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Thread: "Dark" Fiddle Tunes?

  1. #26
    I really look like that soliver's Avatar
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    Default Re: "Dark" Fiddle Tunes?

    Maybe not technically a "Fiddle Tune" but is frequently played amongst them: The Wayfaring Stranger is a minor tune that is "dark":... Barron has a great lesson on Mandolessons. I play/sing that one at just about every Jam I attend as it is one of my favorites. I personally prefer it in Em.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXtDXv6Lamo

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    Default Re: "Dark" Fiddle Tunes?

    Here’s a great “dark” fiddle tune. I learned it from Dave Firestine this summer at the Rocky Mountains Old-time Music Festival (“CROMA”).
    Bob’s Farewell
    https://youtu.be/3IN2XhPiDDk

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    Default Re: "Dark" Fiddle Tunes?

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    Default Re: "Dark" Fiddle Tunes?

    Bruce molsky & jackie fowlis, “The blackest crow”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6jh1vqNvMs

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    String-Bending Heretic mandocrucian's Avatar
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    Default Re: "Dark" Fiddle Tunes?






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    String-Bending Heretic mandocrucian's Avatar
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    Default Re: "Dark" Fiddle Tunes?



    Gabriel Yacoub's Malicorne was perhaps the top folk-rock band out of France. Dark feel with lots of medieval residue. Not a fiddle tune, but this fits my definition of "dark". (not just moody)

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  9. #32
    but that's just me Bertram Henze's Avatar
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    Default Re: "Dark" Fiddle Tunes?

    Without dance music, there would be no fun in sadness. Piper's Despair:

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  10. #33
    Mangler of Tunes OneChordTrick's Avatar
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    Default Re: "Dark" Fiddle Tunes?

    I'd echo some of the above suggestions including Da Slockit Light and Ashokan Farewell. How about Niel Gow's farewell to Whisky, Calum's Road or some more O'Carolan such as Blind Mary, O'Carolan's Dream of Si Bheagh Si Mhor?

  11. #34
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    Default Re: "Dark" Fiddle Tunes?

    Long Black Veil

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    Default Re: "Dark" Fiddle Tunes?

    That's actually a different tune, atsunrise, but a beautiful one. I hadn't heard that one before. Thanks for posting it. Funny, the link I put in seems to work for me when I click on it; I don't know how to fix it.

    Jack

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    Registered User Steve VandeWater's Avatar
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    Default Re: "Dark" Fiddle Tunes?

    I've always thought Jerusalem Ridge was a dark sounding tune. The soundtrack to Ken Burns' Lewis and Clark documentary is also full of great dark sounding tunes
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    Mando accumulator allenhopkins's Avatar
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    Default Re: "Dark" Fiddle Tunes?

    Lonesome Fiddle Blues



    Cold Frosty Morning



    The Dark Island



    ...many more...
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  15. #38

    Default Re: "Dark" Fiddle Tunes?

    Quote Originally Posted by mandocrucian View Post
    Vasen, Vrålkåda
    This (and another one off another Vasen album, of which I don't remember the name, either) is the first scand tune I learned - and spurred my whole subsequent interest in the idiom. I've been looking for this CD, and this tune, for the last few years when I got really into scand fdl (I never did find it in my library, so - many thanks for posting!).

    I used to play this on CBOM too. In fact, I'll give it a whirl since we've already got a fdl version here...

    *Ugh, I haven't played this instrument for several years (nor anything with frets!) and I've no callouses, and no hand strength. That hurt!!! I'm not going to try that again.




    *I'm going to post a vid I recorded back in Spring when I got my hdgfl. It's a tune off one of those Nordic Roots compilation discs by Anneborg Lien, Ferdavals I think it's called … again, I can't find my CD and learned it several years ago; this isn't exactly how it goes, but here's the melody nonetheless - I recorded it so I wouldn't forget it...since I can't find my CD!

    Last edited by catmandu2; Oct-22-2019 at 12:05pm.

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  17. #39
    Registered User Joe Dodson's Avatar
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    Default Re: "Dark" Fiddle Tunes?

    [QUOTE=mandocrucian;1739921]As Horace Greeley said "Go NORTH young man."
    (i.e. towards the Arctic circle....Sweden, Norway, Finland)

    I'd love to learn more about northern European folk styles. I stumbled across this a couple of years ago, and fell in love with it. I don't think it qualifies as "dark," but it definitely qualifies as awesome in my book.


