In the back of the Bal Folk Tune Book are a series of odd tunes, neither fish nor fowl, mazurka nor bourrée. Here are four of those. Three of them have mixed meters (yikes!) and that makes them especially interesting to me. If you want to go to a specific tune:
0:00 Rondeau de Landes (#213) 1:02 Scottish-Valse (#199) 2:18 Branle du Rat (#201) 3:15 Le Porcher (#196)
If you want the dots, you should definitely buy the Bal Folk Tune Book!
I learned these two from Sylvain Piron’s website nearly 25 years ago. They are Valse á Cadet and Valse d’Ernest Lurde. For some reason I thought they were in the Bal Folk Tune Book. They are NOT. But they are kickass waltzes and I invite you to wallow in their kickassedness.
I was wearing a great hat in this one. But then cropped it out so you could spend time with the trees.
Here’s a deep dive. This is a great one that I have in a number of sources, and have been playing for years. You may not hear, but the third note is a sharp 4th (E, in this case, because it’s played in Bflat), and it’s such a fleeting note, but so essential!
It’s part of the Bal Folk Tune Project. Here’s Jac Lavergne playing it, on his wonderful AMTA cassette.
And here’s Henri Momboisse, from back in the day. Much ornamentation. Chromatic Button Accordion. A swifter instrument for a swifter time.
Also, the tune has a lyric, and here’s the group Wazoo doing a fantastic arrangement.
This is part of the Bal Folk Tune Book Project. Scottishes #5 and #6, “Scottish à Catinaux” and “D’où Viens-tu P’tit Bonhomme.” The first tune I play as I always have and realized today that I’ve been doubling all the parts forever. Well, that’s a habit that’ll stick. The second tune I don’t play at dance speed, just a little slower, more cinematic or — as I’ve been accused — Wagnerian. I am NOT AT ALL pleased by my accordion face in this one. Not exactly a gormless wonder, but hardly gormful.
Here’s tune #170 from the Bal Folk Tune Book, a waltz that I’ve recorded a number of times. I used this opportunity to learn how to overdub tracks and accompany myself. Pretty simple stuff for people who know how, but I did not know how. Enjoy.
I think I like this, numbering bourrées like they are mambos. In the Bal Folk Tune book this is tune #54. I am working to track down the title and will report back if I am successful. For this one, I’m trying out new video editing software, and also, I think I need to relax a little. The camera adds an edge that is not always welcome. This is part of the Bal Folk Tune Book Project.
Enjoy this scottish, tune #3 in the Bal Folk Tune Book. The second tune is another scottish (though I play it at polka speed), called L’eau de Roche. I would have bet money that it was also in the Bal Folk Tune Book but I was wrong! (It was probably in the pink or blue book.) Consider it a bonus for the Tune Book Project.
That’s one. Two hundred ten more to go!
My admiration for Bal Folk: Traditional Dance Music from Central France is well documented and knows no bounds, as is my appreciate for Dave Mallison, publisher of said volume. Released in 2010, the tunebook brought together the beloved (and obscure) “Pink Book” and “Blue Book” of Centre France music lore. I wrote about the book in 2011, and interviewed Mallinson about it shortly thereafter. It’s great and you should buy it.
Today — just over a fortnight into our covid-19 confinement — I am taking on a project. I will record every one of the 211 tunes in the tune book on YouTube videos, similar to the videos I’ve been posting on my channel for years. I don’t know how long it will take, and I’m not setting a demanding pace for myself (adding stress is not my goal), but I have decided on a couple of procedural norms.
Thank you! And here’s another: unnamed scottish. Tune #2 in the book.
A bourrée and a polka. The first is Bourrée de Neris (#163), also called Le Timide (played by Patrick Bouffard). The second is called Polka des Gars sometimes, and Polka de Mirepoix other times. In the Bal Folk Tune book it is an unnamed Polka (#177). It’s also the melody I use for The Ballad of the Bachelor!
L'Accordeonaire 