This waltz was written by Phil Cunningham, and used in the TV soundtrack to "The Tales of Para Handy". My recording on octave mandolin is based on a setting by Nigel Gatherer: https://www.nigelgatherer.com/tunes/...elMW/BelMW.pdf The tune is commonly played on accordion, quite fast and with a strong waltz rhythm. I've played it a bit more like a slow air, with gentle arpeggios and less emphasis on the pulse, which I think brings out Phil's beautiful melody better. Mid-Missouri M-111 octave mandolin Vintage Viaten tenor guitar https://youtu.be/HWO5mBs76EQ Martin
What a fine recording, Martin, the octave mandolin really creates a different atmosphere. And I like the slow air feeling, last month I recorded the same waltz in a simillar tempo:
Two fine versions, gents, and another good Phil Cunningham creation. Not a tune I would have associated with The Tales of Para Handy The Vital Spark as the stories were based around the adventures of The Vital Spark, a Scottish puffer captained by the loveable rogue Peter MacFarlane (Para Handy) and manned by his three crew members. The puffers (so called because of their reciprocating steam engines) were small coasters which plied their trade around the west coast of Scotland and the Hebridean Islands carrying anything that needed to be transported. A big part of their cargo was coal and they also carried a huge amount of whisky from the islands to the mainland. They were built to a length that would allow them to use the Scottish canal locks and had specially designed hulls with flat bottoms which allowed them to get access to locations which had no piers or jetties but reasonably flat areas with good sand; they just sailed in on a high tide, dropped anchor and then when the tide went out they were beached and the local carriers would come down with their horses and carts to unload and load the cargoes. The puffer would sail off again when the tide refloated them. I can remember as a wee lad playing on the puffers which came in to my home town to deliver coal and take away the whisky for which Campbeltown was famous (at one time over twenty distilleries in one small Argyllshire town - now sadly just two). In my time many had been converted to diesel power, so technically no longer puffers, but the name always stuck, such was the affection in which they were held.
Very nice recording, Christian! You are right, it's a similar tempo and feel, but the mandolin vs the OM gives it a different character. John: thanks for the background on Para Handy. I understand from Wikipedia that Phil wrote all the music for the TV adaptation of the books. The theme music went by the charming name "Manus Lunny's Terracotta Plower Pop" (transcription at thesession). Martin