  18. #40
    Registered User Joe Dodson's Avatar
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    Default Re: "Dark" Fiddle Tunes?

    Has anyone mentioned Elzic's Farewell yet?


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  20. #41

    Default Re: "Dark" Fiddle Tunes?

    Quote Originally Posted by A 4 View Post

    *I think. What I mean is A tunes that go to a G major chord, and have a G instead of G#, despite being in A. Mostly I hear this in A tunes. I'm sure there is a more correct way to identify these.
    The key of A major with a G natural (flatted seventh) is called mixolydian.

    - - - Updated - - -

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    Default Re: "Dark" Fiddle Tunes?

    Quote Originally Posted by David L View Post
    The key of A major with a G natural (flatted seventh) is called mixolydian.

    - - - Updated - - -
    Thanks. The folks I play with just say tunes are "modal" if they not are in a normal major key. I think many of the fiddle tunes I think of as "dark" are mixolydian*, but that "darkness" is not a feature of mixolydian, I don't think. Red Haired Boy doesn't seem dark to me.

    *or just minor, or half major and half minor, like Kitchen Girl.

  22. #43

    Default Re: "Dark" Fiddle Tunes?

    Simultaneously dark and jaunty?


  23. #44
    Registered User Simon DS's Avatar
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    Default Re: "Dark" Fiddle Tunes?

    Here’s Paul Hardy’s book of Christmas songs to learn.
    They are jolly and merry and sometimes dark.
    http://pghardy.net/concertina/tunebooks/#xmas

  24. #45
    but that's just me Bertram Henze's Avatar
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    Default Re: "Dark" Fiddle Tunes?

    Quote Originally Posted by A 4 View Post
    Thanks. The folks I play with just say tunes are "modal" if they not are in a normal major key. I think many of the fiddle tunes I think of as "dark" are mixolydian*, but that "darkness" is not a feature of mixolydian, I don't think. Red Haired Boy doesn't seem dark to me.

    *or just minor, or half major and half minor, like Kitchen Girl.
    Ok, Start of pontification:
    "modal" is used for two different things:
    - Fifths without a third - tunings, where the third is avoided in accompaniment are often called modal
    - the 7 modal scales, each starting from one of the 7 notes of a given major scale, are known by Greek names. For instance, Ionian starts on the first note of a major scale and is therefore identical with major. Dorian starts on the second note, has a minor third and sounds like minor, but not quite. Mixolydian starts on the 5th note, has a major third and sounds like major, but with a sad touch in the upper half. Aeolian starts on the 6th note, has a minor third and is identical with minor.
    These are the four most frequently used scales in Irish music, and they are all modal.
    End of pontification.

    I understand that - I once played with people who called all triads "major", and all tetrachords (e.g. A7, G6) "minor"
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  26. #46
    Fatally Flawed Bill Kammerzell's Avatar
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    Default Re: "Dark" Fiddle Tunes?

    Jerusalem Ridge is in a minor key. Has kind of an eerie sound to it. Didn't Kenny write that for the fiddle?
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    Default Re: "Dark" Fiddle Tunes?

    Quote Originally Posted by soliver View Post
    Maybe not technically a "Fiddle Tune" but is frequently played amongst them: The Wayfaring Stranger is a minor tune that is "dark":... Barron has a great lesson on Mandolessons. I play/sing that one at just about every Jam I attend as it is one of my favorites. I personally prefer it in Em.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXtDXv6Lamo

    I have used and contributed financially to mandolessons.com ! Highly recommend this site !

  28. #48
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    Default Re: "Dark" Fiddle Tunes?

    This has a nice melancholy feel

  29. #49

    Default Re: "Dark" Fiddle Tunes?

    Quote Originally Posted by catmandu2 View Post
    ...by Anneborg Lien, Ferdavals I think it's called …
    FTR, not only did I misspell Ms Lien's name in this post, but my attribution of this tune is incorrect; the recording (from where I learned it) is by Helene Hoye and Mari Eggers … on the album "Wizard Women of the North."

  30. #50
    Registered User Rob Ross's Avatar
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    Default Re: "Dark" Fiddle Tunes?

    I second tmsweeney:

    Quote Originally Posted by tmsweeney View Post
    Norman and Nancy Blake with James Bryan and Peter Ostroushko have their share
    Check out Peter Ostoushko's "Chickamauga" off of "Meeting on Southern Soil" with Norman Blake. It is as dark as the battle.
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