Hmmm. I 'm ready to play a G, but I would believe an A is also appropriate.
More opinion...or hard facts about?
I know it's just one little note, but I guess I can care about it. I'm not used to it either way.
I've just heard it -- I think it's on an old Library of Congress (Archive of Folksong) LP, in which someone plays the medley (Haste to the Wedding / Off she goes) on hammered dulcimer. I have the LP, but it's buried fairly deep at the moment since I don't have a working turntable. I should I suppose confess that my wife used to play HD, and I've heard ot a LOT -- but fairly long ago.
On the recording, the fourth and fifth note in the piece are A and C# instead of G and A; same in the repeating measure four bars later. But that's kind of irrelevant, since they are just passing tones played with the same chord -- I don't think it's a "mistake" as printed. I think the high G that I mentioned is a mistake, mainly because it doesn't match the note in the repeat measure. Alternately, if you really like that G, play it again four measures later.
I favor the A, it seems more more symmetrical, but either way is cool. I'm gonna play around with the version as written a little.
Comment by John Masciale on March 2, 2009 at 12:17am
The alternative version that I got from a fiddle player has that high A you referred to as a high G, just like the first one. It also identifies the composer as John Clare.
It doesn't seem out of place to my ears. I like the variety. The version that plays in my head comes from an old HD album by Bill Spence. (http://www.andysfronthall.com/paypal/fennigs.html) and although I haven't given it a listen for a long time, it seems to be fine either way.
This seems to lay nicely in G (tuned dADF#A) on the banjo...and "Off She Goes" follows appropriately (though I had to re-arrange one measure to work around that one low G).
Simply for ease of playing. I tabbed it out in D and didn't like playing so far up the neck (14th fret! Somebody hand me an oxygen mask), so I tried several transpositions...finding G to be quite comfortable.
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