Bill started a discussion entitled "early music ditties" which is described as "peasant dances from the medieval/renaissance and baroque ages". I'm going to start a separate discussion for your videos of "O'Carolan Tunes" Here's a great site to introduce you to O'Carolan I love this music, and hope there are many of you out there that do, as well! I'm looking forward to hearing and seeing lots of contributions~
This is Hewlett, played on my Petersen Octave Mandolin. I usually play this tune on my mandolin, so, of course, flubs are included!
O'Carolan's Concerto on my Collings MT2O mandolin
I purchased a book of all the known Carolan tunes a number of years ago. I think I was playing hammered dulcimer at the time. Last year I acquired an mp3 album from Amazon of all the tunes played by a classical pianist. I have been working some of them up on the mandolin. Just when I thought I might get something done around the house next week, I've got the recording bug. Will
O'Carolan tunes sound great on the mando!
Great tunes Barbara. Extra points for the disc golf shirt. Don
Don, Yeah, you'd think I play it, haha! (disc golf, that is!) It was my 'gift' last year at at camping function I belong to! Cleverly wrapped in a heart shaped candy box!
Here's a few O'Carolan's Tunes...Played on a Gypsy Octave Mandolin... First Planxty Irwin
Next up The South Wind
Followed by Fanny Power
And George Brabazon
Between the two of you (Barb and Eddie) you have played most of my current Carolan play list and did a fine job doing so. Eddie, I am awaiting the arrival of my Gypsy OM. Your videos convinced me all the more that I have made the right decision in getting an OM. I like your embellishments to the basic tunes. Do you mind if I steal them? WIll
Will, you will LOVE your OM, I'm sure! Eddie, those were great (except the ending of Fanny Power was cut off, and I'm guessing HALF of Planxty Brabazon was missing! Chris Stewart's You Tube video from yesterday was messed up, too, I'm wondering if You Tube is having a problem?) Anyway, I'll have the learn Planxty Brabazon. You've managed to be headless AND kneeless in these videos... what's next? I rather liked seeing the ones of your whole self, like your early ones out on your patio!
Ah, George Brabazon - I love that one, well done Eddie! And super lovely playing of O'Carolan's Concerto, Barbara - your MT2-O seems, to my ears, to sound a lot more open now compared to the first clip you put up of it right after you got it.
I've replace Fanny and George... they were truncated during the FLV conversion so I reconverted them.
Here is a medley played on the cello banjo
Oh Mike! You've got a cello banjo? We've watched the videos on You Tube of one, and drooled! How cool! Is it a Goldtone? Isn't that who makes it? What are the tunes in your medley? I think I recognized George Brabazon as the first? Thanks for submitting your video!
Sound like George Brabazon 2nd Air and Carolan's Draught. Very well played and an interesting instrument. Will
Will has it right. I did these as a demonstration showing that you can play all sorts of music on the cello banjo (I play Misty on another youtube offering.) This time it is tuned in CGDA but I found (via Paul Roberts of http://www.banjocrazy.com) you can tune G,D,A,E, using the same strings as long as you set it up well. Gold Tone has a terrific instrument here and it is very affordable. And I don't even get paid to say that
Mike, the cello banjos are relatively new, aren't they? If you ever just want to give it away, think of me first!
Cello banjos are an old concept (about 1885) but GT has probably sold more int he past year than in the past 75 years. Most of them are five string but the four string banjos are more versatile. They are a blast to play and if I suddenly die, you may have it.
Mike, I'll hold ya to it! I hope someday to see / hear one in person, maybe even get my hands on it! I love playing the TB, and think the CB in GDAE would be awesome!
Here's one of my favorite Carolan tunes, an air called Lord Inchiquin. I'm playing it on my short scaled Petersen Cittern, tuned GG DD AA EE AA. I don't play this instrument nearly enough, and I messed up in the B part both times, but, oh well!
