Today's practice tune for the third position is a German one. I know it since playing recorder and got reaquainted with it, when Martin had a thread about German folk in the main forum. I recorded this version: Now I transposed it to G so that I could play the repetition in the thiird position:
Great tone especially on the new recording, Christian. I missed Martin’s thread about German folk in the main forum – have to look for it tomorrow.
Sounds good when you go up an octave and change to 3rd position, Christian. Both recordings very clear.
That sounds really nice, Christian, especially the octave jump to start the second verse. "Es, es, es und es" is one of my favourite German folk songs, but I've never managed to make it sound like much on mandolin. I'm used to hearing it a bit faster, but maybe slowing it down is the trick here. Frithjof: I started that thread in the main forum back in 2011, when I was making plain melody recordings of a large number of tunes from the Zupfgeigenhansel songbook, just as a way of seeing which ones sound nice on mandolin. No bells and whistles, but a lot of these suit the Mid-Mo pretty well: https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/t...man-folk-songs Martin
Stupid title, nice song, great arrangement! That change for the second verse really adds something special.
Dennis, I agree with the title. I was trying to find a commonality with the pictures that might suggest the meaning, but unless it's about broccoli and guitars I don't know. And I found the third position very clear and bright.
Ginny: Maybe the title makes more sense in a vocal rendition. Here is the band "Zupfgeigenhansl" (named after the much older songbook), in a 1974 recording based around an uptempo mandolin riff which I'm very jealous of: https://youtu.be/2xGEy3O16ao It's a song of the journeyman craftsmen, who after completing their apprenticeship were expected to spend some years practicing their trade by roaming from town to town hiring on with the local master craftsmen until they're ready to settle down. German folk songs generally take their name from the first line, so much so that most older German songbooks don't actually list titles at all, just the lyrics. It's understood that the first few words are the title. In this case, the opening verse is "Es, es, es und es / es ist ein harter Schluss / weil, weil, weil und weil / weil ich aus Stuttgart muss / Ich bin schon lang in dieser Stadt / und hab das Nest zum kotzen satt / Ich will mein Glueck probieren / Marschieren". That means something like: "It's a firm decision: I need to get out of Stuttgart. I've been been here for ages and I'm fed up with this shithole. I want to take my chances on the road." The strange title comes about because the opening word of each verse is repeated four times before completing the rest of the line. In the first verse, that's "Es" (or "it") Martin
Thanks folks! And Ginny, Martin describes the meaning of the song well, the reason for my choice of pictures is, that I've taken them all from Pixabay, and they have no pictures of 19th century apprentices, so I took some pictures of the cities or meals that are mentioned.
In the early 80s, we met a couple of these wandering German apprentices in Aberdeen on Hogmanay and invited them back to our place , as one used to do in those days on Hogmanay. They were a source of great interest at the party with their floppy hats and multi-buttoned clothes. They must have had to explain their tradition many times but we're quite gracious about it. I've occasionally seen them (not the same guys!) elsewhere in Europe even relatively recently.
Thanks again to Christian for introducing this song to SAW. I have always heard it sung a bit faster, and with a somewhat raucous energy -- here is my attempt at translating that into mandolin. Based on a version for two recorders (or other melody instruments) in Volume 1 of "Der Flötenmusikant", a collection of around 100 German folksong arrangements published by Schott in 1975. Kentucky KM-380S mandolin Suzuki MC-815 mandocello Vintage Viaten tenor guitar https://youtu.be/jJL3Us53knM Martin
WOW, that's almost bluegrass tempo, you play this song in, Martin, sounds great!
A very different approach here by Martin. I would agree that it matches the most vocal versions I’ve heard ever. Sounds good on your Kentucky.
Nice to hear songs played on mandolin, thanks Gents.
