Ashokan Farewell is a beautiful melody, popularized in Ken Burns’ Civil War TV series on PBS. I have found several versions via tunefinder http://trillian.mit.edu/~jc/cgi/abc/findtune
The question (and problem) is how do whistler players handle the wide range in the song? Do you start way up high to be able to get the low notes? Do you transpose so it fits a whistle’s natural range better? I know some folks must know this tune and hopefully can give me some ideas as to how to proceed on a whistle.
For playing on a D whistle, it’s best played in the key of G. Fact is, unless you’ve got a rare whistle that sounds good into the third octave, you don’t have much choice.
We play this as a ceilidh waltz on a D whistle starting on A. Phrases that cut below the playeable the two whistles play in the second octave which weaves nicely above the fiddles (ie from the first F sharp). Clear as mud, but it works!
Ashokan Farewell is one of the good reasons to have an A whistle on hand.
We play it in it’s ‘native’ key of D, but on an A whistle that’s fingered as G, so it works perfectly. I’ve heard others simply transpose the too-low notes, and still others use the harmony notes at the bottom of the scale, but I feel those two options remove so much of the drama of the tune.
Speaking of Jay Ungar’s music, one of my fave’s is Lover’s Waltz, which you can play the first two times in the key of G (and skip the bottom note if you must) and then for the final go, shift it up to D…very dramatic.
A couple of years ago, my conducting prof was raving about this new Concert Band piece that was “absolutely beautiful, simple, but absolutely beautiful!” (it was a band arrangment of Ashokan Farewell)
I throughly enjoyed telling hime that it was originally a fiddle tune, written at a fiddle camp, and that all of the trad musicians that I knew had been playing it for years.
One of my favorite tunes. I like to play it better on a lower pitched whistle just to avoid ear damage. I’ve also played it as trisha mentioned but I hate to leave out the lower notes.
It sounds great on a hammered dulcimer as well.
I transpose. Sometimes, if it doesn’t screw up the melody, I play some notes on an octave that is in the whistle’s range… For example, in King of The Fairies, I play a B above middle C when the tune actually calls for the B below. But it really depends on the song. Some tunes, that sounds good… some, it sounds bad.
I am a bit confused here. Just downloaded and transposed to G and the tune goes from D in first octave to C in the second octave. Have I got the wrong tune?
BTW Having fun with Danny Boy in C which goes to E in the third octave.
I would agree with Tyghress here…not that that’s unusual or anything. An A tooter is quite handy for this tune.
However, when I play this one at my gigs I play it with my lovely and charming wife on fiddle so I don’t have to play melody. This frees me to play harmony on a Low-D Reyburn which is wonderful fun.
Do you mean you play a G whistle and then switch to a D whistle?
Lover’s Waltz is another one we often do but it’s always been as a fiddle duet. I had a sneaking suspician that it was really a whistle tune. Now I know.
When the tune first came out, one of my friends went out and bought an A whistle from Pat O’Riordan so she could play it without fudging the tune. I’ve never heard her play it however.
I transposed the tune to key of G in order to play it on my pipes. It’s great fun to play and one of the rare times I get to use my c natural and f natural keys on my chanter.
It’s one of the few where earplugs are worthwhile…it allows us two whistlers to soar above four fiddles and two flutes on the melody… . Otherwise I’d agree…I’m a Bb down to F whistle whistler for preference.
I have sheet music for key of D. ? F# and C#. I would post a jpeg but don’t know how to or if I’m allowed to. I find it lovely but most of our folk group thinks it’s dreary. But you can put so much feeling into it. just by changing the tempo and loudness of it.[/img]
No, Doc. I play it first in the key of G (D G B d, d B G E D E D…ending the tune eventually on G) then sliiiiiiiiiiiiiide up to A and play it in the key of D (A d f# a, a f# B A G A…) which is how Jay plays it, I believe.
I used the program Autoscore to transpose a MIDI version of Ashokan Farwell to start on the high D. The other person suggesting earplugs is spot on–the high C is a killer on my Walton. I am afraid to try it on my Clarke classic because of the wind requirements.
Does anyone know how a file gets into the tunefinder database? I wonder why it doesn’t have key of G version and about a hundred D versions.
Thanks everyone. With a few weeks of practice (yes, I’m a slow learner) I’ll be ready to try it in public.
