(no subject)
Mark Logsdon (mlogsdon@teleweb.net)
Sat, 19 Oct 1996 14:07:42 -0700
Mike Nielsen wrote:
>
> I have been turning over an idea in my brain for the last week and I
> thought I would share it with you and get your thoughts.
>
> These thoughts were stimulated while I was listening to our own Kevin
> Kinney's tape of wire strung harp music (which, btw, I recommend highly,
> esp for people who like to learn by listening). Kevin's playing of songs
> such as "Star of the County Down" and "Scarborough Fair" are very precise
> (I have been using them as an inspiration to improve my own timing) and are
> played very "straight" -- i.e., the melody is played as we all know it.
>
> Now when I play those tunes, whether on tape or live, I play them as a jazz
> player might. The melody to me is a "head" and I usually go through it
> twice (just to prove to myself and anyone listening that I can play it
> without messing up!) and then the next time through, I begin to "riff" over
> the chord progression and I keep up this noodling for some time before
> coming back to the head.
>
> What I am wondering is, do you think that in olden times, the musicians
> played these songs "straight" or "jazz" style?
>
> I have a bunch of related issues connected to this basic idea but I am
> going to hold off introducing them to keep this one issue in focus.
Having been involved in 18th century music research for over 29 years, I
have come to some conclusions concerning musicians. I feel that
regardless of what era they lived in, they have always experimented with
the melodies that they performed. Musicians have hearts, heads, souls,
ears, and brains. All of these components work together to keep the
musical performances interesting for the performer. Thats why in old
music books and manuscripts, you may find several different versions of
the same piece. For instance: I just down loaded a version of Derry
Hornpipe that is played as straight eight notes. The version that I
recorded with my music group is the one that has more of a strathspey
feel to it. These aren't abberations. It happens all the time.
Enjoy, have fun, play the music.
Mark