Just in time for Thanksoweenmas, here’s an Easter tune. “O Sacred Head” was
originally the tune of a secular song composed in 1601 by Hans Leo Hassler, but J. S.
Bach reworked it for his St. Matthew Passion. (It was later reworked
yet again by Paul Simon as “American Tune.”) I was asked to play it as
a solo tune recently, and worked it up on a Hamlett mandola that I borrowed from Cafe member DerTiefster. I’ve transposed it here for mandolin.
What amazed me about Bach’s four-part choral arrangement is that the
soprano and alto lines, for the most part, sit very nicely on the mandolin just as he
wrote them. So the first half of my arrangement is pretty much lifted
straight from Bach. I had to change, I think, one note in the alto
line. It’s a bit of a “finger buster,” and involves some tricky
shifting, but it is playable! It is a slow piece, and it’s perfectly
acceptable to pause between phrases, so you can take your time with
it. I've suggested some fingerings in addition to tabbing it out.
The second half is a little more typical of my arrangements. I’ve
moved the melody to the lower half of the instrument and laid some
chords (again, all borrowed from Bach’s brilliant harmony) on top of
it. If you feel like playing the tune a third time, and you want to
show off, you can move the melody into the highest octave (starting on
the seventh fret of the E string), forget about most of the chords,
and use lots of tremolo.
One fond memory about this tune: I was visiting the Montmartre district of Paris, and had in fact just come out of Sacre-Coeur, the gorgeous basilica there. I stopped to listen to a street accordionist who was playing "O Sacred Head." A pickpocket came up behind me with a knife, and cut the strap on the brand new shoulder bag I had just purchased at the flea market at the base of Montmartre. He didn't quite cut all the way through it, but the bag was ruined. Had he managed to make off with that bag, he'd have gotten for his troubles one copy of Rick Steves' Guide to Paris ... which I don't think he really needed anyhow. That's all I was carrying in it.
Have fun with it – start practicing now and you’ll have it ready by Good Friday.
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