Thursday, May 19, 2011

Some Canadian tunes

Here we have Guy Loyer's "Hommage a Philippe Bruneau" as well as a standard, "Valse du Coq," which is one of the first tunes that I ever learned on the melodeon. (There is an early recording of Joseph Allard playing "Valse du Coq," but I am not sure whether he composed it.)
It's also the first time I've managed to post an MP3 of my playing -- hat tip to Accordeonaire for "bailing me out" of my hopeless ignorance when it comes to computers!
P.S. almost forgot to mention, played on a Melodie in D, LMH. I'm not sure why I had the M+ reed turned off, but it happened to be that way when I recorded these tunes!

2 comments:

  1. Melodeonists (like me) tend to go on about the charm of the push-me-pull-you action of the beast. Often they seem defensive in the face of chromatic versatility, but this recording really does bring out the CHARM of that sound and approach. Nicely done. Parts of it bear a distinct resemblance to the French "Valse a Cadet," but clearly different enough to be different tune. But if we were tracing musical genomes ...

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  2. Thanks for the kind words!
    Which one sounds like Valse a Cadet? It wouldn't surprise me if Valse du Coq relates to one or more waltzes from European sources.

    Guy Loyer composed "Hommage a Philippe Bruneau" -- perhaps in the 1980s? It definitely has the sound of an older waltz. M. Loyer certainly composed it in a way that ties it very strongly into tradition, so I bet there are any number of tunes with which it is related "genetically."

    In 2003, I met a young accordionist who worked extensively to learn techniques and tunes from Marcel Messervier (Sr.). When I mentioned the uniqueness of Marcel's compositions, this accordionist said, "Yes, but you know, all of his tunes are comprised of little bits and pieces of old melodies, all kinds of old music." I guess it shouldn't be a surprised that Messervier's tunes are a tapestry of quotation, a true rhapsody ("stiched together"). This is what happens when one pays tribute to one's genetic -- or melodic -- ancestors!

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