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:
Another tune very appropriate for these strange times, Banish Misfortune, a possibly quite old traditional Irish jig.
Last week’s tune:
Polska in G. We have a mnemonic device to remember how this tune starts, David Kaynor went running up the stairs, which also helps us remember the tune since, like many Swedish tunes, this one has no formal title.
Recent Tunes of the Week:
- Josephin’s, (Josephin’s (Baptismal) Waltz, Josefins dopvals), a beautiful Swedish (I think) waltz by Roger Tallroth, played in either G or F, but I like the F version particularly.
- Big John McNeil. Some fiddlers (and one banjo player) tell me this is a difficult tune to play, but from my guitar-playing point of view, it’s a blast. Don’t miss New Brunswick Fiddler Don Messer’s warp-speed rendition in the YouTube.
- Stella’s Trip to Kamloops, A Cape Breton strathspey. See especially the video of Phil Cunningham and Aly Bain playing a definitive rendition.
- Michael’s Mazurka, a lovely three-part mazurka from Shetland in G major but with the B part shifting to G minor.
- Quarantine Jig, A new tune and so topical, having been composed while in self-isolation, that it just had to be a tune of the week.
- Morpeth Rant from Northumbria, the most northeastern county in England, on the Scottish border. Find out what a ‘rant’ is in the Notes section.