Week #478 ~ Lady of the Lake

  1. Barbara Shultz
    Barbara Shultz
    This week's winner is Lady of the Lady. This week it's a free for all! You find a song or tune called Lady of the Lake (or compose one, if that's your thing)! If you'd be so kind to link to notation for your version, that's be great!

    Here are several that I've found:















  2. JLewis
    JLewis
    I found this abc, that kinda sounds close to a couple of vids, among several versions on Folk Tune finder.

    Edit: Listening to them again, it's only vaguely similar. I like it anyway.
    http://www.folktunefinder.com/tunes?...f%20the%20Lake

    X: 4
    T: Lady of the Lake
    I: Lady of the LakeR-83Greel
    M: C|
    R: reel
    K: G
    "G"G,B,DG B2Bc| dBGA B2AB| "C"c2cB AGFG| "D"AGFE DCB,A,|
    "G"G,B,DG B2Bc| dBGA B2AB| "C"c2cB AGFE|1 "D"DGGF "G"G4 :|2 "D"DGGF "G"G2|
    |:\
    Bc| "G"dcBd g2gd| "C"edce a2ae| "D"f2fg fedf| "A"ed^ce "D"d2Bc|
    "G"dcBd g2gd| "C"edce a2ae| "D"fgfe dcBA| "G"G2B2 G2 :|
  3. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    The name of this tune seems to be attached to a number of otherwise unrelated tunes -- the one I have recorded is from an arrangement for solo mandolin by Philip DeWalt, available in tab and notation free online from:

    https://www.8notes.com/scores/18482.asp

    My recording adds accompaniment on tenor guitar.

    This doesn't seem to be the same tune as any of the ones Barbara has linked (I couldn't play the John Hartford one). Very catchy tune, though -- it sounds rather familiar but I can't place it. Fun to play in any case, and Philip's double stops are easy and effective. The default tempo at 8notes is a lot faster than I can play it. Would need a lot more practice!

    Mid-Missouri M-0W mandolin
    Vintage Viaten tenor guitar



    Martin
  4. Gelsenbury
    Gelsenbury
    It does sound familiar. The A part is a bit like Road to Lisdoonvarna, but the rest resonates with something in my memory too. Of course, I may just have heard this very tune at a session!

    I like your more stately tempo and the arrangement. Clear, tidy, and evocative.
  5. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    Thanks, Dennis. The mood is a bit like Road to Lisdoonvarna, but I'm not sure I hear a similarity in the actual tune.

    As I only know this tune from the 8notes.com online sheet music, I have no idea whether the faster default tempo of the MIDI playback applet on that site is the intended session speed for this tune. Tempo and key can in any case be changed in the applet (not that changing key makes sense here as the double stops only work in this key).

    Interesting tidbit: Schubert's "Ave Maria" is actually a setting of a song from Walter Scott's "The Lady Of The Lake", in German translation. The use of Schubert's melody with the Latin words of the Catholic "Ave Maria" prayer is a later adaptation unrelated to Schubert's intentions. So, if anybody feels like recording Ave Maria, it would fit with Barbara's opening lines above!

    Martin
  6. OldSausage
    OldSausage
    I've transcribed John Hartford's version from Wild Hog in the Red Brush and posted it here as PDFs. ABC is below:

    X:1
    T:Lady Of The Lake
    C:Traditional
    N:From John Hartford's fiddle on Wild Hog in the Red Brush Transcribed by OldSausage
    L:1/8
    Q:240
    M:4/4
    K:C
    A2 B2 c2 d2 | eg ^fa g2 dc |: BA GA Bc d2 | Bc Bc dc Bc | AB AB cB cd | eg ^fa gf ef |
    gb ge dc Bd | A^F D6 |1 [AD]B AB c3^f | eg ^fa g2 dc :|: a4 a3b | ag eg e2 e^f |
    g^f g2 ef ga | ba ge d2 eg | a2 a2 a2 a2 | ba ge dg e^f | ge dc BG Bd |1 ^c8 :|2 A2 A6 |
    AB AB cB cd | eg ^fa g2 dc :|
  7. Don Grieser
    Don Grieser
    Thanks, David. I hope this means you'll be posting a video soon for me to study as well.
  8. David Hansen
    David Hansen
    I really like the Scottish version of The Lady of the Lake that Barbara posted above so I tracked down the notes, see below and gave it whirl. I couldn't make it sound good on the mandolin, maybe John will do it justice so I played it solo on the concertina. A friend of mine says " a fiddle is a fiddle and a concertina is not", meaning that just because a concertina and a fiddle have the same range it doesn't mean they can do the same things. I'm sorry to hijack this forum but concertina players are not as nice as mandolin players unless they play mandolin also.



