Sarah Deere-Jones on Celtic and Aeolian Harp, with windmill accompaniment.
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Of Harps and Windmills
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Category Archives: Celtic & Folk Music
Sounding Harps Books
For anyone who has been looking for the Sounding Harps series of books from Cairde na Cruite (I’ve personally recommended them to several of my students, who’ve had difficulty tracking them down), all four of them are now available through both Melody’s Traditional Music and Sylvia Woods.
More specifically (since trying to find them through the search functions can be a pain), you can get to them on the Melody’s site here and on Sylvia Wood’s site here.
If you want to shop locally and save on shipping and customs, you could also try taking down the pertinent info from the websites and ordering them through your local music store.
There are four books in total, and they’re all excellent collections of Celtic Music. Many of the arrangements will fit on smaller harps (esp. those in Vol. 1), and Volumes One & Four have arrangements suitable for beginners through early intermediate. For more advanced players, the arrangements in Books Two & Three are intermediate to advanced. Even the easy arrangements are put together very nicely, so the tunes sound great.
Hope everyone had a good November, and that you’ve all been keeping your hands and harps warm despite the snow and wind.
June Tune of the Month: Early One Morning
This cheerful sounding melody is often referred to by older Canadians as “The Friendly Giant Tune”, for its role on the well-loved kid’s show of yore. While it may sound chipper, the lyrics in fact are far from happy: “Early one morning, just as the sun was rising, I saw a fair maid singing in the valley below: “Oh, don’t deceive me, oh never leave me; How could you use a poor maiden so?”
The HarpBlog Tune of the Month is courtesy of Chubby Sparrow Music . For a printable version, right click on the picture and choose “save target as”, or pop over to the Chubby Sparrow Free Music page for more detailed printing instructions (note: if you just left click and try to print directly from the browser, it probably won’t print at the right size).
A Short List of Pentatonic Tunes
An inquiry from a visitor to the Celtic Harp Page reminded me that I never did re-post the list of pentatonic tunes I had up a while ago, so I thought I’d rectify that here. If you can think of any other well-known pentatonic tunes to add to the list feel free to note them in comments. A pentatonic scale is just as it sounds, a scale made up of five notes (as opposed to the 7 notes used by major and minor scales and the classic modes). For example, an example of a major scale would be CDEFGABC, while an example of a pentatonic scale would be CDFGAC. Playing the black keys on a piano will also give you a pentatonic scale. Here is a short list of some well-known pentatonic tunes:
A la claire fontaine (French Canadian )
Amazing Grace
Auld Lang Syne (Scottish)
Derby ram, The
En roulant ma boule, roulant
Git along little dogies (trad cowboy)
Go tell it on the mountain
How Can I Keep From Singing
Il etait un’ bergere (French)
Land of the silver birch (Canadian)
Loch Lomond
Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen (spiritual)
“Old Chinese Song” by Marcel Grandjany (based on Chinese trad. tune)
Old gray mare, The
Sakura (Cherry Blooms, Japanese)
Skye Boat Song
Sukiyaki
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
The Cherry Tree Carol
They Stole My Wife Last Night (Scottish pipe tune)
Wha wadna fight for Charlie?
Wayfaring Stranger
Ye Banks and Braes
…. plus numerous other spirituals, Scottish pipe tunes, Japanese and Chinese songs, etc.
April Tune of the Month: Lord Inchiquin
Apologies for the infrequent posting; I’m caught up in April Fools (another monthly writing challenge, to help spur on the finishing of the first draft of my novel), and in the madness my websites are feeling a wee bit neglected. Here’s a cheerful tune for April, by the famous Irish composer and harper, Turlough O’Carolan. (Although it’s hard to believe it’s spring today – here in southern Ontario it’s been quite wintery for five days now, below zero and snowing!).
The HarpBlog Tune of the Month is courtesy of Chubby Sparrow Music . For a printable version, right click on the picture and choose “save target as”, or pop over to the Chubby Sparrow Free Music page for more detailed printing instructions (note: if you just left click and try to print directly from the browser, it probably won’t print at the right size).
February Tune: Drowsy Maggie
Drowsy Maggie is an example of the type of quick reel that is often played in sessions. We usually do this in a set with several other E minor reels. The chords are fairly simple, mostly alternating between Em and D in the A part; and D, A and G in the B part.
The HarpBlog Tune of the Month is courtesy of Chubby Sparrow Music . For a printable version, right click on the picture and choose “save target as”, or pop over to the Chubby Sparrow Free Music page for more detailed printing instructions (note: if you just left click and try to print directly from the browser, it probably won’t print at the right size).
