Ashokan Farewell....updated

anniemcu · Post by **anniemcu** » Sun May 06, 2007 7:41 am

Flogging Jason wrote:
anniemcu wrote:Thanks Bill! That works.
What she said. Bill's version is pretty much what I got. Once I've got the harmony part I wrote digitized I'll post it.

Excellent!

Thank you guys!! I do love the tune.

CountryKitty · Post by **CountryKitty** » Sun May 06, 2007 8:40 am

Thanks y'all!

Headed over to thesession.org to have a look-see.

Bill Reeder wrote:Here's an abc transcription of the tune in G which I did in order to fit it on my pipes.

X:11
T:Ashokan Farewell
R:waltz
C:Jay Ungar, 1983.
M:3/4
L:1/8
K:G
(3def|"G"g3 fed|"G"B4AB|"C"c3 BAG|"Em"E2G3E|!
"G"D2G2B2|"G"d2g2b2|"G"b3 c'b2|"D"a4 (3def|!
"G"g3 fed|"G"B4AB|"C"c3 BAG|"Em"E2G3E|!
"G"D2G2B2|"G"d2g2b2|"D"d2f2a2|"G"g4Bc|!
"G"d3 BG2|"G"g4d2|"C"e3 fg2|"G"dB3A2|!
"G"B3 AG2|"C"E4D2|"D"D6|"D"d4BA|!
"G"G2B2d2|"F"=f4ed|"C"e3 fg2|"G"d2B2G2|!
"G"D2G2B2|"G"d2g2b2|"D"a3 gf2|"G"g4||

Play this on an "A" whistle and you'll fit right in with the fiddlers playing in D.

Cool, Thanks, Bill!

Now if one of you wouldn't mind a quick lesson in ABC format...
The capital letters are 1st octave, the lower case second and the c' inthe second line is third..right?
The numbers are a measure of how long to hold the note, I assume, but I'm afraid I don't have a clue what the '(' in the first and second lines stands for, nor the exclamation points at the ends, or even the " " around the Capital letters beginning each measure.

'Course, the hubby and young'uns will be happy to tell you I'm pretty clueless as a rule!

FJohnSharp · Post by **FJohnSharp** » Sun May 06, 2007 9:03 am

copy and paste it into this

http://www.concertina.net/tunes_convert.html

and it will draw the dots for you

Bill Reeder · Post by **Bill Reeder** » Sun May 06, 2007 9:50 am

CountryKitty wrote:Thanks y'all!

Headed over to thesession.org to have a look-see.

Bill Reeder wrote:Here's an abc transcription of the tune in G which I did in order to fit it on my pipes.

X:11
T:Ashokan Farewell
R:waltz
C:Jay Ungar, 1983.
M:3/4
L:1/8
K:G
(3def|"G"g3 fed|"G"B4AB|"C"c3 BAG|"Em"E2G3E|!
"G"D2G2B2|"G"d2g2b2|"G"b3 c'b2|"D"a4 (3def|!
"G"g3 fed|"G"B4AB|"C"c3 BAG|"Em"E2G3E|!
"G"D2G2B2|"G"d2g2b2|"D"d2f2a2|"G"g4Bc|!
"G"d3 BG2|"G"g4d2|"C"e3 fg2|"G"dB3A2|!
"G"B3 AG2|"C"E4D2|"D"D6|"D"d4BA|!
"G"G2B2d2|"F"=f4ed|"C"e3 fg2|"G"d2B2G2|!
"G"D2G2B2|"G"d2g2b2|"D"a3 gf2|"G"g4||

Play this on an "A" whistle and you'll fit right in with the fiddlers playing in D.

Cool, Thanks, Bill!

Now if one of you wouldn't mind a quick lesson in ABC format...
The capital letters are 1st octave, the lower case second and the c' inthe second line is third..right?
The numbers are a measure of how long to hold the note, I assume, but I'm afraid I don't have a clue what the '(' in the first and second lines stands for, nor the exclamation points at the ends, or even the " " around the Capital letters beginning each measure.

'Course, the hubby and young'uns will be happy to tell you I'm pretty clueless as a rule!

