Africa Polka
Africa Polka is a song I got from Turner's Banjo Journal #10, a British magazine of sheet music from the 1880s or 1890s. I think it was a yankophile thing populated mainly with American music. There was a banjo fad going on in England, an early example of American folk culture crossing over to the top of the pops. It was similar to the way that Howling Wolf's shows in Britain in the 1960s influenced the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton.
I was playing with live dancing in mind. The part with just chords and no melody might be fun to jam over -- the chords are C-G-G-C and G-D-D-G.
The guitar has a couple rattles. There's a blooper note near the end that I am hoping doesn't really affect anything. YouTube reencodes the original video to sound and look really bad.
This recording is hereby in the public domain.
Horace Weston’s Electronic Jig
I know this is obsessive, given that I've already done five, but I have two new versions of Horace Weston's Old Time Jig, this time dated March 3, 2010. I thought I was done with this tune but I happened to play it at a slower tempo that was just right and magic happened.
The first of the two new versions is a straight acoustic recording from the mic on my laptop. The second is the same recording with an effect that gives it a electronic feeling. After all these straight acoustic recordings, it's interesting to hear it with heavy processing.
The untreated naturalistical acoustic version:
The unholy electronista version aka Horace Weston's Electronic Jig:
- Horace Weston's Electronic Jig.mp3
- Horace Weston's Electronic Jig, March 3 2010.ogv
- Horace Weston's Electronic Jig.flac
- Horace Weston's Electronic Jig.ogg
About the copyright on these recordings, I hereby put them in the public domain.
Egyptian Retreat on potato bug
"Egyptian Retreat" is another tune I got from Ellis' Thorough School for the Six or Seven- Stringed Banjo (PDF). In this recording I play the 1st banjo part on the Fairbanks potato-bug mandolin I just got and the 2nd banjo part on my parlor guitar.
Here's the sheet music for people who are inclined suchlike and accordingly:
My recording is hereby in the public domain. Do whatever you want with it.
bumper breakdown from Thorough School
"Juba Breakdown" is the first tune in Ellis' Thorough School for the Six or Seven- Stringed Banjo (PDF). It's a lot of fun to play.
Juba Breakdown (MP3) Juba Breakdown (Ogg Vorbis) Juba Breakdown (Ogg FLAC) Juba Breakdown (MP4 video)
This recording is 1:10 long. The tune would be a natural fit to connect segments in a larger piece like a radio play, so I have also clipped out shorter snippets to fit as needed:
Here's the sheet music for people who are inclined that way (I use the 1st banjo part):
I'm playing it in an anachronistic style, something along the lines of 1930s country, which it absolutely wasn't.
My recording is hereby in the public domain. Do whatever you want with it.
Horace Weston’s Old Time Jig returns
Yesterday's version of Horace Weston's Old Time Jig was better than the day before, but it started weak and was emotionally distant. It needed a beginning and it needed fire.
So here it is, the fourth and (I hope) final recording.
It's 1:43 long. It's in A minor. The time signature is 2/4. The tempo is 173.
To the extent possible under law, Lucas Gonze
has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to
Horace Weston's Old Time Jig version 4.
This work is published from
United States.
new! improved! Horace Weston’s Old Time Jig
Here's a version of Horace Weston's Old Time Jig which improves on yesterday's in that it's faster, it fixes a timing problem, and it's on my steel string instead of my nylon string.
Slightly on the Mash schottishe (2.0)
I have done a new recording of the 1885 schottishe "Slightly On The Mash". You are welcome to reuse my recording in derivative works or upload it to other people. It is in the key of D. The time signature is 4/4. The length is 1:16.
MP3This is the second recording I've done of this tune and the fourth post related to it. Other posts in the series: Slightly on the Mash; E. Pique revealed; E. Pique motherlode
Horace Weston’s Celebrated Polka (2.0)
Here's a new recording of Horace Weston's Celebrated Polka (sheet ♫), which I wanted to try a different approach to. The first one I did was classical style with rubato laid on thick. This new one is ragtime flavored.
It makes sense that that you could do either way, considering that Weston was part about European art music and part about American vernacular styles like minstrelsy. In his time people thought that the euro influence was automatically better, in our time it's maybe the other way around (at least if you're more into rock/blues/jazz/disco than classical) but this one guy managed to integrate them. And if this composition sounds more snooty highbrow euro than rube yank, keep in mind that it was written for banjo not guitar.
