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Subject |
mycatmarti Registered User (3/18/01 9:06:35 am) Reply |
Irish/Celtic music for cello
Does anyone know of any Irish tunes
or ballads written or arranged for cello. I heard a Celtic music
ensemble on TV yesterday, and a cello was a big part of it. It
really wonderful.
Mia
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Dorie
Straus  Moderator (3/18/01 12:41:48 pm) Reply |
Re:
Irish/Celtic music for cello
Do a search on the other board - or
maybe you can do it from here; this comes up every once and a while
and I know it's there. Check Cello Heaven archives, too.
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DWThomas Registered User (3/18/01 1:08:01 pm) Reply |
Re:
Irish/Celtic music for cello
Well, it says it's "Scottish" but
probably only purists would notice.
There is a book(let) of the cello music from the Abby Newton
album, "Crossing to Scotland." It's a Mel Bay publication, ISBN
0-7866-4452-4, goes for about 10 USD. Besides having a few spots
harder than I might have expected, it is only the cello line. It
would have been great to have had some of the full arrangements,
particularly several of the pieces that were primarily cello and
piano. It can be mail-ordered thru the Culburnie records site at www.culburnie.com/
Don't
know what sort of music software you might have (I am pretty
handicapped in that regard). There are a number of websites that
have whole collections of tunes in ABC format or MIDI. There are
programs that can print those out. They will typically be in treble
clef for fiddle, but you could probably start with those and knock
'em down about an octave (or whatever brings them into your playing
range -- no treble clef stuff here yet!).
Start at www.ceolas.org/ceolas.html
The
following have tunes and links to sources of software for various
purposes:
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/music/Info/RRTuneBk/tunebook.html www.downie65.freeserve.co.uk/ home1.swipnet.se/~w-11382/abc.htm
I
realize this is not a simple answer, but it might be some
help.
Dave
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Markse Registered User (3/21/01 1:00:15 pm) Reply |
Re:
Irish/Celtic music for cello
Even though the sheet music for
"Crossing to Scotland" has only the cello part written out, a decent
guitarist (or pianist, I suppose) should be able to use the chord
symbols to come up with an accompniment. It's fun music to
play.
You might try getting some Celtic fiddle music on CD
and learn the tunes by ear (the trad. way of learning trad. music!).
It's not as hard as you think it is. Check out Kevin Burke or Martin
Hayes. Both are wonderful players.
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TerryM
 Registered User (3/21/01 2:51:01 pm) Reply |
Re:
Irish/Celtic music for cello
In some ways, learning the music by
ear is the best way to get it as well. Most traditional music is not
played as written and if played as written sounds pretty "square"
and lacks the "swing" of real fiddle playing.
Being half
Irish, I have a big interest in this music and am presently, in my
spare time (which is not too spare at the moment), putting together
a book of fiddle tunes, jigs, reels, hornpipes, slow airs, etc.,
that are transposed for cello. As mentioned above one can often just
transpose them down an octave, but they don't always sound in the
best register of the cello that way and it is often necessary to
change the key as well. One has to keep in mind that a lot of the
fiddle tunes are in a fairly restricted set of keys, especially if
playing along with tine whistles, and other traditional instruments.
I hope to get some time to complete this book in the not too distant
future. Hope springs eternal.
Terry
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Markse Registered User (3/21/01 4:07:09 pm) Reply |
Re:
Irish/Celtic music for cello
Transposing to different keys could
create problems if one ever desired to bring new-learnd tunes to a
session...
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galois00 Registered User (3/21/01 9:39:42 pm) Reply |
Re:
Irish/Celtic music for cello
Terry,
You will let us know,
won't you, when that book is
finished?
thanks,
Dan
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TerryM
 Registered User (3/21/01 10:16:22 pm) Reply |
Re:
Irish/Celtic music for cello
Yes, you are right. You pretty much
have to stick to the basic keys used in fiddle music. D major, G
major, C and sometimes F and B flat, along with a few minor keys. It
still could produce problems if you learn the piece in one key and
it is most often played in another, but once you learn it in one key
tranposing it to another while playing should not be a major
problem.
Terry
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Beaker1 Registered User (3/22/01 11:55:40 am) Reply |
2
pieces you may be interested in
I think I ordered both of these from
shar but I'm not sure. I have a piece called "Celtic solo set" which
has alot of double stops and is written in treble, bass and tenor
clef. I also have "the foggy dew" which is a bueatiful air. Good
luck!
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JC2 Registered User (3/25/01 1:34:35 pm) Reply |
celtic
tunes
i have been collecting tunes from a
lot of different sources, both celtic and American old-time fiddle
tunes and translating them into bass clef, so drop me a line as to
what kind of tunes you would like, whether up tempo things like
jigs, reels, and hornpipes, or slower things like airs, and I can
send you a couple via email. I can send them either as gif or as
noteworthy composer files, so let me know.
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DLBrad Registered User (4/2/01 2:11:28 pm) Reply |
Re:
Irish/Celtic music for cello
It's true that you may have to drop
down an octave for most tunes, but that's not always an obstacle. I
play Irish tenor banjo and mandolin - both tuned E-A-D-G but an
octave apart. I'd say 95% of the session tunes I play work on either
instrument without a key change.
The music of Turlough
(pronounced Turlock) O'Carolan - originally for wire-strung harp but
played today on everything from pennywhistle to hammer dulcimer -
would be _ideal_ for cello. O'Carolan, a blind itinerant Irish
harpist in the late 1700's, derived his music from traditional Irish
sources but was also influenced by Italian Baroque composers such as
Corelli and Gemeniani (sp?).
Ditto on checking out
www.ceolas.com - it's probably the best starting point for links to
Celtic music sites.
David
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