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Tag: Miscellaneous recordings
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Yorkshire Concertina Club Recording Day – 19/1/2020
For the past two years the Yorkshire Concertina Club has been working on a project to record tunes written by the Club’s only extant Founder Member, John Willis (member since the Club’s inauguration by Jane Edwards and Harry Scurfield in Otley in November 1992) as a tribute to him. So, on 19th January 2020, we turned the upstairs room of the Corner House Club in North Leeds, our regular venue, into a recording studio and captured five of our favourite of John’s compositions.
John, a retired engineer, has been writing music for both concertina and his other favourite instrument, the banjo, most of his life, and over the years, some of it has found its way into the YCC canon – we have more than 50 tunes in the YCC tune books which John collated for us, this number being but a fraction of John’s total output. As a group we have really enjoyed working with his tunes over the years and felt now was a good time to record them and share them with the wider concertina community.
The first challenge was to narrow our list of favourites down to five tunes. This took quite a long time as each of us had tunes we particularly enjoyed and each tune has a story behind it. We wanted the selected tunes to be chosen by us as a group and to reflect the very different styles of John’s compositions. In the end we settled on:
Shannon Waters – beautiful and already well-known tune of John’s, frequently heard in sessions
Old Jock’s Dance – a tune originally inspired by John’s banjo-playing but one that has adapted very well to the concertina
Larpool Hall –Typically, John finds names for tunes from all sorts of sources. This one came from a trip to Whitby, where Larpool Hall is situated.
The Little Mouse – a “character piece”. Steve’s arrangement has emphasised the use of dynamics to help capture the antics of said wee creature.
Bernie the Ragtime Ferret – we all agree in the Club that this must be one of the best tune titles ever! It refers to a real ferret once cared for by John. The tune was originally conceived on banjo and when John played his ragtime pieces, the ferret would climb up, sit on his shoulders & move to the rhythm!
We asked our Duet player Steve Griffiths (pictured below) if he could arrange the tunes for ensemble playing, and we all agree he did a magnificent job in reflecting the spirit of each composition, and in conducting the band on recording day.
Arranger and Conductor
For the past year we have been rehearsing each of Steve’s arrangements, in readiness for recording day, when we were joined by professional sound engineer Matthew Nelson, son of one of our members Chris (our webmaster), who set up our pop-up recording studio and captured our performances.
The pieces have now been rendered into something we can share through Concertina World, the magazine of the International Concertina Association.
The Club felt that we would like to include John’s solo playing of the originally-composed single-line tunes that the Club’s arrangements by Steve were based on, so people could hear the original esteemed compositions played by their composer & hear how a concertina band arrangement can take them in a new direction. John therefore recorded himself in his own home recording studio (featuring a large cardboard box I understand!) shortly after the Club had done its recording. John would be the first to admit that his playing now is maybe not what it was, due partly to the vagaries of the passage of time and partly, to quote him directly: “…it’s the drink…I haven’t had any!” But in the Club, we feel that John’s playing has a very special place, demonstrating a rare sensitivity to bring his tunes alive and a timing that is often clearly influenced by his banjo playing and its clever syncopation.
To complete the project, both John and Steve gave their permission for the scores of the original tunes and the band arrangements to be published in the “Concertina World” Music Supplement with our blessing, so that anyone or any group can have a go at them. It would, of course, be great if their source was acknowledged, particularly if performed in public.
Performers on the day were:
Treble concertina
- Phil GrahamChris
- NelsonRhona
- StevensGraham
- Heffernan
- Ruth Flint
Baritone Concertina
- John Willis (esteemed composer of original melodies)
- Helen Graham
Bass Concertina
- Carolyn Wade
Club Support
- Ariane Lawson
Arranger & Conductor
- Steve Griffiths
We at YCC hope that you will enjoy listening to the sound files of both John’s renditions of his compositions and also the Club’s band versions, demonstrating how, with good arrangements, new light can be shed on great tunes. We had considered making physical CD’s to be sent out with “Concertina World” but decided that the technological revolution has moved on, with access to recordings via the cloud becoming the norm and, of course, making your own CD of the tracks at home, if desired, is now a straightforward process.
Graham Heffernan, Chair – YCC
(Photos and text research courtesy of YCC member Ruth Flint)
We have just received the very sad news of John’s death. He entered a hospice very recently, following a period of ill-health & passed away on the 2nd of July. Our thoughts are with his wife Margaret & their family. We are grateful to have known John over they decades and to have played with him in the Club but especially to have received two things from him – his beloved tunes and his great sense of humour. We trust this recording project stands in fair tribute to John’s achievements and to his memory.
MacCann Duet arrangements now available on Soundcloud
David Cornell, an excellent player/arranger of tunes for the MacCann Duet concertina, wants his MacCann Duet arrangements to be available to other Duet players. He is now very ill and unable to take any steps to make this happen*.
Read more…Composition for duet concertina and piano by Stuart Estell
A new year, a new composition for duet concertina and piano by Stuart Estell:
http://lachenaliamusic.bandcamp.com/album/billy-again
And best wishes for 2016 to all!
Waltzing Matilda arr. David Cornell
Waltzing Matilda.pdf, arrangement David Cornell.
Season’s greetings and tunes
Season’s greetings from the committee of the International Concertina Association.
That you may enjoy the music with this special instrument “the Concertina” For an example listen to the music played by Randy Stein: https://soundcloud.com/r
And some music that you may like to try together with your friends. Arranged for three part playing by Michel van der Meiren.
A Child This Day is Born
Angels from the Realms of Glory
A Romance for Aeola, Concertina or Violin
The ICA Library is a unique collection of music specially written or arranged for the concertina. Most of the published music dates from the mid to late 19th Century and provides an interesting history of the style of playing from that era and the group of musicians who were the first to promote and popularise the instrument. When a piece of music, “A Romance for Aeola, Concertina or Violin” by Clementine Ward came up for sale recently I was intrigued to learn more about the composer.
Played and recorded by Chris van de Kuilen, piano and Pauline de Snoo, Concertina, 15-09-2014
The library already held two pieces of music by a John C. Ward, arrangements of Chopin’s Nocturne in E flat and a Medley Overture of English tunes, and I wondered if there was any connection with Clementine. A brief search on the internet revealed there was – Clementine was the daughter of John Charles.
The music was published in Concertina World 459, September 2014
Tunes for Christmas
We published some Christmas Carols from the I.C.A. library in 2009.
And this year, I’ve added some tunes from an 18th century manuscript from Antwerp, transcribed for Treble and Baritone. They should fit the Christmas mood very well, provided you do play them at a solemn pace. In absence of a treble concertina, pick any other melody instrument for the 1st voice. The tunes also sound well just playing the 1st voice alone.