Yes! Capital letters are 1st octave, lower case second, and c' is 3rd octave. In ABC notation, the length of the notes are determined by the L: field. In the tune, you will see L: 1/8. This means that the default length of each note in the tune is an eighth note. So, e is a single eighth note. The numbers following a letter are multipliers, so e2 is (2 x 1/8 = 1/4) and so on. e/2 is (1/8 / 2 = 1/16 ). All very nice and neat and orderly.

(3Bcd indicates a triplet.

Exclamation points tell your music notation programs to start a new line. In the above tune, I want my music to display 4 measures per line. It's just for ease of readabilty and entirely optional.

"G" in the tune indicates a chord which is displayed above the tune. You can put chords any where you want in the tune, depending on your own taste and discretion. The presence of chords in the tune is entirely optional also. I usually leave them out so backers can use their own discretion.

And that's all I know about ABC notation, but I've gotten a lot of mileage out of it. Hope this helps!

MTGuru · Post by **MTGuru** » Sun May 06, 2007 11:42 am

ABC Tutorial:
http://www.lesession.co.uk/abc/abc_notation.htm

Flogging Jason · Post by **Flogging Jason** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 7:52 pm

bump......post updated

pancelticpiper · Post by **pancelticpiper** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 7:19 am

One thing that's lost when I hear others playing this tune is its Scottish character. Having spent so much time listening to Scottish fiddling I was very aware of the "slow strathspey" style and when I first heard this tune on the Civil War soundtrack I took it for a traditional 19th century Scottish slow strathspey. The "Scotch snaps" and turns are very much of the slow strathspey idiom. But whenever I've heard Irish-style musicians play this tune, they've gotten rid of all the Scottish stylistic devices and ironed it out into a rather flat, if pretty, waltz.
Yes you need to play it on an A whistle for the key to come out, but I do play it in G on the uilleann pipes. There's that one low C that I instead just repeat the low E for.

Scott McCallister · Post by **Scott McCallister** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 9:35 am

Wow... serendipity! I just finished transcribing this piece last week as well! I have the harmonies in my part. All transposed to "G" for us on the whistle. Totally reccomend playing it on an A whistle.

I'll post a .pdf of it when I have time later today.

Cool.

bjs · Post by **bjs** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 11:05 am

I'm a little confused. The suggestion is to play the first version on a C or D whistle and the second part on a G whistle. Can that work? C or D doesn't sound as if both could harmonise.

Flogging Jason · Post by **Flogging Jason** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 12:49 pm

bjs wrote:I'm a little confused. The suggestion is to play the first version on a C or D whistle and the second part on a G whistle. Can that work? C or D doesn't sound as if both could harmonise.

If you play the melody on a C whistle you play the harmony on an F whistle. If playing it on a D you'd play harmony on a G whistle.

pancelticpiper · Post by **pancelticpiper** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 6:39 am

a perfect example of what I mean can be found in the very first notes of the tune. If you look at Bill Reeder's notation you will see a triplet d-e-f# pickup to the first g of the tune (typical waltz-style pickup)- but on the recording used in the Civil War soundtrack there are only two pickup notes, a "Scotch snap", that is, the first note is cut very short and the second is dotted/held. In 3/4 time this would be a sixteenth to a dotted eighth.
I notated the tune with all the snaps and turns, and still play it that way, because that's how I originally heard it.

Black Mage · Post by **Black Mage** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 8:31 am

Jason...THANK YOU! I have been wanting to learn Ashokan Farewell ever since I started playing, but have just never been able to figure it out!

I bow to you, good sir.

Flogging Jason · Post by **Flogging Jason** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 3:35 pm

Black Mage wrote:Jason...THANK YOU! I have been wanting to learn Ashokan Farewell ever since I started playing, but have just never been able to figure it out!

I bow to you, good sir.

I've always loved this tune as well and had a hard time trying to figure it out. Then, one day, it just came to me and I worked at it until I knew it was right. I'm really happy to be able to share it with others! Thank you so much.

Black Mage · Post by **Black Mage** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 1:10 pm

I just recorded and submitted a recording my myself playing Ashokan Farewell on my Dixon Low D polymer to Tin Whistle Tunes. I had to finagle with a not or two in the second part as my whistle doesn't play low enough, but I think it works pretty well. The quality isn't very good, but I gotta make due with what recording equipment I have...or don't have as the case would be.

Ashokan Farewell

BigDavy · Post by **BigDavy** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 6:36 pm

This is my favourite rendition of the tune.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm68kGuChcw

David