| Author | Topic: Lyke Wake Dirge - Key anyone? | |
| dmcg | Posted - 26 Feb 05 - 12:19 am | |
I sang this song unaccompanied at a session this week and someone told me afterwards I was singing it in C# minor. Well, maybe I was, but I can't find a version of the tune anywhere to find out what a more conventional key for it is(and my guess is that it may be some strange mode anyway.) Can anyone help? | ||
| Jon Freeman | Posted - 26 Feb 05 - 01:43 am | |
I don't know the song Dave but I don't see that it matters what key you are in if you are singing unaccompanied. It's really instruments that need something like that for a few reasons - some don't have the notes, some (including me) don't have the skills needed to play in some keys, etc. On this one, I'd be inclinded to say if you are singing it comfortable on your own, leave it alone - what your voice wants is what matters. I won't search just yet but possibly pushing it up one semi-tone higher to Dm would be better for others with instruments and going a tone higher agian to Em would even be better as so many of us folk musicians are very used to 1 sharp. If you have a copy and find a key that suits you that you think would be more "user friendly". I'll me more than happy to transpose for you but I suspect you would do that easily enough anyway. | ||
| Malcolm Douglas |
Posted - 26 Feb 05 - 04:29 am | |
It isn't a very old tune; Sir Harold Boulton wrote it, and it was first published around 1885. No key signature is indicated, so it's basically C. I expect that you'll be singing the song as the Young Tradition recorded it in the 1960s; they thought the tune was traditional, having got it from Hans Fried, who learned it from "an old Scots lady, Peggy Richards", who presumably got it from Songs of the North. It's become simpler and more stark (whether the changes were made deliberately or unconsciously) than Boulton's original, so it isn't so very surprising that many people imagine it to be old. There was a traditional tune, of course, but that seems to have been lost. | ||
| dmcg | Posted - 26 Feb 05 - 08:43 am | |
You are all right on all counts! I was singing it unaccompanied, but because most of the people at that session are primarily instrumentalists, they like to at least finger the notes as we go along. Picking an interesting (!) key is not very friendly, but would not, by itself, make me pitch it somewhere where my voice doesn't want to go. As it happens, I'd pitched the previous song a little too high to be comfortable for my voice, so maybe I'd unconciously brought this down a couple of semitones in self-defence. I have since found some ABC for it at Mudcat which is in Em. Also, it was derived from the Young Tradition version, though not directly. In the discussions I had about this song, I did say that the tune wasn't the original one which had as far as I knew been lost (so thanks for confirming that as well) - but I also remarked that I hadn't seen any confirmation of the stories behind the song. The lyrics go back to something like the 17c, I understand, and were supposed to be associated with funeral processions on the Yorkshire moors. I've heard conflicting stories about exactly when (just house to church, just church to burial grounds, repeatedly though the entire procession, just during a watching period, etc). The Mudcat threads on this song refer to these stories but don't give any real references to them. Edited By dmcg - 26-Feb-2005 09:18:28 AM | ||
| Jon Freeman | Posted - 26 Feb 05 - 11:02 am | |
Glad it's sorted Dave. For reference, in most instrumental sessions, just about everything is in G or D (or equivilant sharps 1 or 2). They are very natural keys for the fiddle, D whistles and flutes, a lot of diationic melodeons have those rows, etc. | ||
| Jon Freeman | Posted - 26 Feb 05 - 12:03 pm | |
Oh and as a drift: Pitching songs can be interesting and I find my own vocal range can change after a pint or two. Freeborn Man was one I had trouble with on the rare occasions I attempted it. My method became to sing "Lumbered" (quietly) as low as I could before starting the song. That way I knew the higher notes would be in comfortable range. | ||
| dmcg | Posted - 26 Feb 05 - 01:52 pm | |
I've hacked this together from the 'Lyke2.mid' file at Mudcat and a set of lyrics from the web, just so people know what we are talking about. Edited By dmcg - 26-Feb-2005 02:01:17 PM | ||
| Mary in Kentucky | Posted - 16 Apr 05 - 04:52 am | |
a related anecdote... I used to have a piano that the tuner would tune one note flat so the cracked sound board wouldn't be strained too much. Thus I became accustomed to hearing simple tunes in the key of Bb instead of C. I drove a few accompanists mad! | ||
| Jon Freeman | Posted - 16 Apr 05 - 09:31 am | |
We had a piano that was always tuned flat - possibly to A=415 - I gather that is quite a common one for older pianos. | ||