The main theme has a swirly mood like a lady getting dressed up to go out.
The second theme has colorful and daring harmony for that time and place.
The third theme is a jig, as in an irish jig.
And the last bit of the third theme would sound perfectly at home in a 1920s jazz or blues tune:
(Code for indexing into sections of the video courtesy Splicd.com).
More posts about Horace Weston:
Death Valley Waltz
Minimalist video shot in Death Valley +
St Louis Waltz =
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Death Valley Waltz
Horace Weston’s Celebrated Polka
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Go digging for music by the 19th century banjo star Horace Weston and you'll won't find much. He was more of a player than a composer, I guess. Fortunately this 1880 compilation of banjo tunes:
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On page 18:
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Had this sheet music:
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I don't have a banjo, and if I did I still couldn't play this on it. What I do have is a parlor guitar from more or less the same time period and an hour or so a day for practicing the damn thing until I get it right. So I did this video:
raw Talk About Suffering
Talk About Suffering by lucas_gonzeBleak gospel in a raw bluesy style w/ bottleneck on resonator guitar + whistling and singing.
Recorded in a single live take using the mic on my laptop, so the singing goes out of tune in a couple places. I did this just to hear what the arrangement was like, then forgot about it for six months or so. The jagged guitar tone is the cool thing about it.
It's the same song as "Rocking Yukon Gold" -- an old time number called "Talk About Suffering" that Ricky Skaggs, Doc Watson and many others have covered.
Waltzing Bears moving photograph playlist
St Louis Waltz needed a video in the Flickr "moving photograph" style, because I wanted to do something with the cinematic flavor of the music, so I clipped out a 130-second fragment of 1899 Thomas Edison footage of dancing bears and put it next to a 130-second segment of the music. And then I made a playlist of my Flickr moving photographs:
To see just the one new item, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/lucas_gonze/3919617319/.
St Louis Waltz
Here's a video of a parlor guitar instrumental version of a sentimental dance tune called "St Louis Waltz." It's a civil war -era song that I learned from The Drummer's and Fifers' Guide by Bruce and Emmet.
Just the files: MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Ogg Flac, Aiff,
My recordings here are all hereby dedicated to the public domain per CC0 1.0 Universal.
Too Utterly Too (Clog Dance)
Over in the classic banjo group on Ning I came across a couple recent versions (by Clarke Buehling on cello banjo and by Tim Twiss on minstrel banjo) of a catchy old number called "Too Utterly Too." It looked fun to play so I learned the song on my 1916 Orpheum mandolin-banjo.
Just the files: MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Ogg Flac, Aiff, MP4
It's from a book called "Banjoist's Budget" by Mr. A. Baur. According to Carl Anderton:
Baur was from New York, soldiered in the Civil War, was badly wounded in Georgia during Sherman's "March to the Sea," and spent the next 9 years recovering his health. He practiced banjo constantly during his convalescance and became one of America's leading players. His "Reminiscences of a Banjo Player" published in S.S. Stewart's Banjo and Guitar Journal are quite insightful.
I didn't find the date of this book, but I did find a stray comment on the internets claiming it's from 1880, which sounds just right.
Here's the sheet music for them that can read it:
My recordings here are all hereby dedicated to the public domain per CC0 1.0 Universal.
All the relevant files are on Archive.org.
Egyptian Fandango
Speaking of Horace Weston, Champion Banjoist of the World, I have done a recording/video of his superawesome 1882 song "Egyptian Fandango."
MP3: Lucas Gonze channelling Horace Weston via "Egyptian Fandango"
Also: AIF, FLAC, and Ogg Vorbis.
Fandango means "A lively Spanish dance in triple time performed with castanets or tambourines. The dance begins slowly and tenderly, the rhythm marked by the clack of castanets, snapping of fingers, and stomping of feet. The speed gradually increases to a whirl of exhilaration."
It's a great little composition with a lot of spooky flavor. Very Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
Weston was a sophisticated musician.
The harmony dips into both blues and classical. I hear Paganini *and* Rev. Gary Davis. As an example of classical harmony, at the center of the piece is a dissonant chord in A minor spelled b-f#-g-d; notice the f# and g right next to each other, without even an octave between them to help them get along. As an example of blues harmony, he uses V minor (E minor) and V dominant (E7) interchangeably, without modulating, which makes the third a blue note.
