as some folks here will already know I am currently learning the flute. For exercise purpose I tried to transcribe some tunes from CD. Just the usual slowing down, writing down what I thought (!) I heard, playing back – routine. By now I am through with 30 jigs and reels of Sligo music. Basic transcription without detailed ornamentation. But at least the full first round is given instead the usual 16 bars. No big deal, really. But as it makes not much sense to lock the results away I decided to put them online for free download. Just in case anyone is interested. Over the years lots of people and free online sources kindly helped me along the way so this is a little bit of a “thank you”, too.
For those who come from a classical background I have written a few words as introduction. The text is in both English and German. As my English is not what you would call impressive a native speaker kindly revised the English version.
To make a long story short – if anyone’s interested, here’s the link:
thanks for both of these (Sorry Sol, I’d already seen yours )
Lots of very useful information about the tunes and in the case of the transcriptions very nice indication of graces and phrase shapes. Much to learn from there!
So, I’ve taken a bit of a further look at these transcriptions. I haven’t taken a proper comparison of them against the actual recordings (almost all of which I have) but for sure these seem like pretty solid transcriptions of tunes and recordings which are extremely interesting to me. I know I will be studying these further. Bravo!
PS Chuck, I have added a few new tunes this year. But I in no way meant to impose that on this thread, it’s just my standard sig.
thank you so much for your comments and e-mails! I hope the collection deserves all the warm and friendly feedback!
To make some minor points clearer I thought I just add one or two things here. Indeed the English version is slighly different from the German version. I first wrote the English version and later added the German version using more or less the same words but not in the strict sense of a word-by-word translation.
One thing I explain more detailed in the German version is the use of flute-specific notation used in the collection. Subconsciously I must have assumed that English speaking fluters are more familiar with these little details.
It says that ornamentation is usually (in standard sheet music) presented in a very basic way only. I then refer to the few ornamentations I indicate. A roll is, as usual, represented by a tilde. A striking glottal stop is represented by a dot under the note in question. This does not mean that every striking glottal stop is covered but that such a note is probably best played with a glottal stop to get a sound close to the recording.
A cut generally is indicated by a grace note shortly above the cutted note. Here I adopted Breandán Breathnachs way of notation. As musicians use different notes to cut a certain main note he chose to indicate a cut but not the specific way of the cut. It is in this respect that I use the grace notes. I guess every flute player has his (or her) own way of playing a specific cut. I for example use the left hand ring finger for all cuts on notes lower than G and the left hand index finger for all cuts on notes higher than G. But I know there are other ways to do it.
The other thing I added in the German version is a short remark on the tempo the tunes are generally played in. I didn’t mention the tempo the specific tunes are played in as I couldn’t find a technical possibility to indicate the tempo directly in the sheet music. In the script I basically refer to Breandán Breathanch (jigs: 127 per dottet crotchet, reels: 224 per crotchet).
I feel obliged to point out once more that I am neither a professional musician nor a learned musicologist. But I am happy that some of the forum members can make good use of the collection.
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