    X:1
    T:Helen Douglas
    T:Eilidh Dhùghlas
    T:Lady of the Lake, The
    M:3/8
    L:1/8
    R:Air
    B:Fraser - "Airs and Melodies Peculiar to the Highlands" (1816, No. 134)
    Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion
    K:Amin
    g/4a/4g/4f/4|[c2e2] d/4e/4d/4c/4|[G2B2] c/>B/|A>B/4c/4 d/4c/4B/4A/4|[A,2F2] G/F/|[C2E2] {c}e/d/|c2 TB{A/B/}|
    A z g/4a/4g/4f/4|[c2e2] d/4e/4d/4c/4|[G2B2] c/>B/|A>B/4c/4 d/4c/4B/4A/4|G[CE][CE]|ea{b}c'|{f}e2 d/c/|Be[^GB]|{B}A3:|
    |:[E3c3]|[^G3B3]|A/^G/A/B/c/d/|e{^g}.a{g}.a|[E3c3]|[^G3B3]|~A>Bc/G/|[C3E3]| [E3c3]|[G3d3]|c/E/c/d/e/f/|
    eag|ea{b}c'|{f}e2 d/c/|Be^G|{B}[C3A3]|[E3c3]|[^G3B3]|A/^G/A/B/c/d/|e{^g}a{g}a|[E3c3]|
    [^G3B3]|~A>Bc/G/|[C3E3]|[E3c3]|[G3d3]|c/C/ c/d/e/g/|eae'|ea{b}c'|{f}e2 d/c/|Be^G|{B}[C3A3]:||
  9. OldSausage
    OldSausage
    Your concertina is beautiful and always welcome here David. Don, I’m gonna try it soon
  10. Bertram Henze
    Bertram Henze
    So many Ladies of the Lake in sufficient numbers to make a hen party.

    I agree with Dennis on the Lisdoonvarna feel in Martin's version, but I hear faint vestiges of Brian Boru's in there, too.

    David, come here with your concertina more often, please, and give those at the concertina forums my regards and tell them where to stuff their squeeze-boxes
  11. Frithjof
    Frithjof
    Great recordings, Martin and David.

    There was an older discussion in the forum in May 2014 with the same confusion regarding tunes titled Lady of the Lake.

    I also found a John Hartford recording of Lady of the Lake that works in Germany but can’t decide if it is similar to the version Barbara posted.

  12. Gelsenbury
    Gelsenbury
    David, if you couldn't get it to sound good on mandolin, that at least tells us that your fingers are able to play mandolin again. Very good news! I enjoy your concertina, but also look forward to hearing that mandolin again.
  13. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    I think I've found the source of the Philip DeWalt version I've recorded, although Philip has transposed bits of the tune into different octaves for variety. The Fiddler's Companion has nine tunes with the title Lady Of The Lake, several of them with multiple quite different variants. This one is "Lady Of The Lake [6]", second variant, an old-time breakdown from Virginia as published in a 1839 collection by George P. Knauff. It's supposedly a variant of the tune recorded by John Hartford, but I don't really hear that.

    X:2
    T:Lady of the Lake [6]
    M:2/4
    L:1/8
    R:reel
    B:George P. Knauff – Virginia Reels, vol. III (Baltimore, 1839)
    Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion
    K:Ador
    Ae (e/^f/e/d/)|e^f g>e|dG BG/B/|(dG) G>B|Ae (e/^f/e/d/)|
    e^f g>a|(b>a) ge/d/|BA Az::ae (a/b/c’/b/)|ae e>^f|
    gd (g/a/b/a/)|gd dz|g>a (b/a/g/^f/)|(g/^f/g/a/) b>a|ge ed/B/|BA Az:||

    Martin
  14. OldSausage
    OldSausage
    Frithjof - the Hartford Lady of the Lake you posted is a completely different tune from the Hartford one Barbara posted (and I tabbed), although it is the same as several others in her post: i.e. the second and third ones (maybe some others, I'm unable to listen to the one played on the psaltery without my ears bleeding).
  15. OldSausage
    OldSausage
    Here's my version, based on Hartford's from "Wild Hog in the Red Brush"



    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRwhcOFSjUk
  16. Gelsenbury
    Gelsenbury
    That's really good, just a little bit of bowed psaltery missing.

    I own a psaltery. I'll put it on one of my next recordings, but I probably won't attempt this tune.
  17. OldSausage
    OldSausage
    I used to own a bowed psaltery, but I replaced it with a jar of angry wasps and no one noticed.
  18. David Hansen
    David Hansen
    David, the only thing that's more precise than your mandolin playing is your sense of humour, I was literally LOL when I read your comment. That was some impressive mandolin playing preceding the comment, very well done.
  19. Bertram Henze
    Bertram Henze
    I find the bowed psaltery bearable - for a minute, approx. .

    But there are worse things out there. Bluto should come in any minute...
  20. Don Grieser
    Don Grieser
    OS: sounds great. I can make sense of the B part; the A part seems more nebulous to me.

    David Hansen: always enjoy the concertina.
  21. OldSausage
    OldSausage
    Don, the A part is weird because it incorporates that little rising first phrase that starts on the V chord. And then it lands on the root chord (the G) just before the third bar. So it makes it feel like there are only 6 bars in the A part, plus this odd little 2 bar introduction which is more like a turnaround. Once you understand that it starts to make more sense. Plus also the A part is in the key of G, whereas the B part is in the key of D (even though it starts on an A chord). The odd little turnaround is a way of modulating back from D to G.

    So there's a lot that's confusing about this fiddle tune, which seems to have been the way some of the old fiddlers liked it.
  22. Don Grieser
    Don Grieser
    Thanks, David.
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