Rhythmically it plays a subtle game with a strong offbeat and weak downbeat: 1 *2* 3 *4*. This was ten years ahead of ragtime and thirty ahead of jazz, and it's clearly an antecedent.
A wonderful and special thing about Weston is that as a gifted and educated free black man in a time of poverty and intense ghettoization he was able to write his own story and document his times for himself. Very few black people were empowered to do that. And what do you find? The advanced rhythmic techniques that characterize all African-American genres _and_ mastery of European music theory.
Here's the sheet music I worked from, which I got from the Library of Congress:
In terms of my own playing here, I feel good about how it came out. I like the way the time ebbs and flows, and I like the brightness of the tone. There are no bad spots or mistakes. Also, I feel like I succeeded in bringing out the weird and awesome combo of blues and classical. But the recording is too short to really succeed. I feel like I needed to get at least two minutes out it to have something that people would listen to for its own sake.
The one good thing about the shortness is that this would be a natural soundtrack for a Flickr video, since Flickr videos can't be longer than a minute and a half.
Anyhow, you're welcome to remix my recording here, as well as download it, upload it, and tattoo it on your behind. It's in the public domain.
To the extent possible under law, Lucas Gonze
has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to
Egyptian Fandango.
This work is published from
United States.
sort of Italian Song
This 35-second recording is a simple tune with two chords and one big phrase. I recorded it for a friend to use as a stem, and I'm posting it here because it might be useful to other people, maybe as a ringtone, as a cue in a video, or as a connector in a playlist.
This uses the chords from "Italian Hymn" by Felice de Giardini, so I'm calling it "sort of Italian Song". I learned it from Mutopia.
To the extent possible under law, Lucas Gonze
has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to
sort of Italian Song.
This work is published from
United States.
Rocking Yukon Gold mp3, sheet music, midi, Garageband project
When I was thinking about to do with my "Rocking Yukon Gold" soundtrack, I wanted to do something like a cowboy death song. I didn't want to do yet another version of "Streets of Lauredo" (aka Saint James Infirmary), so what I used instead is a sad gospel number called "Talk About Sufferin'".
I decided to do a multrack recording instead of the acapella feel I usually do, and to get all the parts to line up I wrote down melody. So, for the benefit of people who want to play the song for themself, here's that.
Talk About Suffering (Sibelius file for anybody who wants to modify it)
Click for full-size
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I set the tempo of the song so that the overall length would be about the same as the video clip, then exported a MIDI file to send to Garageband. For people who might want to use the song in an electronic context like a remix, here's that:
That MIDI has the exact arrangement I used here, including a two-bar count-off, so you'll probably want to clip parts out. You could also use it to make your own music to fit the clip.
Over in Garageband I put the MIDI file in its own track, then created some real instrument tracks for recording.
I did the recording with an SM 81 mic through a TubeMP preamp via USB into a Macbook. I made the recordings by playing along with the MIDI file, using it to keep everything in sync. The guitar was a National Estralita.
I did three tracks in this order, rhythm guitar, whistling, bottleneck guitar. In the mix I panned rhythm center, whistling and bottleneck on either side. I'm happy to release stems for parts, just ask.
Even though the source song is called "Talk About Suffering", my version here is called "Rocking Yukon Gold."
Here's the mix as an audio file:
No Flac or Ogg version today. If any person out there can show me a single additional listen that I'll get as a result of making them, I'll make them. I dare you. I want to do it, but I don't want to be fooling myself.
To make it easy for people who have Garageband to get in there and do whatever they want, I have created a zip file of the multitrack Garageband project. This has the MIDI and all three tracks:
Talk About Suffering (Zip of Garageband project)
My own copyright in this is hereby waived courtesy of the Creative Commons 0:
The person who associated a work with this document has dedicated this work to the Commons by waiving all of his or her rights to the work under copyright law and all related or neighboring legal rights he or she had in the work, to the extent allowable by law.
The CC 0 deal comes out this whole blog conversation about CC 0 that Victor Stone started.
Here's the foobar for the copyright stuff:
To the extent possible under law, Lucas Gonze
has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to
Rocking Yukon Gold.
This work is published from
United States.