One new tune each Wednesday (more or less) chosen arbitrarily by your Webmaster. Most will be traditional tunes but sometimes a new composition will strike his fancy and appear here. Site visitors are encouraged to nominate tunes for this page via the Suggestion Form.
This week’s tune:
A Riverboat’s Gone, composed (and played) by Canadian fiddler April Verch in honor and memory of the late, great musician and songwriter John Hartford. April has very graciously contributed her own recording for the MP3 clip of this lovely waltz.
Last week’s tune:
A special double-header last week: One tune for its title’s relevance for our current Covid-19 situation, The World Turned Upside Down, and one because it is so sweet and calming, Well Hall.
Recent Tunes of the Week:
- My Cape Breton Home by Jerry Holland. A lovely waltz. See the video on that page of Jerry playing his tune on one of the sweetest fiddles I’ve ever heard.
- Engelska från Skåne, a charming Swedish ver,sion of an old English country dance tune. Like many Swedish tunes, this engelska doesn’t have a name but is simply known as the [dance form] from [town or district].
- da Slockit Light by Tom Anderson. Some like to play this tune as a very slow air or lament due to its story (see caption on the handwritten score), but it seems to want to speed up.
- Belle Catherine, a fine Quebecois three-part reel. See the Notes section for interesting information about how it’s played and the derivation and meaning of the title “Belle Catherine”.
- A Riverboat’s Gone composed by April Verch in honor of the late, great John Hartford. Do you play this tune? I’d love to have a non-copyrighted recording to post.
- King’s Wedding March (Leksands Brüdmarsh), a lovely Swedish bridal march.
- Stella’s Trip to Kamloops, a good example of the strathspey form, from Cape Breton.