Trommelvalsen (Roller 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: Trommelvalsen (= the dance of this week)
is danced at a get together on a lawn in the museum park in our neighbourhood.
The set of 3 couples in the foreground to the right has one couple ducking
through the gateway couple and another couple turning at the end to the
right. The dancers of this photo have danced the dance more than once before.
But look at the other sets: they are all in slightly different positions
in this fast dance. But they all have a lot of fun, and that is what counts.
A fiddler wanted so badly to come and play in our group. Fiddler?? Well,
sure enough, he had bought a violin and a learning book from Sweden. But
even though we say that everybody is welcome in our group he felt that
some practice in advance might do well. He soon found out that at home
they did not have the sense for his music. (I understand them. It is a
strain for half a year to have a child learning to play the violin. But
to have an adult of 50 ...). He then drove out to a former gravel pit and
sat there in the loneliness every evening and played the whole summer for
half a year. But then one night people claiming to be from some environmental
society came and told him to stop, because natural life of any value had
fled the area to breed elsewhere. He then moved to some remote gloomy refuse
dump in Copenhagen Harbour area, where he met a drunk gypsy sitting by
his fire. They then played together every night in the headlights from
the car, until the gypsy had emptied his bottle. Every long night, because
our fiddler had now quitted his job for the sake of music. After a year
the gypsy died of alcohol. But now our fiddler was capable enough to join
our band, and he was a keen member for several years. (Always neatly dressed,
who could believe this story about him? He did not tell it himself to me,
but confirmed it when I first wrote about it). Our fiddler claimed that
he would not in his lifetime ever learn to play Trommelvalsen (= the dance
of this week). I encouraged him and said that even when 60 years old he
could train for new heights. But he was right, because suddenly one noon
he died peacefully on his couch.
Dance of the week, 1999, January 18:
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).
| 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 (see 9); 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 | mod1 =
contra part |
voice up and down (mostly) contra to the melody; it is also made from A and B | |
| 8 | mod2 | another contra part | |
| 9 | n1 | less constricted part, and tones from the melody are freely included | |
| 10 | n2 | another n part | |
| 11 | A' | simplified A | |
| 12 | B' | simplified B | |
| 13 | mel' | simplified melody | |
| 14 | 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 octave, up and down.
I have 14 staves here in stead of normally 12, just to show an alternative
mod2 and n2 part.
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.
Because the fast melody for beginners can be of a challenge to play
with good dancing rhythm I have included a simplified melody that can be
played instead.
The dancers would like the melody to be played slower the first times
of dancing.
I have made the ns part so that it promotes running steps in bar 1-8
and promotes waltz in bar 9-17, and so the underlying motor should be played
while other instrument groups have solo parts.
But in the traditional notes used for fiddlers here in Denmark the
first part of Trommelvalsen is all legato and the second part all staccato,
which seems to be opposite of what would be obvious for dancing. But this
is just an extra challenge to the skilled fiddler: to play good waltz with
staccato notes. And a special "rolling drive" in that legato part is welcomed
for dancing; it is not classical music.
Accordion: beats per bar: 1+2
(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).