January Tune: Brian Boru’s March
Once again it’s properly winter here in the PeterPatch, with snow swirling merrily about outside. The snow first arrived on Tuesday. Concerned that it might just up and melt away the way it has every other time this year (it had been a disturbingly warm and wet winter up to that point), M. and I decided to take advantage of the stuff and dig out our snowshoes. So the past few days have seen us tromping through the snow, and coming home cold but happy to cups of hot chocolate. The cats, of course, are deciding that this is the perfect time to curl up under warm blankets. What has this to do with harps, you ask? Not much, I admit. Except that since this is a very quiet time of year as far as harp gigs are concerned, I’m able to dedicate more time to working on the update of the Chubby Sparrow Site, and to playing with Sibelius. January’s tune is Brian Boru’s March, because – well, because I just couldn’t avoid it any longer. This is one of the very first tunes I learned on harp, and one that I teach to many beginners. It’s easy to pick up because of its repetitive patterns, and it’s a cheerful little upbeat march that works well on just about any instrument. Enjoy!
The HarpBlog Tune of the Month is courtesy of Chubby Sparrow Music . For a printable version, right click on the picture and choose “save target as”, or pop over to the Chubby Sparrow Free Music page for more detailed printing instructions (note: if you just left click and try to print directly from the browser, it probably won’t print at the right size).
October Tune: Woodicock
Okay, so it’s not quite October yet. Thought I’d get a bit of a head start. It certainly feels like October around here; chilly, windy, leaves skittering everywhere.
The HarpBlog Tune of the Month is courtesy of Chubby Sparrow Music . For a printable version, right click on the picture and choose “save target as”, or pop over to the Chubby Sparrow Free Music page for more detailed printing instructions (note: if you just left click and try to print directly from the browser, it probably won’t print at the right size).
Our early music group plays this one in a set with “The Old Mole”.
September Tune: Out on the Ocean
New Tune of the Month, courtesy of Chubby Sparrow Music (right click on the picture and choose “save target as”, or just pop over to the Chubby Sparrow Free Music page for more detailed printing instructions).
Out on the Ocean is a popular upbeat session tune, and can be played in either a leisurely or more rollicking fashion.
It goes well with Rolling Waves, Geese in the Bog and Connacht Man’s Rambles.
Also known as Mick Mulcahy’s, O’Connell’s Jig On Top Of Mount Everest, O’er The Sea, Out In The Ocean, Out Of The Ocean, Over The Ocean, Portroe, Split The Whisker, The Wind Is Over The Ocean.
Celtic Jams, Sessions & Ceilis (Part 2)
Time Signatures for Dance Tunes & Celtic Music
One thing that can really help find the beat in Celtic music is to know your time signatures. This applies to playing for English Country Dancers as well. In Celtic music, time signatures are often associated with a particular type of dance, which helps to inform how Celtic players will approach them. All time signatures each have their own unique rhythmic feel. The treatment of them in dance tunes can be notably different, however, from how they are treated in, for example, classical music. The following are some of the most common examples.
- Jig = 6/8, usually two groups of three eighth-notes, with more emphasis on the first note of each group (so, “ONE two three, TWO two three, etc.), played semi-legato, e.g. DA-ya-da, DA-ya-da. Note that Irish whistle and flute players will often tongue very little if at all, and will instead use ornaments to emphasize certain beats and add texture and colour
- Slip Jig = 9/8, usually three groups of three eighth-notes
- Reel = 4/4, often played quite quickly, with emphasis on the first note; tends to be played semi-legato, i.e. neither separated nor slurred, e.g. DA-ya-da-da, DA-ya-da-da
- Polka = 2/4 (or 4/4), more detached than a reel, with an unmistakable ONE-two ONE-two feel
- Hornpipe = usually 4/4, often written in even eighth-notes, but meant to be played more like dotted-eighth-sixteenths; if you play them too much like dotted-eighth-sixteenths it will sound stilted, so they are usually played with a bit of a swing
- Waltz = 3/4 or 6/8; exactly like waltzes the world over, except that the 6/8 “waltzes” (often O’Carolan tunes and the like composed before the waltz as a dance was invented) may move a little more quickly or have a bit more of a lilt to them
- March = 2/4 or 3/4, depending on the rhythm – it will be obvious by the regular “walking beat” feel to it
There are other forms in Celtic music as well, which don’t necessarily fit into a particular time signature, for example:
- Air = usually a slower piece; this is one of the few that may be treated “tempo rubato”, or more freely with regards to rhythm and timing; often it is based on a song, and thus played in a very lyrical fashion
- Set Dance = often a longer piece, designed to accompany a particular dance; the musical cues will tell the dancers which part is coming up next, so it’s important to know exactly how many times to play each part through, and in what order
Celtic tunes are often divided into 2 or 3 parts – these will usually be referred to by the letters A, B, C, etc. (A being the first part, and so on). So if someone says, “let’s start again at the B part”, they mean to start at the beginning of the second section of the piece. Usually one or more of the parts is repeated (so some common patterns would be: AABB, ABB, AAB, etc.)
The best way to get the feel for Celtic music is to listen to it – often! Get yourself a handful of CD’s, preferably from different groups, different regions, different instruments. Listen to fast dance tunes, slow airs, songs, whatever you can find. Best of all, attend as many live performances as you can. Listen in on jams and sessions in your area. Even excellent sight readers will not be able to capture the “feel” of Celtic music without hearing it first.