CELTIC ENCYCLOPEDIA, FINGERSTYLE GUITAR. TABLATURE
Product Description:
This comprehensive book contains over 100 Celtic tunes arranged for solo fingerstyle guitar. This edition is derived from a collection of nearly 300 arrangements Glenn Weiser has created over the last twenty years. The book is divided into 4 sections: 1) airs, marches and waltzes 2) hornpipes, jigs and reels 3) tunes from the Bunting collection 4) harp tunes of Turlough O'Carolan. All are in either standard or dropped-D tuning, and can be played on either nylon or steel string guitars. All of these melodies are accompanied with brief historical notes. Written in standard notation and tablature. Intermediate in difficulty.
Format: Book
Series: Encyclopedia
192 PAGES
Celtic music is as beautiful as it is vast and varied. With their red-blooded pipe marches, tender harp airs, vivacious dance tunes, and lovely songs, few parts of the world can claim such musical wealth as Ireland and Scotland. This music seems endless - French-Canadian fiddler Jean Carignan, for example, is said to have known 7.000 tunes. But of course none of this music was composed for the guitar, and the instrument itself wasn't even played much in Ireland until the 1940's. With the folk boom of the sixties, fingerpickers started to work out arrangements of fiddle tunes. And even though a number of Celtic guitar books have since been published, they represent only a tiny fraction of the traditional repertory. This book contains over one hundred Celtic tunes for solo guitar. It is part of a collection of almost three hundred arrangements I have done over the last twenty years. Two volumes - Folk Songs for Solo Guitar and Celtic Harp Music of Carolan and Others for Solo Guitar - have already appeared; now I can offer guitarists even more. The book is divided into four sections. The first part consists of airs, marches and waltzes. Famous tunes like Londonderry Air, The Parting Glass, and All Through the Night are included, as well as those lesser known but equally worthy. Here you'll find marches where the guitar mimics the bagpipes, plaintive laments for fallen heroes, tunes that are sheer whimsy, and love songs of great beauty and passion. In the second section there are reels, jigs, and hornpipes. For almost two hundred years beginning around 1675, step dancing was the national pastime in Ireland. During this period the fiddle was the dominant instrument, and thousands of dance tunes were composed by anonymous musicians. Traveling dancing masters made their livings teaching new steps wherever they went, and it was not unheard of for a whole village to drop its labors to greet a teacher of the art when he showed up in town. Most of the tunes in this section date from this period. In 1792 it was realized that the Irish harp, which had been the nation's most loved instrument since ancient times, was fast dying out. To collect and preserve what was still left of this music, a gathering of harpers was organized in Belfast to compete for cash prizes. Ten harpers came to the festival, and a young church organist, Edward Bunting, was hired to write down the tunes. Although his work was flawed by his failure to notate the bass parts of the pieces, Bunting did preserve many of the oldest Irish airs. He arranged the material for piano (adding a few questionable accidentals along the way), and in the same year authored the first volume of The Ancient Music Ireland. He later toured Ireland, collecting more music from harpers, singers, and other musicians, and eventually produced two further volumes. Tunes from the Bunting Collection - harp pieces, songs, and a jig - make up the third part. Turlough A' Carolan (1670-1738)was the last of the great Irish harper-composers. Blinded by smallpox at eighteen, he had been given three years of harp lessons and then sent out on the road as an itinerant musician. He soon learned he had a creative gift and would compose tunes for the wealthy patrons who provided him with hospitality in exchange for music. In the mansions of the aristocracy he came to admire Italian Baroque music and attempted to incorporate elements of it into his often remarkable pieces. His music was later collected and his biography written by the Irish scholar Donal O'Sullivan. Over twenty of Carolan's tunes (214 have survived) conclude the book. These arrangements are all in standard tuning or dropped D, which makes them viable for both nylon and steel string guitars. They have also been worked out in the original keys whenever possible so that they may be performed with other instruments used in Celtic music. In writing the bass lines and inner voices I have followed the rules of four-part voice leading because I like the way the tunes sound with simple diatonic harmony. Indeed, I often think of arranging traditional music as being similar to jewelry making - the tune itself is the gem, and the harmonization and the fingering are the setting. Tobe displayed, the stone needs the setting, and the setting in tum must do justice to the stone. I'd like to thank Bill Bay of Mel Bay Publications for bringing out this book, and also John Roberts for engraving the music.
Contents:
Introduction
Airs, Marches and Waltzes:
All Through the Night
The Atholl Highlanders
The Banks of Inverness
The Battle of Waterloo
Believe Me if All these Endearing Young Charms
The Battle of Aughrim
The Boys of Wexford
Castles in the Air
Childgrove
Cock up your Beaver
Come Under My Plaidie
Dainty Davy
Down by the Sally Gardens
The Earl of Dalhousie's Happy Return
Eileen Aroon (first and second settings)
Flow Gently, Sweet Afton
For Ireland I'd Not Tell Her Name
Hugh O'Neill's Lament
King of the Fairies
The Lark in the Clear Air
The Lass of Patie's Mill
Londonderry Air
Macpherson's Lament
Niel Gow's Lament for His Second Wife
The Old Resting Chair
The Parting Glass
The Piper through the Meadow Straying
Old Ireland, a Long Farewell
Princess Augusta
The Rocks of the Brae
Scottish Farewell
The Shepherd's Wife
The Rose Tree
Hornpipes, Jigs, and Reels:
Hornpipes:
Alexander's Hornpipe
The Brown Coffin
Clark's Hornpipe
Delahanty's Hornpipe
The Fairies' Hornpipe
Molly Halfpenny
The Morpeth Rant
The Quindaro Hornpipe
Jigs:
The Burnt Old Man
Cherish the Ladies
The Connaughtman's Rambles
Father Tom's Wager
The Joy of my Life
The Lark in the Morning
Larry O'Gaff
The Muckin' o' Geordie's Byre
The Mooncoin Jig
Nell Flaherty's Drake
O'Keefe's Slide
Pipe on the Hob
The Rakes of Kildare
The Rock and the Wee Pickle Tow
Swallowtail Jig
The Trip to Sligo
Reels:
The Fairies' Reel
Angus Campell
Cooley's Reel
The Good-Natured Man
Lord Gordon's Reel
Miss Monahan's Reel
The Mullingar Races
Peter Street
Petronella
Pigeon on the Gate
The Pigtown Fling
Scollay's Reel
The Silver Spire
The Star of Munster
The Wise Maid
The Wind That Shakes the Barley
Tunes from the Bunting collection:
The Dawning of the Day
The Foggy Dew (major and minor key versions)
The Gentle Maiden
The Girl I Left Behind Me
Give Me Your Hand
The Joyce's Country Greeting
Saint Patrick's Day
A Soft Mild Morning
Summer is Coming
The Wild Geese
The Coolin
Harp tunes of Turlough O'Carolan:
Thomas Burke
Madam Cole
John Drury (First Air)
Anne MacDermott Roe
Miss MacDermott
Denis O'Conor (Second Air)
Maurice O'Connor (Second Air)
John Kelly
Mary O'Neill
John O'Reilly
Kean O'Hara (Third Air)
Planxty Scott
Captain Sudley
Colonel Palmer
All Alive
Carolan's Cottage
Carolan's Fancy
Planxty O'Carolan
The Two William Davises
The Lament for Terence MacDonough
Ode to Whiskey
Alphabetical Index
About Glenn Weiser
Italiano
English
