Music - Evolution, development, and interpretation

[Tim Twiss]

Segovia....I am sure we all know this household word. To many, he stands for purity and tradition. He is the one that made Classical guitar so popular in the 20th Century. Consider what he did....just as parallels to our genre. There were many original pieces and contemporary songs he did, but think about the older style he interpreted...Bach, and all the guitar lute and vihuela literature he revived. he added many notes to Bach for his arrangements.....especially if you look at violin partitas. He interpreted material and played them on a non-traditional instrument...the Torres guitar, the growth of the smaller European instruments. Anyway, he blazed a way, and many consider him the gold standard.

He interpreted and brought to life old music. There are many that play period lutes and such....but think of him, as we all interpret the notes of long ago. Play it as it speaks to us.

[Tim Twiss]

Yes, so there is much more to music than the attempt to recreate the exact experience of a time gone by. The result can be quite varied.  

[Tim Twiss]

I don't know....maybe if you just keep playing the stuff, it finds a way to speak to your soul.

[Tim Twiss]

Thinking about Segovia.....taking Bach and Baroque music, he plays it on an instrument unknown at that time and adds notes to it. Yet, it still works.

I am drawing parallels to our genre, and thinking what a wide variety of interpretations hold up. Tempos, textures, and rhythms can vary. This is so fun, to flesh out the old music. We need to be so careful of declaring what is "right".

[Joel Hooks]

Agreed!  We should elevate the banjo.  One thing that is holding us back is they sound a little muddy.  I suggest we raise the pitch to A or even C.  We will need thinner strings but it would provide a more sparkling and clear tone.  Perhaps adding metal to the rim would help (wrapping it in a sheath?).

In order to play more in closed positions, raised frets would help.  One of the reasons for resisting raised frets was uneven or false strings-- a problem we no longer have.  It would also make it easier to use a three octave neck.

We could increase volume by closing off the back and projection the sound forward.  Sky is the limit.  Perhaps someday we could even advance to sound like this...

TARRANT BAILEY

[Al Smitley]

Funny, Joel.  I'm glad I read your whole posting before responding and sounding foolish!

[Joel Hooks]

All kidding aside Tim, you've not yet ventured in to the later era of banjodom.  Past the 1880s and into Ragtime.  Through the turn of the century up to early jazz.

All those nice 6/8 marches.  

Pieces with three and four parts using three keys.

Many of the later pieces are fantastically edited.  Every left and right hand fingering spelled out per the author or arrangers preference.  One can see how Ossman and Van Eps played the same piece.

The edits leave no movement wasted, every segment calculated.  Unless pounding on the fourth string with the thumb or glides, fingers are always used successively and this is calculated out.

There are now nearly 1000 banjo pieces up on the Classic banjo ning in C notation.  And If I don't have that many in A notation from scouring the net, I'm pretty darn close.  I've barely scratched the LOC collection focusing on the SSS pieces.

Those numbers don't include the 100(s) of tutors.

It is fun to see where the banjo goes after the early stuff.

[Greg Adams]

Along the lines of Joel's suggested explorations into later eras of banjo history, it'd be fun to explore some period pieces along the lines of what Hank S. and I got to do earlier this week (posted here with a touch of shameless self promotion). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-z6ZJyeOHs&feature=youtube_gda...

[Greg Adams]

Let's look at some of this at the next AEBG!!!

[Tim Twiss]

I was actually thing of more "narrow and deep" within this smaller time frame, rather than the entire progression of the instrument.

[Greg Adams]

"Narrow and deep" is good too. One of the things I appreciate about Tim's many recordings is that they create an aural record/soundscape of music from an era that largely has not been captured as fully as the later material. 

I also like that members here and in other places are going "deep" into other later eras. Joel's efforts, for example, are bringing to light a great breadth of insight and performance possibilities. 

I can't wait to make music with all of you!!

Liking where all of this is going,
Greg

[Tim Twiss]

Everyone brings a different are of interest to this. It is like a big archeological dig. Looking deep within it, what existed, and that will set a precedent for what "could have been". If one fiddle tune works, why not another?

The work surrounding both sides is amazing too. I know Mark Weems likes the very early stuff.....Joel likes the later. It helps paint a more complete picture.

[Rob Morrison]

For me the early stuff is what I really am into, as it tends to be much more open to improvisation, rather than a fixed score that one can't really deviate from very much.  However, more to your point about fiddle tunes, many of which were around throughout the minstrel era, I have spent the past month or so arranging many of the common D fiddle tunes I play from modern double D tuning, aDADE, to Briggs' high bass tuning dADF#A.  So far I've arranged over 40 D tunes for Briggs' tuning.  It's a bit tricky with some tunes, due to the limited range of the instrument, but it's really worth the effort.  For example in a tune like Staten Island Hornpipe, the phrase that, for me at least, mimics a boat whistle, sounds incredible in the lower register.  Also old warhorses like Soldier's Joy set up very nicely and can be gleefully torn through with abandon.  The point here is that many of these old fiddle tunes probably were played on old banjos and, in addition to being fair game for the minstrel repertoire, are really fun to play in the earlier tunings and on early banjos.  Also, the fiddler you are playing with may actually know them.