I am puzzled, Barb - something in that setting reminds me of those renaissance paintings where angels play celestial music - that cittern is a perfect prop. Plus, if you fell off a cloud, you could use it as a flotation device... You have very cunning ways of camouflaging any mistakes as moments of creative contemplation, for those was what I saw in the B parts. That's what I call professional. Bertram
ah, you saw my 'contemplation' ? I'm going to have to work on my background, if it's supposed to look like heaven!
Would not have this O'Carolan train run away on me without an orderly contribution. So here is my version of Fanny Powers: It is really nice and relaxing for a change to play these "decaf" versions of modern dance tunes. Powdered wigs and laced cuffs instead of stout and stomping feet. Bertram
Bertram, that was lovely!
I can't resist jumping in here with a more obscure Carolan tune entitled "Squire Wood's Lamentation on the Refusal of his Halfpence." I heard it on a tape almost twenty years ago and it started me looking for more Carolan tunes. Please pardon the big clam in the first time through the B part. I must be getting more used to the video since it only took me ten minutes to get a take that I could live with. Will
Very nice Will. That's a new one for me.
Congrats on facing the camera's cold eye with a warm and lovely tune. What a long and elaborate name for a tune though... Bertram
Just in case any of us had thought we could do O'Carolan justice - check out this one I was redirected to by somebody who saw my contributions on YouTube. Bertram
Wow, she is a great finger-stylist. We plectrum players will have difficulty competing with that! Don
Well i know three. Princess Royal, S'beg S'mor, and Morgan Megan. Here's S'beg S'mor.
And Princes Royal.
And Morgan Megan.
jbrwky, those were all lovely! I love Carolan tunes! Tell us about your mando! Sweet sounding!
Yeah, wonderful tone. I liked the way you told about "little hill, big hill - about a battle"... sounded a bit like "Little Round Top", though surely that's not what O'Carolan could have known about. "Sidh" generally means anything about fairies, and the Irish call some of the bigger humps in the heather "fairy mounds" (the Orcadians call them trowie mounds), telling uncanny stories about them to keep the children away. Bertram
I really enjoy finding a tale about a tune, true or tall. Is this where you got your tale, jbrwky?
Took a whack at O'Carolan's Concerto. Still no camera, so you get treated to another stunning animation. I disappeared for a few days, and you guys have 10,000 new videos posted; I'll never keep up!
beepu, that was great! For some reason though, I kept feeling like I was falling!
Good playing again, beepu. Your video somehow reminded me of this similar one Bertram
I can't remember where I heard the tale. But I think you're right Bertram, it's the story of a battle between fairy armies or somthing like that. Barbara, the mando is a Flatiron Artist. I did a comparison of the two I own on YouTube. You can find it there if you go to my page or search Slithyj.
beepu, that was great. Now I have to learn that, damn it.
Lord Inchiquin on my Eastman DGM1
Si Bheag Si Mhor - on a Bouzouki -GDAD tuning...
Really pretty, Eddie. Well done, man.
Here's a link to O'Carolan's Concerto as it's own discussion thread
I've been learning Princess Royal for the tune-of-the-month on melodeon.net, and since I can't play the mandolin right now, here is my humble attempt on the G/C accordion (or melodeon if you're British, or squeezebox if you prefer). Not great at it yet... but I'll have plenty of time to learn until my wrist is mandolin-ready!
Susi, very cool! How's your hand coming along? How many different instruments do you play? Don't you wish there were more hours each day you could spend playing them! That's how I feel.... I feel sorry for my instruments that sit neglected in their cases, for months at a time...
Oh yeah, Barbara!! So many instruments, so little time... I have this passion for squeezeboxes but haven't taken time to learn them, but now I have no choice which is great My hand isn't too bad, I don't need painkillers anymore and I can use it more and more. Now I can type with two hands again, a big YAAY. The cast comes of in two weeks but I don't know when I'll be fit for mandolin playing again, which is quite rough on the wrist. I play too many instruments and I can't play any of them decently since I don't focus on one of them...I guess mandolin is my main instrument and what I'm best at, among the instruments that I play. Mandolin, some rhythm guitar & bouzouki, fiddle (need to practice a lot more), slowly learning squeezeboxes (2-row, organetto, concertina) and whistle...