Folk dance music with improvisations

Emmas vals (Emma's Waltz)

Niels Mejlhede Jensen, Bøgeløvsvej 4, 2830 Virum, Denmark. e-mail (web master)

Old tune used for folk dancing in Denmark 1999 arranged with improvisations

CONTENTS: (remember: you can use Ctrl Home in usual browsers to get to the top of this page, to the links here)

Dance of the week 1999 May 17: Emmas vals (Emma's Waltz), couple dance
Dance description, will open on a new page, in a new window, so that this window with music is kept behind
Music description (you stay on this page)
Performing proposals (new page, in a new window, with this window behind)
Music scores for C, A , Bb, Eb, F, and bass instruments (to text on this page)
(c1, c2), (a1, a2), (b1, b2), (e1, e2), (f1, f2), (bass1, bass2); (note sheet will open on a new page, help here)

Photo of this week: Welcome to our folk dancing in Denmark. The red carpet is rolled out in the courtyard, and the many Danish flags are there. The occasion here is special as we are waiting for a fiddler celebrating his birthday.

A little story:

This here is my last dance to be presented on the WWW in this collection, because I have now used my free 10 MB that came with the internet subscription.
May 17 is the national holiday of Norway, with 185 years since the Norwegians said good bye to the Danish absolute monarchy. Having seen the Norwegian landscape and life I cannot imagine Norway being ruled from Copenhagen with consideration of the Norwegian culture. (Then it would be more understandable to have Denmark ruled from Oslo). Congratulations to the Norwegians; hope to see you in a folk dance.
Folk dancing and its music is a wonderful interest with the kind, informal, and merry people you meet there. It is natural to be informal in folk dancing, because folk dance is a nice cultural product of the lower class people. With this WWW I hope to get to learn other informal people to know around in the world.

Dance of the week, 1999, May 17:

Emmas vals.

(English: "Emma's Waltz").
Couple dance.
Music from Finland

The melody can be heard in midi on computer piano in my tempo (if you have a sound card). (The melody will loop here until you stop it. In the table below it will play once). (I have not played the tunes here with the "drive" I want for dance music).

Music description:

The music notes are written as a score of 12 staves on one A3 page = two A4 pages side by side (= an open A4 book).
Place the two note sheets side by side. Then staff 1 (= melody) on the left page continues as staff 1 on the right page.
The 12 staves:

1	melody		the traditional good dancing melody, polished through generations of use on the fiddle
.	chord text	Midi metronome = 160	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 octave
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; 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		n is a less constricted part, and tones from the melody are freely included
9	n2		.
10	n3		.
11	A		octave up
12	blank	.	blank staff for making your own part according to the principles here

Use also octave, up and down.
Where wanted, notes can be changed according to the principles (use a colour pencil), e.g. to improve the B part with some notes from A.
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.

It is better to choose a more simple part and play it well.

Accordion: beats per bar: 1+2.
This is folk dance music in minor, so the bass notes should be more "filled out", should be longer, and less heavily marked than for music in major. This makes it more difficult to play with good rhythm in an amateur band and more difficult to dance to for beginners. I feel that the single bass on beat 1 should last all the way to beat 2 and often even slightly more. Chord on beat 2 is long, and only chord on beat 3 is stopped with a thin moment of "air" before the important beat 1. Chords should have an even sound level. I normally have metronome = 170 for our couple (folk) dance waltz (160 for family waltz), but for such a lovely waltz in minor from Finland with its lakes and woods of mystery I play it a little slower: metronome = 160.

Music scores:

Each score consists of 2 pages: page left and page right. They are given on separate pages with links on the top of this page (use Ctrl Home to go to the top). The links are repeated here:
(c1, c2), (a1, a2), (b1, b2), (e1, e2), (f1, f2), (bass1, bass2)
When you click a link the music note sheet will (should) open as a new page on top of this main page, so that you can easily return to this main page. And you can easily open 2 windows of note pages to have both the left and right page in smaller windows, the right below the left.

(Help coming back from that note sheet: CLICK the note sheet to come back to this page, or just close the 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).