For enthusiasts of early banjo
Children of Haymon.wmv
Finger style piece from the 1871 book "The banjoist" by Frank Converse.
Views: 100
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Comment by Tim Twiss on August 2, 2012 at 8:16pm
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I know fingerstyle, and fretted banjo, are slightly out of the scope of this group, but the act that it is from the ne Converse Book made it feel "okay". I think this borderline transitional material is interesting....certainly worth a look.
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Comment by Ian Bell on August 3, 2012 at 6:47am
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Great tune. It would be fun to hear that with some chords under it. What's the banjo? It seems to have a lot of punch.
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Yes, I think it needs accompaniment. I think I'll try that today. It is a Luscomb that I am time sharing. Just got it yesterday....and need to become reaquainted. This book is interesting...the division of the 2 styles,. This one just sucked on the fretless.
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Comment by Carl Anderton on August 3, 2012 at 8:21am
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The Children of Haymon was an "epic poem" by Ludwig Bechstein, 1830. There's almost nothing about it on the web, I guess it was pretty much forgotten.
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Comment by Trapdoor2 on August 3, 2012 at 9:04am
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Cool! Yah, the first part sounds a bit bare. Might do to add some common fingerstyle ornaments, etc...perhaps a bit of 'swing'. ;-)
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Comment by Strumelia on August 3, 2012 at 12:02pm
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You know, it reminds me very much of the old Spanish 'danzas' that they used to play a lot in the 'folklorica' dance troupes in Puerto Rico when I lived there. There, they were played on guitars or cuatros, and accompanied with 'guiros'- long gourds with striations cut in them, rasped in rhythm with metal combs- a pretty sound, like a very crisp controlled rattle. This makes me think that perhaps a nice tight tambourine using thumb rolls, or a bones player would sound good accompanying this. Another possibility- maybe you could just do a full accent brush/roll on the strings at the end of certain phrases, to give a fuller chord effect without actually having to add a guitar.
Sounds pretty, in any case. I wonder if it was influenced by some Spanish, Portugese or Italian type folk piece... has a certain flavor to my ear. Was this book touching the very beginning of the tango craze?
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For what its worth, I'm just playing the written page. Nothing added...nothing taken away.
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Which is appreciated, Tim. I think we were all affected by the sparcity and thus the comments on arrangements and variations, etc.
Haymon was a Tyrolean folk hero/biblical hero. Slew dragons, founded a monastery, etc.
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So did Frank Converse actually compose this tune, or is that not made clear in the book?
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No he did not.
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