Folk dance music with improvisations

2-tur fra Vejle (2-trip from Vejle)

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 February 22: 2-tur fra Vejle (2-trip from Vejle), many couples, a mixer
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 celebration of 200 years anniversary

Photo of this week: Celebrating the 200 years anniversary of the freeing of the peasants from the adscription (Stavnsbåndet). We then had a big show in front of the town hall in our local Copenhagen suburb with 100 dancers from Spillemandsdansen (= Fiddlers' Dance) + 25 folk musicians. (A wonderful day: first the show here, then a private garden party, then all evening dance on the wharf of a cute fishing village at the Sound, with a floating bonfire on the water. And splendid summer weather). In a break in the show Kim and I danced a traditional fight dance to show the rising feelings of independence among the peasants as opposed to the few established farmers. (Adscription meant that the peasants could not leave the area decided by the manor).

A little story:

I plan to place a dance from my music book *117* here on this home page, maybe once a week. This is the 8' dance.

For my family the freeing of the peasants in 1788 was of high importance. Because this led to, that the farmers could buy their own land from about 1850 (in Jutland). And so did my ancestors in Vendsyssel and they became independent farmers. They belonged to (the previous monastery of) Børglum Kloster that owned land for many kilometres. A few years before 1788 a young lad got tired of this toilsome life and wanted to escape. He left the farm where he worked to go home to his father's smaller farm for a couple of days, he said. Both farms were copyholds (fæstegårde) under rule of Børglum Kloster: the farmers had to pay to get their farms, had to buy them but still really not own them, and since give regular work to the manor and give him part of the harvest. The lad walked a couple of days towards south west (with freezing feet in the snow) and was caught before he succeeded in getting a boat ride to the island of Mors. On the 4' day of the lad's missing the two farmers went the (long) way to the manor to report it. That was too late the manor said. So the manor confiscated the two farms! The lad was brought in a couple of days later. The manor wanted the lad whipped and placed in a cruel prison in Copenhagen (far away language) for lifetime "because otherwise it was impossible to keep a hold of people". But the court of Viborg only placed the lad in prison in Viborg for a number of years. Around World War 1 the bottom class in the countryside also got their juridical freedom. The adscription had been tightened considerable 50 years before it suddenly was abolished, as the king's mean of improving the bad national economy (the king's wars with Sweden), by forcing the peasants to work harder for the manors. This failed: the peasants became more and more lazy and ignorant about growing the fields. Then the king was persuaded instead to give more freedom to the better part of the peasants, to become independent striving farmers. This eventual led to improvement for the country, to co-operatives, to folk high schools.

Dance of the week, 1999, February 22:

2-tur fra Vejle.

(Tog-tur til Vejle?)
(English: "2-trip from Vejle"; or: "Two Figure Dance", or: "Two Dance"); (or should it be the new tradition: "Train trip to Vejle", then preferable through the beautiful valley Grejsdalen).
Dance of many couples, the whole ballroom; a mixer dance: you get a new partner.
Music and dance from Vejle area in Jutland

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 here 13 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. (By transferring the note sheets to web use, the bar numbers below the scores were lost).
The 13 staves:

1	melody		the traditional good dancing melody, polished through generations of use on the fiddle
.	chord text	Midi metronome = 110	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; 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	tog1 (train1)		"train like" part; because the name and the music and dance now a days often is associated with a train trip to Vejle. (One of the most beautiful train trips in Denmark goes to Vejle, through the valley Grejsdalen).
11	tog2 (train2)		.
12	tog3 (train3)		.
13	blank	.	blank staff for making your own part according to the principles here

(The midi music is not repeated, except for 1' and 2' voltas).
Use also octavo, 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: 2+2

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 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).