40 Somre (Danish folk)

[Martin Jonas]

This is a dance tune (a schottische) written by John Hart from Denmark. This arrangement has a treble harmony by "Astrid" (I don't know the surname) and a baritone harmony by Michel Van Der Meiren. Available from:

http://tangosite.com/concertina (which seems to be down at the moment)

and

http://www.spillefolk.dk/nodesamling/pdf/sc-40somre.pdf

I've adapted the arrangement for mandolin quartet (2 mandolin, octave mandolin, tenor guitar).

1921 Gibson Ajr mandolin
Mid-Missouri M-0W mandolin
Mid-Missouri M-111 octave mandolin
Ozark tenor guitar



Martin

[catmandu2]

Martin, this sounds really great.

[Maunus]

Beautiful tune and arrangement. I am not sure if it would be possible to dance a schottish to it though Normally a schottish is played in a fairly jumpy oompa type rhythm and a tad quicker than your version. But your version brings out the beauty of the melody very well. It is originally a Swedish dance I think and in Norway and some Danish isles the same type is called a Rheinlænder polka.

[Martin Jonas]

Thanks a lot, Maunus!

Regarding tempo, I've listened to a few Danish and Swedish schottis dances, and I'm not so sure they are played any quicker than mine -- the ones I've listened to were if anything slower than mine:

Schottis i turer
Nisses schotis (a nyckelharpa duet!)
Födelsedagsschottis

Martin

[Maunus]

Maybe I am hearing ghosts but to me the Schottis i turer and the nisse schottis (wonderful nyckelharpa!) sounds at least a couple quicker than yours. Maybe its just the way it is accented. The fødselsdags schottis does sound slower though, but seems more like an artistic performance than a dance ball.

[Martin Jonas]

As part of my lockdown home recordings, I've been revisiting some old tunes. My earlier recordings of these were trial runs for the arrangements, before introducing them to our weekly group practices/jams. We've been playing them for a few years now fairly regularly,and I think the new recordings are much improved in terms of fluency and musicality.

So, here is my new recording of "40 somre", one of my favourite tunes!



Martin

[John Kelly]

Great tune and arrangement, Martin, but I am in agreement with the earlier posters re Schottische from a Scottish perspective. Our Schottisches are more in the rhythm of the Strathspey with a pattern of Strong/weak/medium/weak (which I learned from a piper!)

[Martin Jonas]

Great tune and arrangement, Martin, but I am in agreement with the earlier posters re Schottische from a Scottish perspective. Our Schottisches are more in the rhythm of the Strathspey with a pattern of Strong/weak/medium/weak (which I learned from a piper!)

Thanks, John! I've played a few schottische before, from Scotland and elsewhere, so I'm familiar with the rhythm. When I first learned it, I tried to get more syncopation and a strathspey/polka feel into it, but I never got it to feel right with the tune! By now we have played it so many times that I wouldn't be able to play it any other way if I wanted to. But it's so much fun to play that I'm not sure I care much whether it's "right".

As far as I can tell, the tune comes from a 1995 album by the Danish folk duo Eck d'Ville (link), a duo of fiddler John Hart (who wrote this tune) and accordionist Jette Poulsen. Can't find any clip from that original recording, but there are two Youtube videos linked from the Spillefolk page for 40 Somre:

https://spillefolk.dk/nodesamling/vi...key=sc-40somre

The first is of a very large Danish folk band (lots of fiddlers, multiple accordions, plus keyboard, clarinet and guitar) playing it for dancers. I have to admit, they play it quite a bit faster than I do!



Another recording, by a smaller line-up in a concert setting, is a bit slower:



Martin

[John Kelly]

I totally agree with your comment that we play a tune in a particular way so often that it becomes our recognised way of playing it. The recent posting of Over the Waterfall on the SAW group is a good example of this, where I abandoned the Bluegrass/reel configuration of the tune and went with the slow version some of the others had played - and I liked it! the clips you have attached certainly have particular, driving rhythms - the second one reminds me of polkas. I also do not do very fast stuff any more as the fingers do not work so well as we move up the years!