Last week at Goderich Celtic College I had the chance to be introduced to music from Quebec by Alexander de Grobois-Garand of Montreal and the trio called Genticorum, http://www.genticorum.com/.
We learn to sets of music of two tunes each. The first tune in one set was basically a jig, the second tune in the set was a CROOKED REEL, which I have never played before and found it fascinating for its rhythm.
Alex gave us quite a few printout of tunes to take home but I want more! Tried searching Google for a website dealing with crooked tunes but came up mostly dry..does anyone in here from Quebec know of an internet source?
Mark, you might want to try just looking for Quebecois tunes in general – a fairly good percentage of them will be crooked, I’d expect.
You could branch out, too – probably 50% of the Newfoundland tunes I’m famailiar with are at least a little bit crooked, and there are lots of crooked Metis tunes as well…
Jen says there are two books that 30 Below puts out (or at least sells) which are Quebecois crooked tunes. Ah, here’s a link to them… http://www.clic.net/~thirtybe/100.html
I have a little book of Rufus Guinchard’s (Newfoundland) tunes. A lot of them are crooked. They will be mainly in 6/8, for instance, with an occasional measure of 9/8. There are American crooked tunes too. Were you at the fiddler’s circle in the north tent? One of the fiddlers played Chinkapin Hunting, which is a nice one. (I think the correct spelling is chinquipin or something like that). Anyway, you can find it here.
Thunderhead by Grey Larsen (ed.) a strange tune in 7/8 and 6/8. I first heard a version on the Lunasa’s first album on the second track where is follows Brenda Stubbert’s. Grey also wrote and recorded a 6/8 version.
The little Rufus tunebook is obsolete, now you can get Kelly Russell’s Collection Vol 1 which has all of the Rufus and Emile Benoit tunes he collected – couple hundred tunes all told, I think. Plenty of crooked tunes from the both of them.
I didn’t go to the fiddle circle, but I think the Genticorum guys were playing crooked tunes all weekend at the festival.
Whereas if you wanted to hear Newfoundland crooked tunes (other than a brief airing of one the cool one we learned in class at the Celtic College Showcase), the place to be was the lobby of the Bedford Tuesday night…
The tune Thunderhead was first recorded on a Grey Larson/Malcolm Dalglish album (LP). Kevin Burke played the fiddle on some tunes including Thunderhead-which is the title of the album. They play the tune first in 6/8 and then play it in 7/8. There is one 6/8 measure in in the 7/8 version so that it is crooked there but 7/8 is not necessarily crooked. Somewhere in my reams of music I have it written out but I don’t know if I’d ever be able to find it. The tune became popular in Brittany as a pipe tune. At least I think it was Brittany. It has a different name and was thought to be a traditional tune but it was really Thunderhead arranged for pipes. I no longer remember the name.
It would be good if one of the people with the Lunasa book answer. The version you give is not the original Thunderhead. The 2nd part is considerably different. That’s to fit the pipes I think. Go to JC’s tunefinder and search Thunderhead. Select #32 or 28 where the key signature is one sharp (G, according to them). That version is the correct 6/8 version. The ones marked D are not. Below # 28 (at the bottom of the page) there’s # 29 in 7/8. The basic pattern for the 7/8 is (da da da, da da da da). There’s supposed to be a 6/8 measure in the 7/8 version but I’m not sure where. The tune appears to me to be in B phrygian. Phrygian is the mode built on the 3rd of the scale, isn’t it?
OOPs. I didn’t see Coloman’s message. That version is the same as Simon’s. We must have posted at the same time. Anyway here’s the address for JC’s tunefinder.
I got interested and boy, I sure couldn’t find any sheet music for tunes from Quebec or New Foundland (songs, but not dance tunes) on the Internet. Not saying they aren’t there, but… Maybe if a person had some names, dang, and I think I could have gotten some of those now that I think about it. Anyway, I concluded the books were about the only way.
Not sure if there is anything here that might interest you… but… http://members.shaw.ca/tunebook/
The Great Canadian Tune Book. You can download the whole thing (midi files). Good fun, it has a treasured place on my computer.
Goodness, I’ve been listening to Canadian tunes for about an hour now. I didn’t hear any that I thought were “crooked” but I’m not sure I could tell. But I sure did hear a lot that I liked! I think they would be good for me to practice learning by ear on the whistle. The songs aren’t so terribly fast like dance tunes. Thanks a lot! I finally really listened to The Maple Leaf Forever. That is a very lovely song.
Chris Ricker has some Quebec tunes in the Canadian Fiddle Tunes section of his site. I don’t know how to determing if an ABC is crooked without printing out the notes-which I didn’t do. Anyway here’s the page.
You’re welcome
Here’s a cd that was in the paper yesterday, http://www.borealisrecords.com/cd_mahervelous.html
Frank Maher is a great accordianist from St. John’s town, I’m sure
there are some good newfie tunes on there. If not, it’s worth having just for the cover.
I finally really listened to The Maple Leaf Forever. That is a very lovely song.