ajisai - Posted - 11/22/2009:  13:32:55

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Just stumbled on this PDF and didn't seem to find it mentioned when I did a forum search so I thought I'd share the link. The title is Ryan's Mammoth Collection: 1050 Reels and Jigs, Hornpipes, Clogs, Walk-arounds, Essences, Strathspeys, Highland Flings and Contra Dances, with Figures, and How to Play Them. Bowing and Fingering Marked.

violinsheetmusic.org/collections/ (Scroll down to find the link to the PDF)

Cynthia

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Edited by - ajisai on 01/31/2010 18:31:29

ajisai - Posted - 11/22/2009:  14:01:42

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Soldier's Joy is on p. 265. Kind of fun to play it that way. If you happen to find other familiar tunes with interesting twists or discover something unfamiliar that's kind of fun to play, please post!

Cynthia

John Gent - Posted - 11/22/2009:  14:50:31

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Holy cow! That things packed full!

Yep ... so many tunes, so little time.

- John

amwildman - Posted - 11/22/2009:  15:18:20

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That notation is really hard to read for an ear player!

autumnstrings - Posted - 11/22/2009:  15:42:35

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Wow! Thanks for sharing that. I don't think I'll run out of something to play...ever. :)

Dick Hauser - Posted - 11/22/2009:  16:07:34

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Notation in that book is hard to read for an "eye" reader as well. The notation is really, really, small. I bought the $90 "Printmusic" software. When I want notation for a tune with small print, I create the notation using "Printmusic". Then I increase the size of the font by 120-130%. The larger notation is much easier to read.

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Edited by - Dick Hauser on 11/23/2009 12:27:21

ajisai - Posted - 11/22/2009:  16:20:53

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The PDF is nice because it's possible to enlarge it on the computer screen and somehow, to me, big-note music makes things seem simpler to play. Of course it doesn't make the rhythm on the strathspeys any easier, does it? I'm a good note reader, but I pick up tricky timing better by feel and I was kind of baffled there.

I often enlarge the print music I'm working on. I find it really hard to play and read music when I have my glasses on. Completely wrong angle for bifocals.

Cynthia

leather Britches - Posted - 11/23/2009:  03:56:11

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Thanks for shearing , what a nice collection , even has dance steps to some of the tunes.

Great Stuff.
John

oldtimestrings - Posted - 11/23/2009:  07:10:59

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Thanks for posting this. It's a collection I've known and studied for a long time. While the the PDF is convenient, and free, there are some of us who still prefer to work with materials like this in hard copy, especially something that's a reprint of a 19th century collection. It's the historian in me.

Mel Bay produced a reprint edition that's quite reasonably priced, for those who are interested:

elderly.com/books/items/02-95359.htm

wooliver - Posted - 11/23/2009:  12:52:44

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The same Elias Howe that had the first patent for the sewing machine.

wiki that dude

fiddlepogo - Posted - 11/23/2009:  13:06:04

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Thanks for that- I downloaded it. It's pretty similar to Cole's 1001 fiddle tunes, since I think Cole's was just a reediting of it.
I'd been wanting something of that sort as a reference for a while.

RobBob - Posted - 11/23/2009:  15:11:58

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It is amazing what is out on the web. I drove from California back to the east coast when I got out of the military in the early 70's and stopped in San Antonio TX at Southern music and bought Coles 1001 fiddle tunes, a collection very similar to this one. Also bought two songbooks of Jimmie Rodgers material as well. Man, that was a long time ago!

ajisai - Posted - 11/23/2009:  15:33:17

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Have any of you played from The J.W. Pepper collection of 500 reels, jigs, clogs, flings, hornpipes, stop jigs, sand jigs, straight jigs, walk-arounds, buck and wing dances and fancy and country dances for violin "composed, selected and arranged by A.S. Bowman?" I've been researching Mr. Bowman and one of these days I'd like to have a look at it. WorldCat tells me it's available in Boston and in Pittsburgh but there must be other copies around?

Cynthia

drdosido - Posted - 11/23/2009:  16:19:52

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Wow. First time I heard of that collection, 30 years ago, it was almost impossible to find. You had to have a librarian look on OCLC to see what university library or rare book collection had a copy. Then maybe you could plan a side trip to go view it while off doing a gig or other business somewhere near. (I never did that for the Mammoth, but did for several other rarer tunebooks.)

Now I have saved on my computer after only a couple of clicks and few minutes of download time.

Neither Buck Rodgers or Jules Verne could have foreseen this future. (I daresay neither would Jules Verne Allen.)

DougD - Posted - 11/23/2009:  18:33:34

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Yes, its amazing to find this online, although Cole's collection was I think made from the same plates, and was a mainstay for those of us learning some years ago. The notation seems plenty big enough, but its scrunched up somewhat to fit each part through on one line, and that may be what makes it seems strange.

Also, this collection won't get you far in a contemporary old time jam session, since it really contains mostly 19th century Irish - American tunes (with a few minstrel numbers), but it's interesting because so many older fiddlers learned from it.

And wooliver - no, this is not the same Howe that invented the sewing machine: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elias_Howe_Company

hendrid - Posted - 11/24/2009:  08:27:57

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Looks like a lot of good stuff. Could not find a Table of Contents up front or an Index of song titles in the back or at the end.. Seems to be separated by type of tune, Reel, Jig, Hornpipe and so on and not in alphabetical order and I could not solve the search mode. Guess you have to use the exact title as he had it titled. Need a wide band or DSL computer hookup to download in a reasonable time. A large computer PDF or Adobe Reader file.

