolton Date: 26 Jan 01 - 02:51 AM G'day, I did promise Marcus Campo Bellorum (aka Mark Campbell) in another thread that I would post the words, tune and some background to this song, collected in his native mountains of New South Wales. This is a ballad describing the death of Fred Lowry, an Australian 'Bushranger' (an outlaw who lives rough in the bush) who was fatally wounded in an encounter with police in 1864 between Peelwood and Laggan, in the Great Dividing Range of New South Wales. Need I say that the official account of the affair ... and this song ... seem to describe entirely different events? I have given a selection from the notes of John Meredith, who collected this version in 1983, at the end of the posting. Regards, Bob Bolton
THE DEATH OF FRED LOWRY Here is the collected tune, in MIDItext form:
MIDI file: fredlwry.mid Timebase: 240 TimeSig: 6/8 36 8 This program is worth the effort of learning it. To download the March 10 MIDItext 98 software and get instructions on how to use it click here ABC format: X:1
Some notes from John Meredith's Folk Songs of Australia, vol. 2. To play or display ABC tunes, try concertina.net Click to play (joeweb) |
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