Welcome back to the Free Reed Liberation Orchestra, playing an Alsatian branle brought to us by Steve Gruverman and Marie Wendt!
Artwork by David Hamilton
FRLO July 2022 is directed by Gary Chapin. Players are:
Anahata, Matthew Bampton, John Barber, David Barnert, Gary Chapin, Margaret Cox, Martin Dumas, Eric Johnson, Gren Penn, Janneke Slagter
All parts are copyright 2022.
Hey there. This is a tune I learned in 1998 (I think … it was so long ago!) from Steve Gruverman and Marie Wendt shortly after I moved to Maine. The dance is a slow, peaceful line … although I play it with a bit of drama, here.
This Monday I bring you a video from Duo Expire, featuring Cédric Martin and Flavien Di-Cinto. I met Cédric about twelve years ago, when I was in Alsace. I don’t expect him to remember me, but I’ve always remembered the fluidity and personality he brought to his playing that night.
If you would like to draw my attention to something out there that should be posted, or want to submit one of yourself playing some French tune (including Breton) on accordion, email me here.
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| Georges Haibach, Catherine Piron-Paira, Sylvain Piron |
A joyful package arrived on my doorstep a few days ago. Two new CDs from Sylvain Piron!
Le Chemin
The second CD is On est que des cailloux, a set of Sylvain’s original songs, played solo by the man himself, recorded over a few years. Sylvain’s singing, solo with only the accordion accompaniment, is a sort of pure, earthy thing — strong and reminiscent of the harp singer tradition. His songs are light but filled with feeling, both pathos and humor.
Both CDs are available directly from Sylvain himself. You can contact him at his email.
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| The An Dro snakes through! Pic by Chris Ryall |
UPDATE: I’ve gotten some push back on this post from folks (great stuff in the comment section), essentially saying that some of these videos are not exemplars of their regional styles, but are just examples of dances done at the Big Bal. I think that’s fair, but still think it’s interesting to see these as documentations of what’s going on at the Big Bal, especially for those of us who would have a hard time ever making it there.
Following up from the post of French Dance Field Recordings, here is the second half of Chris Ryall’s amazing collection of videos, or dance as he found it in the wild. Chris writes, “Breton dance is often done in lines, traditionally snaking around the floor intertwining and ‘meeting people.'” Here is the repository:
Breton
Rond St. Vincent – a very simple village dance that has become a standard
An Dro (An Dro = “the turn”)
Another An Dro – Wild at the end!
Tricot (mixed An Dro and Hanter Dro)
Plinn (Simple, very peasant, gets wild improv from musicians)
Another Plinn
Suite Plinn (Same rhythm. Couples dance with fast and slow parts)
“Standard” Gavotte” (Danced as a suite with varying speeds)
Gavotte de l’Aven (small valley in the Cornouaille with it’s own “dreamy sway” style – this is just part of a “suite gavotte”
Gascony: Gascon Rondo – done in pairs in a big circle
Alsace: asymmetric waltzes (5/8, 8/8, 11/8)
Swedish Polska
Another Swedish Polska
Untold quantities of gratitude to Chris for this work and for permission to put this together here. Thank you, sir!
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| Photo: Mary Line |
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| Sylvain Piron Photo:Mary Line |
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| Photo: Mary Line |
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| Photo: Mary Line |
Next year, in Alsace!
Here’s a tune I learned from storyteller Catherine Piron-Paira and her husband Sylvain Piron, both of Saverne, Alsace. Catherine played it on psaltery, thus I tend to call it “Catherine’s Psaltery.” I feature this tune on my new CD, but with added clarinets and recorders, and with vastly improved sound quality. I recorded this to include in the melodeon.net Theme of the Month for July 2013, French Tunes.
I’m not sure why my pants figure so heavily in this video. I apologize.
UPDATE: Gilles Péquignot of Au Gré des Vent has pointed me to their more current web site — Association Carnet de Bal. On that site, four of the group’s albums are available for streaming. They also have about twenty-five tunes available as sheet music.
Continuing my fascination with asymmetric tunes — and my fascination with the Alsatian duo Au Gré des Vents — I present one of their most infectious tunes. “L’intermittent” is the opening track of their album Fraxinelles. It’s a scottisch-marche-valse composed by Danyèle Besserer. Here’s their recording of the tune.
“L’intermittent” excerpt by Au Gre des Vents
And here’s a recording of my band, Le Bon Truc, performing same. As Gilles pointed out to me, we take the tune much more freely in this context. He calls it “Wagnerian,” which is fair. For dancers, of course, regularity is everything (all of the “ones” are an equal distance apart).
And for those who want to try such a thing for themselves, here are the dots for the tune, as transcribed by the inestimable Steve Gruverman.
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| Gilles Péquignot and Danyèle Besserer, with
Sylvain Piron in the tricorn hat.
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BONUS Picture, sent to me by Mary Line, of the Journal d’Alsace. That’s the duo on the right, with Sylvain Piron in the tricorn hat.
A branle is a medieval dance, still done in many areas of France and Germany. It’s pronounced “brawl,” and is the etymological foremother of the modern word for a chaotic outbreak of fisticuffs — which should tell you something about the dance. This branle is found on the album Du Piment Dans Le Kugelhopf – Musiques d’Alsace À Danser by the fabulous Alsatian duo, Au Gre des Vents. This is my second attempt at recording it. At first I played it as a 5/4 waltz, but Gilles, of Au Gre Des Vent, emailed me and pointed out that there’s one bar in there that is in 6/4. Tricksy tune! Hopefully, I got it right this time! This was recorded for the Theme of the Month over on Mel.net.
Special thanks to Flora, the Boston Terrier, and her invaluable support.
COMING SOON! An interview with Au Gre Des Vent!
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| Catherine and Sylvain |
The trad scene in Alsace is currently quite busy. I remember the 80s and 90s were much more quiet. There was a bal from time to time. Nowadays every week-end offers at least one opportunity to dance. Public has changed as well and more and more young people are interesting in dancing. The facility offered by Internet has helped the organisers to disseminate information with no cost. In the same way, music groups have increased in number and quality, in the 80s there were only a few groups in Alsace. Now, Accrofolk has listed around 30 groups. This has been the same in all Fance.
I am very proud when you say I was your teacher, but I feel a bit usurping because you where actually your own teacher, I just gave my opinion on what I heard and felt from from your recordings. When you showed up in 1998, I was very happy that my small music home page was something interesting for at lest one American! Thanks to you, I discovered later that a lot of American people where involved in these European traditional musics and that through that practice I had a lot of potential friends in the States.
L'Accordeonaire 