Sjijnmyravalsen (Sjijn Bog Waltz) |
Niels Mejlhede Jensen, Bøgeløvsvej 4, 2830 Virum, Denmark. e-mail (web master) |
CONTENTS: (remember: you can use Ctrl Home in usual browsers to get to the top of this page, to the links here)
Photo of this week: My wife Annette, who is born on the island
Bornholm where the dance of this week is from
I grew up with folk dancing and playing music, and so did my parents,
and those before them. Almost 200 years ago a poor peasant, Niels, lived
on the small moor, Mejlhede, in Northern Jutland. He lived with his wife
and children in one end of the small house, and with his old parents in
the other end. Further he had one cow (not big) in the house. The cow gave
some milk and, not to forget, some heat. Niels had a passion there far
out in the countryside, which many knew about but no official wrote about:
he was the fiddler for folk dancing in his region. At his time it was illegal
to play music except for the few musicians in town appointed by the king.
Niels died one year before the music was given free in 1830. Then his son
Jens took over the fiddle and became the liked musician of the region (as
can be seen in church documents). With the obtained freedom for the music
Denmark got its "golden age" for folk dancing music 1830-1860 with country
side music suddenly flourishing in open all over Denmark. But as you see,
Jens did not suddenly get his good music out of nothing.
I have my two first names after my mothers father who has his fist
two names after ...etc. I have Jensen from my fathers side, and some other
time I may tell about a different
type of fiddler here, less sober but skilful though (also named Niels).
I had the luck to continue the heritage in folk dancing by being the
leader of music and of folk dance for 13 delightful years for "Spillemandsdansen"
("Fiddlers' Dance"), where everybody can meet every tuesday night and play
and dance at the Technical University of Denmark in a big ballroom.
Dance of the week, 1999, January 4:
1 | melody | the traditional good dancing melody, polished through generations of use on the fiddle | |
. | chord
text |
Midi metronome = 140. | simple (folk music) chords, natural for playing the accordion;
these chords are used to make the other parts or voices in triad harmony; there should be no tension from dissonance anywhere including in octavo |
2 | A | (Above), parallel part nearest above in third or little more above | |
3 | B | (Below), parallel part nearest below in third or little more below | |
4 | ns | simple n part (see 8); often with the tonic feeling and often with the basic dance rhythm ("motor part") | |
5 | C1 | C parts are made from A and B parts, and so they are two parts to the melody | |
6 | C2 | C2 is less simple than C1 | |
7 | mod =
contra part |
voice up and down (mostly) contra to the melody; it is also made from A and B | |
8 | n1 | less constricted part, and tones from the melody are freely included | |
9 | n2 | 9-11: more n parts or C parts above, or parts in octavo | |
10 | n3 | . | |
11 | C2 | parts selected to be written in octavo depend on the ambits and will be different for the different scores for the different instruments | |
12 | blank | . | blank staff for making your own part according to the principles here |
Where wanted, notes can be changed according to the principles (use
a colour pencil).
The music is aimed at dancing, so part of the orchestra can be the
underlying "motor" when another instrument group is playing its "solo"
part (improvisation) as one of the many repetitions.
The double bass may play its usual notes, because of its low pitch.
Bar 1-8 is waltz, bar 9-12 is running steps with a touch of waltz, and
bar 13-16 is very much waltz.
Specially ns part is made with this in mind, to be a "motor". In waltz
with a bar of 3, note 1 is much emphasized and 1 and 2 are tied and 3 is
light. Bar 9-12 is played more portato (without ties) for the running steps,
but I find it OK for the accordions to play waltz also here when the rest
of the orchestra plays different. With a good motor from most of the orchestra
I find it fine with solo instruments that concentrate on the melodic in
their part.
Accordion: beats per bar: 1+2
Bornholm, the lovely island there south of Sweden, has nice music, that
I feel should not be played too bombastic. They have songs to their dance
melodies ("Come here to me, and tell to me, if I may dance this with thee",
Sjijnmyra begins), songs in Bornholm dialect, (so most Danes understand
English much better). There is a very good record with these dance songs.
(Help coming back from that note
sheet: CLICK note sheet to come back to this page, or just close note
window.
Remember: the note sheet opens in a new separate window, and that may
cover the whole screen. The back button in the tools bar does probably
not work because the window is new, with no history. All you see on the
page are notes because I have placed no link back here for not disturbing
easy submitting to the printer. Close the note window with a click at the
top or with Alt F4, or minimize or reduce the window, or ..., and you are
back to the main page that was there behind all the time).
The music scores are made with the Encore computer program and printed to file (anyone may come and use it at Herlev Public Library). These postscript files are changed to internet use with the help of the GhostView program (free ware). There is a little loss in quality by this changing process. I learned about GhostView from Søren, see his nice folk dance music on www.folketshus.dk (easy to remember in Danish).