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17 Mar 10 - 10:35 AM (#2866026) Subject: Flee like a bird (fly like a bird?) From: matt milton I bought Robin Williamson's book 'English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish Fiddle Tunes' (Oak Publications, 1976) a few weeks ago. I've been working my way through some of them, mostly on 5-string banjo. there's one that's really unusual, called Flee Like a Bird. It's described as a traditional Northumbrian clog dance. I say it's unusual, because it sounds almost a bit ragtime. There are definitely a few notes I'd associate with early jazz, or at least jazzy music-hall, or some of those classical banjo tunes from the turn of the century. It's very chromatic for a traditional English tune. It also has a slightly unusual rhythm to it: it swings like a waltz, but it's in 4/4 time. One part of it reminds me of the line from that christmas song: "jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock" (!) Is it a well-known tune? doesn't get many google hits? I assume the title "flee like a bird" is a dialect phoneticisation of 'fly like a bird'. When you google it you get lots of hits for a traditional american hymn/blues treatment of a song called 'flee as a bird'. The sole match to the actual tune I'm after is this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6phiqs7Dho ...which implies Richard Thompson plays a version, but haven't been able to track it down. This version has an extra part not featured on Robin Williamson's arrangement for fiddle. Any info gratefully received. |
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17 Mar 10 - 10:50 AM (#2866033) Subject: RE: Flee like a bird (fly like a bird?) From: matt milton managed to hear a tantalising few-seconds snippet of Richard Thompson playing said tune via the amazon music player here: http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Vocal-Richard-Thompson/dp/B000000640/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1268837031&sr=8-1 |
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17 Mar 10 - 10:59 AM (#2866035) Subject: RE: Flee like a bird (fly like a bird?) From: Mr Happy Is it this one http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/5678? Click on 'Sound files' to give it a listen |
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17 Mar 10 - 11:13 AM (#2866043) Subject: RE: Flee like a bird (fly like a bird?) From: matt milton yes, that's the one. thanks very much! It's a bit more detailed, filled-in and hornpipey which I suppose makes it seem a bit more 'normal' than it is in Robin Williamson's book, some very interesting comments in the comments section too for that tune too. One of the things I like about it is that rather odd half of a bar with the C-sharp in it. If the tune's in G, which I think it is, that C-sharp is quite a hard one to second-guess in terms of the implied harmony behind it. You could think of the section it's in as being in E-minor, going to B major for that part. |
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17 Mar 10 - 11:13 AM (#2866044) Subject: RE: Flee like a bird (fly like a bird?) From: Amos Well, birds certainly flee, didn't they? A |
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17 Mar 10 - 12:12 PM (#2866101) Subject: RE: Flee like a bird (fly like a bird?) From: GUEST,leeneia Matt, thanks for bringing this interesting tune to the world's attention. I was intrigued, so I listened to the video you linked while following the sheet music from the Session. The tune is in G. When it uses C#'s, it is flirting with the key of D, which is of course, pretty close to G. I've seen that before. It's the D#'s which surprise me. We already have F#'s, so adding D#'s gives us the B-chord. This is not one of the unusual harmonies for the key of G. To me, it gives the piece an eastern-European feel. Or even a Middle Eastern feel. That feel, combined with the gently rocking 4/4 rhythm makes for a wonderful and creative piece of music. |
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17 Mar 10 - 12:29 PM (#2866115) Subject: RE: Flee like a bird (fly like a bird?) From: matt milton arrrgh, sorry - I did indeed mean to say D sharp, not C sharp! I'm a real idiot at co-ordinating my brain with my fingers sometimes: wonder sometimes if I might have some kind of very mild dyslexia. I thought the same thing as you did; that D sharp does sound a little middle eastern. The only way I could think of to recuperate that D sharp in a more "anglo-american" way - if you wanted to, of course - would be to think of the bar preceding it as being in E minor, modulating to B major (or maybe B dominant 7th) for the D sharp bit. It would make it sound a little like a slow Django Reinhardt-style swing. Which is kind of how Richard Thompson plays it on the guitar. |
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18 Mar 10 - 07:14 AM (#2866718) Subject: RE: Flee like a bird (fly like a bird?) From: GUEST,leeneia I'm not sure what you mean about dyslexia. The piece as shown at The Session has F#'s, C#'s and D#'s in it. So I think you are all right. I like strange, creative pieces which don't fit into a mold. (That is, I like them if they work. I don't enjoy weirdness for its own sake.) I believe this piece is a successful creative piece. I don't think you can explain the D#'s in terms of key change, etc. I think the composer just wanted the piece to sound like that. As I recall, the D#'s are all in one section. In that section, the composer was creating a new tonality. If we wanted to put chords on those measures, they would probably be B chords, because B is B-D#=F#, |
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01 Mar 13 - 06:31 PM (#3485226) Subject: RE: Flee like a bird (fly like a bird?) From: GUEST,boxplayer Anglo concertina maker and player Frank Edgley (Canada) recently used this as the title tune for a CD -- brilliantly played! |