Poll for Song A Week Social Group Week #520

[Barbara Shultz]

This poll is for the Song A Week Social Group Week #520.

One vote per member of the social group. Please feel free to link to videos of these tunes, as a reply to this discussion, to help others decide!

If you are a regular member, you know that our polls have been weekly polls, for years, but that over the last few months I've been experimenting with changing that. Our poll will be a biweekly poll. Hopefully, that interval will be enough to keep your interest, and also give you enough time to learn it. I will try to announce the winner on Friday, April 24, in the Song A Week Social Group forum.

If you are not yet a member, there's a link at the bottom of this post that will take you there! Please join us over there!

If you ARE a member already, and one who participates in these polls, I am in need of new tune suggestions! I depend on you all to help me keep this list populated! It's OK to suggest tunes that are already here as 'other tunes', but I'd appreciate it, if when you send me your suggestions, you do a quick check of our 'official tunes' to make sure we don't have a duplicate! You can make the suggestions in the discussion in the social group, called Poll Tune Suggestions. It also helps me if you can include the genre along with the title. I try to populate our polls with a variety of tunes, but our list is in serious need of some Bluegrass tunes, and more Old time! If you can also link to notation or a video along with your suggestion, that would be a great help! I'm depending on you members to keep this group alive!

[David Hansen]

Here's a video of Mazurka des 'ecoliers de Saint-Genest, vote for this one:

[Gelsenbury]

I can't wait! Nice video.

[Mike Romkey]

I have "Glory in the Meeting House" down. Looks like I need to start working on "Mazurka des écoliers de Saint Genest."

[Simon DS]

I know it already!
-it’s one of the tunes that all kids learn before the age of 3... in France.
It’s like Frère Jacques in Canada, or God Save the Queen is the UK.
Not sure what the song would be in the US.

[Mike Romkey]

Which of the settings at the Session looks most accurate, Simon DS? The swung counting will be the challenge on this one. The melody is straightforward. I'm leaning toward the first option because the notation is easiest to decipher.

https://thesession.org/tunes/7854

[Simon DS]

I like the swing in this, it’s played this way by the ‘real’ artists


And similar to this: https://youtu.be/SbgfOZCNAgg

This is the rhythm that I always thought was played when the musician is tired of the simple melody and wants to really have a go at it:


And here’s a great one with a reduced ‘imaginaire’ style and powerful, exaggerated rhythm.

https://youtu.be/AHq3GcWjY3s

Personally I actually like it as in the top vid there but without the swing, almost like a waltz which is how I heard students play it, being simpler and more ‘populaire’ or ‘paysanne’. Like this one:

https://youtu.be/2zA1AnDynXs. -but not French...

And confusingly, the two correct forms are Ecoliers or écoliers, there’s an accent on the capital E but if you don’t write it, break the rule, it’s tolerated.

[Simon DS]

I guess if I didn’t know this tune beforehand, and wanted to learn it I’d just play one of the above vids at slow speed and learn it by ear. Choose one with a solid rhythm. Not sure what the keys of those are (my connection isn’t fast enough to listen to them all). C/F?

[Bren]

They seem to be in Em and Bm.