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tonyelder - Posted - 04/09/2016: 07:51:50
I play both versions in G with the fiddle cross-tuned in GDgd.
I first learned to play this on mandolin from a teaching video by Norman and Nancy Blake. It was one of the tunes taught on the DVD called “The Mandolin of Norman Blake”. I later learned it on fiddle from a live recording of Alan Jabbour and Bertram Levy. They are pretty much the same melody. dla.acaweb.org/cdm/singleitem/...894/rec/1
...but, like so many other tunes I learned first, when I moved to Memphis and played this tune – I found out that there is another version. They are close but not exactly the same.
So, I searched for a recording of the other version that I wanted to learn. I really don't know who's version I ended up learning. It might just be what I picked up from the locals. But it favors what I perceive to be the older, more traditional version from the civil war era. This is a version I listen to: youtube.com/watch?v=gRXzBGPyJXc
Which brings me to a place where I feel compelled to say a few things. And I apologize on the front end if it seems inappropriate to bring it up – but I will anyway.
In some ways I feel that I have been encouraged and invited to speak up after someone mentioned that I should be mindful of the circumstances around which the music we love originated - and remember. The tunes themselves are fun to play – and when they are played with an attitude that is divorced from the history that belongs to them, they are just meaningless tunes that are fun to play. But if you are like me (and a lot of others here) and you love knowing about the history behind these tunes, then you will recognize that they carry a lot of power with them. Messages that do speak from the past.
I have posted a good number of tunes – and many of those come to us from a part of our history that is still full of circumstances that I personally regret. There is a heritage from the past – that I personally had nothing to do with - but I have to live with. I feel a sense of remorse over the fact that my mere presence is a reminder of those things for some – and there is very little I can do to fix it. Except to do what is right as best I can.
This tune embodies that idea for me. John Brown was considered a traitor by some and a saint and martyr by others. Some say this was the tune that was being played as he marched on the Harpers Ferry Arsenal, other say it was the tune that was being played as he was marched to the gallows. I say it doesn't matter. It is a tune that memorializes both. I have a respect for the tune because of the man it points to. In my eyes – his cause was righteous.
I would offer to you – the opportunity to hear the speech he gave in the court when he was convicted.
history.com/topics/john-brown/...st-speech
I don' t know how to fix this situation. I wish I could make it right. Our nation is in desperate need of that.
I do know that I have come to like the second version of the tune now, not because it might be more traditional or older, but because it has a more somber and respectful feel to it. The other is a great version of the tune, and I still play it, but it doesn't carry that same weight for me.
There are 2 entries at Fiddler's Companion: ibiblio.org/fiddlers/JOHAN_JOHN.htm
Edited by - tonyelder on 04/09/2016 08:06:23
DougD - Posted - 04/09/2016: 08:57:42
I'm not sure what is that suggests to you that the Boogertown version is older or more traditional. I don't get that feeling.
Its interesting that if the abc notation for version 2 at the Fiddler's Companion is correct, its quite a different tune. I may try to learn that one.
I play the regular one, and happen to have it on my music page here. I probably learned it from Alan, directly or indirectly.
Dwight Diller plays a similar version, with a little different B part: youtube.com/watch?v=0bEIcucshFk His ideas about the tune pretty much agree with mine.
Edited by - DougD on 04/09/2016 09:05:42
tonyelder - Posted - 04/09/2016: 10:20:56
quote:
Originally posted by DougD
I'm not sure what is that suggests to you that the Boogertown version is older or more traditional. I don't get that feeling.
Its interesting that if the abc notation for version 2 at the Fiddler's Companion is correct, its quite a different tune. I may try to learn that one.
I play the regular one, and happen to have it on my music page here. I probably learned it from Alan, directly or indirectly.
Dwight Diller plays a similar version, with a little different B part: youtube.com/watch?v=0bEIcucshFk His ideas about the tune pretty much agree with mine.
Your version sounds a lot like the version I learned from Alan Jabbour's recording.
...and also sounds a lot like this version from DLA: dla.acaweb.org/cdm/singleitem/...286/rec/4
Some group called Highwoods String Band - or something like that.... 
Dwight Diller's version sounds a lot like the second version I play (only a few notes different from what I hear). To me - his A part has a slightly different accent and the B part has a slightly different melody than Alan's version - and of course there is the obvious difference in tempo. I like the way he plays it.
Interesting to read that he is suggesting this tune came from Henry Reed (source). That fact would sure take the tune out of "The Civil War Collection".
My comment about my perception of this second version being older didn't really have a direct connection the Boogertown Gap version. Certainly they are playing in a very contemporary style. My comment was that this is the recording I have been listening to. But if you listen to it - the fiddle is not really playing the melody. So what I picked up from it was the melody from the banjo. I could hear what I wanted to learn in what they played - not necessarily in how they played it.
Where did I get the perception that the other version was older or more traditional? That may have been a poor choice of words, but what I noticed was that most all of the recordings that seemed to be focused on civil war tune collections - or Youtube videos that appeared to be a part of period correct civil war re-enactment sounded more like the version the "locals" here in Memphis are playing and less like the Alan Jabbour version. It was different enough for them to comment on how different my version was to what they were used to hearing and playing.
Does that necessarily mean their version is older or more traditional? No. But it seems peculiar that - in those settings - focused on those events - those folks would (generally speaking) all be playing a version that is easily recognized as different from the more common popularized version.
Because of those circumstances - I perceived one to have a connection that might be more historical in it's context. And to me - it makes sense that those folks would be more interested in historical accuracy, and less interested in who played it. And the other seems to have a more musical tradition for it's context, and those folks would be more interested in versions that were played by fiddlers who were popular. If that is true, then...
But it is only speculation.
Edited by - tonyelder on 04/09/2016 10:41:51
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