More free reed!??
- Thread starter Dingo40
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Siegmund
Well-known member
This popped up as my Featured Post today and sent me down a fun little rabbit hole.
My first reaction to listening to this was "hey, they are playing 'Click Go the Shears' " - that's what happens when you've had an Australian ex. Turns out that Click Go the Shears is new words to a Civil War-era US song, "Ring the Bell, Watchman." Johan pa Snippen is, apparently, not deliberately the same - written down in ~1922 by a Swedish composer inspired by local folk songs - but I have to wonder if it's just coincidence or if he was listening to an imported version of the older tune when he wrote it.
My first reaction to listening to this was "hey, they are playing 'Click Go the Shears' " - that's what happens when you've had an Australian ex. Turns out that Click Go the Shears is new words to a Civil War-era US song, "Ring the Bell, Watchman." Johan pa Snippen is, apparently, not deliberately the same - written down in ~1922 by a Swedish composer inspired by local folk songs - but I have to wonder if it's just coincidence or if he was listening to an imported version of the older tune when he wrote it.
JeffJetton
Prolific poster
Interesting how the group in the second video play it with more of a "lilt" or swing eighth-note rhythm than the others. Is that perhaps a more traditional way to play Scandinavian schottisches?
Dingo40
Been here for ages!
Must be just me, but I can't see the similarity ?
Here's "Click go the shears ":
Here's "Click go the shears ":
Siegmund
Well-known member
A side by side inspection of the sheet music for each reveals that the exact notes are quite different.
The two features that jumped out at me are the rhythm played over 2 bars of a chord -- 4 8. 16 4 8. 16 | 4 8. 16 2 (forgive the Lilypond-ese) -- and tonic-third-tonic motif. (But in Ring the Bell / Click Go the Shears, the "ring ring ring" or "click click click" happens on the second bar of the phrase, and Johan pa snippen, on the fourth.)
It is not the first time I've been sidetracked by something like this... there are just soooo many folk songs that have the same number of syllables per line and imaginative harmonies like alternating tonics and dominants
Sorry for leading you down the garden path.
I daresay there is more similarity listening to the 1860s version on folk instruments, than listening to Rolf Harris, too
The two features that jumped out at me are the rhythm played over 2 bars of a chord -- 4 8. 16 4 8. 16 | 4 8. 16 2 (forgive the Lilypond-ese) -- and tonic-third-tonic motif. (But in Ring the Bell / Click Go the Shears, the "ring ring ring" or "click click click" happens on the second bar of the phrase, and Johan pa snippen, on the fourth.)
It is not the first time I've been sidetracked by something like this... there are just soooo many folk songs that have the same number of syllables per line and imaginative harmonies like alternating tonics and dominants
Sorry for leading you down the garden path.I daresay there is more similarity listening to the 1860s version on folk instruments, than listening to Rolf Harris, too
Gonk
http://mudlark-music.com
Quite a similarity between the A part of the tune and the A part of "Simple Gifts," too.
Also "Lord of the Dance"
Gonk
http://mudlark-music.com
Yep, same tune. But Simple Gifts was written in 1848 and nicked for "Lord of the Dance" 115 years later, so I'd consider that a "modern adaptation." ;-)
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