A humogous number of tunes to go through looking for really OT ones and a few seem to be there. Thanks for the link.

zai - Posted - 11/24/2009:  10:46:35

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Brilliant, thanks for posting that link! That'll keep me entertained on my week-and-a-half off that's coming up :D

fiddlecraver - Posted - 11/24/2009:  11:46:22

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Thanks for sharing this. Theres a lot of stuff "hidden" in there and sometimes theres more than one title for basically the same tune just in a little different form. I find the notation very easy to sight read in comparison to modern transcriptions.

zai - Posted - 11/28/2009:  04:36:35

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So, it's day three of my vacation now, and I'm at page 67. I think I've already found some tunes that were repeated, be it under different names. Didn't bother to go back to find the previous occurance of the tune. Also found a tune somewhere that has the exact same a part as a tune I know, but a rather different b part. And of course a bunch of tunes I came across before, some about the same as I know 'm, some with some minor differences in setting and some rather different but still the same tune. A lot of fun, this book :)

Where I was a bit rusty on the sight reading at the start, by now I'm back at where I was when I was still reading a lot. The playing got a bit better since, so it's a lot of fun :D

TomGlos - Posted - 11/28/2009:  05:00:37

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quote:

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Originally posted by ajisai

The PDF is nice because it's possible to enlarge it on the computer screen and somehow, to me, big-note music makes things seem simpler to play.

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I once asked a violin teacher, "children have good eyes, why is music for children printed so big?"
She replied almost without hesitation, "so they think it's easy and they can do it. If it is printed small, they think it's hard, and won't try."

whigski - Posted - 11/28/2009:  11:45:21

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quote:

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Originally posted by Dick Hauser

Notation in that book is hard to read for an "eye" reader as well. The notation is really, really, small. I bought the $90 "Printmusic" software. When I want notation for a tune with small print, I create the notation using "Printmusic". Then I increase the size of the font by 120-130%. The larger notation is much easier to read.

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A good office copy machine can easily and quickly increase the size too.

raster1 - Posted - 12/06/2009:  17:29:08

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Thanks to Cynthia for sharing this. It's a great resource, but the lack of an index was driving me crazy, so I cobbled one together and put it out as a PDF here: mediafire.com/?jrygi3wwz0m. Hope it helps somebody else!

Ralph

Jaunskots - Posted - 12/06/2009:  18:12:15

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Thanks for the link to the pdf. A great collection. For those of us who don't have high-speed Internet access, Mel Bay has a facsmile edition with an introduction by Patrick Sky and a consolidated Table of Contents, listing all types of tunes in one spot. It costs $19.95 at Amazon.com and, oddly enough, only CDN $17.48 at Amazon.ca. I figure I couldn't print it out and bind it for that price. I'm glad to have the actual book (AKA cellulose-fibre random access manifold).

There is substantial duplication. I didn't count, but Ken Perlman in his intro to his book on PEI fiddling says that there are only about 800 tunes once you discount the dupes. The book's still a bargain at 2.5 cents a tune.

One more thing, probably not news to most people, but... Lately I've been taking perfect-bound collections like this one down to the local Staples store to have the spines cut and a comb binding inserted. For a couple of bucks they lie flat on the music stand and my wife doesn't have to put up with bad language as clips or clothespins let go, the book falls on the floor, and I have to find my place again. Highly recommended.

Harold

ajisai - Posted - 12/06/2009:  18:22:45

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Ralph. Thanks. The index is great. Now I just need to find time to sit down with the book again . . . C

Leon Grizzard - Posted - 12/28/2009:  12:12:22

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Thanks a bunch Cynthia for the the link and to Ralph for the index. I have the Mel Bay reprint, but it is really great to have it on the computer with alphabetical index.

tiquose - Posted - 12/28/2009:  15:40:36

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quote:

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Originally posted by ajisai

Have any of you played from The J.W. Pepper collection of 500 reels, jigs, clogs, flings, hornpipes, stop jigs, sand jigs, straight jigs, walk-arounds, buck and wing dances and fancy and country dances for violin "composed, selected and arranged by A.S. Bowman?" I've been researching Mr. Bowman and one of these days I'd like to have a look at it. WorldCat tells me it's available in Boston and in Pittsburgh but there must be other copies around?

Cynthia

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I'd love to have a look at that book! It must be as scarce as the proverbial hen's teeth.

ajisai - Posted - 12/28/2009:  16:42:40

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I am getting to the point where I need to go to Pennsylvania in order to answer some questions that I still have about the Albert S. Bowman I've been researching and when I do, I will try very hard to have a look at that collection.

Yesterday I found mention of a "Professor Bowman" and "Bowman's Orchestra" in a number of Lancaster newspapers and I think there's a good chance that "Professor Bowman" is the Albert S. Bowman that I think is the A. S. Bowman who was publishing with J. W. Pepper. (I'm doing a lot of thinking. <smile>)

One of the newspapers mention the names of some pieces played by the orchestra and I've very curious to know if A.. S. Bowman wrote any them. Research, enjoyably, never ends, does it?

C

bj - Posted - 12/28/2009:  17:40:30

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Or you can hire someone in PA to do the looking for you.