Collection TradMad Camp, 2019
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- Avalon Quickstep
- The Black Joak
- Over the Road to Maysville
- Sales Tax Toddle
- Roulette
- Polska efter Blank Anders
- Polska efter Lars i Kontere
- Halling efter Per Löf
- Polska efter Pål Karl Persson
I had this tune from my father, Tom Paley, who had it from Narmour and Smith's 1930 recording. You can hear it on Vol 1 of County's "Mississippi String Bands" compilation.
This is an English jig. It's not the only tune by this name, and there are Joaks of other colours as well. I learnt this tune from Chris Wood and Gail Duff.
The word "Joak" itself might have a connection to "jig", but it has another meaning too. You can hear it on my album "Homunculus Mellitus".
The word "Joak" itself might have a connection to "jig", but it has another meaning too. You can hear it on my album "Homunculus Mellitus".
John Hartford tells a story associating this tune with a tobacco market in a town called Maysville but I don't know which of the several towns with that name he means.
I learnt it from Jock Tyldesley and Vera van Heeringen. The A♭-G in the 7th bar of the B part, written here as two eighth-notes (quavers), could be played as a quarter-note (crotchet) slide from A♭, or even A, downwards as far as sounds right to you. I haven't worked out how to notate that in ABC though.
I learnt it from Jock Tyldesley and Vera van Heeringen. The A♭-G in the 7th bar of the B part, written here as two eighth-notes (quavers), could be played as a quarter-note (crotchet) slide from A♭, or even A, downwards as far as sounds right to you. I haven't worked out how to notate that in ABC though.
This strange tune comes from the playing of the Nations Brothers in 1935. You can hear it on Vol 1 of County's "Mississippi String Bands" compilation, and of course it's on YouTube.
ORDER OF EVENTS
N.B. don't trust the MIDI.
1 — Introduction. You'll only play this once.
2 — A - as many times as you like
3 — A1 - once
4 — A - once
5 — A2 - once
6 — A - once
7 — Interstitial nightmare
8 — B - as many times as you like
9 -- B1 and back to step 2
OR
9 — B2 and stop.
I know perfectly well that you can't read from this. I've chosen where to put the bar lines in order to simplify the transcription, and eliminate things like first and second time bars, so that the bars don't really represent the phrasing. Listen to the Nations Brothers recording! Hopefully this will save you a bit of time in understanding what's going on.
Incidentally, the process of transcription was fascinating to me and revealed some interesting facts, such as that the "Interstitial nightmare" can be seen as consisting of a single repeated four-beat phrase. I don't feel that this representation well represents the phrasing of the tune, but there it is, so perhaps it's my analysis that's at fault! Or, perhaps better to say that your analysis might differ. In any case, you should pay more attention to your ears than your eyes in this case in particular.
ORDER OF EVENTS
N.B. don't trust the MIDI.
1 — Introduction. You'll only play this once.
2 — A - as many times as you like
3 — A1 - once
4 — A - once
5 — A2 - once
6 — A - once
7 — Interstitial nightmare
8 — B - as many times as you like
9 -- B1 and back to step 2
OR
9 — B2 and stop.
I know perfectly well that you can't read from this. I've chosen where to put the bar lines in order to simplify the transcription, and eliminate things like first and second time bars, so that the bars don't really represent the phrasing. Listen to the Nations Brothers recording! Hopefully this will save you a bit of time in understanding what's going on.
Incidentally, the process of transcription was fascinating to me and revealed some interesting facts, such as that the "Interstitial nightmare" can be seen as consisting of a single repeated four-beat phrase. I don't feel that this representation well represents the phrasing of the tune, but there it is, so perhaps it's my analysis that's at fault! Or, perhaps better to say that your analysis might differ. In any case, you should pay more attention to your ears than your eyes in this case in particular.
From the Mississippi Possum Hunters' 1935 recording. Hear it on County's "Mississippi String Bands" compilation, or on my album "Homunculus Mellitus". I changed the name of the tune because I found out that its original name could be considered offensive.
Don't believe the rhythm of the MIDI, it's terrible.
This appears on the album "Längs Gamla Stigar och Färdeväger" by Simon Simonssons Kvartet from 1989 — it's a fantastic version with interesting modern instrumentation and imaginative tonality but, sadly, it seems to be completely unavailable, even on YouTube. Here's a link to me playing it, instead, some years ago, with my friend Tab — it's the second of two these two tunes.
The first beat of some bars is short, the second long — but this can vary bar by bar. It's the essence of a certain sort of polska, and the phenomenon is more or less impossible to describe except by demonstration. In the first bar of the A part, for instance, the first three notes can be played so as each to take up a more-or-less equal amount of time, as though they were quarter note triplets. Personally, I analyze them in the way I've written them — as uneven beat lengths — but I suspect listening will prove more useful than reading in this case.
On top of that there are the ambiguous Fs — I play the Fs at the beginning of the second and fourth bars of the B part as F-sharps, Simon Simonssons Kvartett plays them pretty solidly as F-naturals. I think the underlying situation is that they both represent a half-sharp, which melody players choose to represent as either a sharp or natural under the influence of fretted instruments. I daresay PhD theses have been written about the influence of frets on traditional tonalities. Just do your best.
All in all, Swedish music can appear at first as a sea of notes and fragmentary harmony which strongly hints at some elusive form, but the more you listen to it the more it starts to make sense.
Good luck, have fun, and remember it doesn't matter!
This appears on the album "Längs Gamla Stigar och Färdeväger" by Simon Simonssons Kvartet from 1989 — it's a fantastic version with interesting modern instrumentation and imaginative tonality but, sadly, it seems to be completely unavailable, even on YouTube. Here's a link to me playing it, instead, some years ago, with my friend Tab — it's the second of two these two tunes.
The first beat of some bars is short, the second long — but this can vary bar by bar. It's the essence of a certain sort of polska, and the phenomenon is more or less impossible to describe except by demonstration. In the first bar of the A part, for instance, the first three notes can be played so as each to take up a more-or-less equal amount of time, as though they were quarter note triplets. Personally, I analyze them in the way I've written them — as uneven beat lengths — but I suspect listening will prove more useful than reading in this case.
On top of that there are the ambiguous Fs — I play the Fs at the beginning of the second and fourth bars of the B part as F-sharps, Simon Simonssons Kvartett plays them pretty solidly as F-naturals. I think the underlying situation is that they both represent a half-sharp, which melody players choose to represent as either a sharp or natural under the influence of fretted instruments. I daresay PhD theses have been written about the influence of frets on traditional tonalities. Just do your best.
All in all, Swedish music can appear at first as a sea of notes and fragmentary harmony which strongly hints at some elusive form, but the more you listen to it the more it starts to make sense.
Good luck, have fun, and remember it doesn't matter!
Trad arr. © 2019 Ben Paley
Trad arr. © 2005 Ben Paley
Trad arr. © 2019 Ben Paley
Trad arr. © 2019 Ben Paley
Trad arr. © 2019 Ben Paley
Trad arr. © 2010 Ben Paley
Trad arr. © 2019 Ben Paley
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Recordings:
- Narmour and Smith, "Mississippi String Bands, Volume 1"
Recordings:
- Ben Paley, "Homunculus Mellitus", 2019
Recordings:
- The Nations Brothers, "Mississippi String Bands - Volume Two"
Recordings:
- Kalle Almlöf, Björn Ståbi and Pers Hans, "Tre Spelmän"
- Ben Paley, "Homunculus Mellitus", 2019
Recordings:
- Bengt Lindroth, Bo i Ransätt, Erik Gustavsson and Rune Åsell, "Spelmanslåtar från Värmland", 1975
- Ben Paley, "Homunculus Mellitus", 2019
Recordings:
- Bo i Rannsätt and Bengt Lindroth, "Värmlandslåtar", 1979
Recordings:
- Simon Simonssons Kvartet, "Längs Gamla Stigar och Färdeväger", 1989
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