Old Folks at Home (Swanee River) Sheet

[FireSpirit]

Hello Guys. I would like to know if anyone has the sheet music of that song for the accordion. I believe that, being a song from 1850, nobody would have a problem with copyright. Thanks for your attention!

 

[Tom]

Hi fire, this is Stephen Foster (American composer) and I'm sure I've arranged a lead sheet. I'll find it for you....

 

[Tom]

Olá fire, here you go.

Foster was to Americana as Gonzaga was to Baião, one of the most enduring pre-civil war American songwriters and I (used to) always play a few of his tunes at senior events. Unlike Gonzaga, he never found fame, and died tragically at age 37 in 1864. Boa sorte!

 

[Dingo40]

FS,
I have another arrangement:

 

[Dingo40]

It seems to have worked ?

 

[Dingo40]

While we're about it, can someone please explain how you deal with the first note in the treble of the second measure, that keeps recurring as the first note in the second measure of the treble for the first four lines??
It's written as a middle C quarter note simultaneously with a middle C half note: how are you meant to play that?
This notation crops up frequently in arrangements of this vintage (1950s/60s and before).
(I asked about it once before. but that was before I could send an image and no one seemed to get my verbal description of it ?)

 

[Dingo40]

FS,
Thanks for the clip!
Stirring stuff: I specially like the deep bases from that vintage accordion!??

 

[Tom]

Hi Dingo, I think there are two possibilities:

1. They are indicating that the melody is the two half notes, but that you can play the other notes as a variation.

2. You hold down the C and F notes for two beats each, while playing the other notes with a different finger. Sort of a harmony. You get to choose the fingers that you use. Obviously, in this case you do not "play" the C quarter note.

Same in measures 6,7, etc.

 

[Dingo40]

Thanks, Tom?

 

[FireSpirit]

Thanks for arrangements, guys!

I will study about these scores

Olá fire, here you go.

Foster was to Americana as Gonzaga was to Baião, one of the most enduring pre-civil war American songwriters and I (used to) always play a few of his tunes at senior events. Unlike Gonzaga, he never found fame, and died tragically at age 37 in 1864. Boa sorte!

Thanks for the your attention! I love that melody because in Brazil is a melody from a hymn denominated "Saudade" (To Home Land Shore in english, I guess. Express the idea for homesick from heaven.)

FS,
I have another arrangement:

Thanks!! This arrangement in the "bassland" It will help me a lot.

 

[FireSpirit]

FS,
I have another arrangement:

I have a question! In first image, third measure, third note (C and A). Why is C bass? Is not D7 bass or something? Won't A be dissonant with C bass?

 

[Tom]

Hi Fire!

Thanks for the Brazilian version, very interesting!

In the third measure, the A and C harmony will be fine with the C chord, because the A is the 6th of the C chord. But you could try a Dm (or D7 if you like), and it would probably sound fine because the next measure goes to G7. Anyway, just try it and see what you like! As someone more famous than me once said, "If it sounds good, it is good!"

 

[JeffJetton]

Hi Dingo, I think there are two possibilities:

1. They are indicating that the melody is the two half notes, but that you can play the other notes as a variation.

2. You hold down the C and F notes for two beats each, while playing the other notes with a different finger. Sort of a harmony. You get to choose the fingers that you use. Obviously, in this case you do not "play" the C quarter note.

Same in measures 6,7, etc.

Yeah, I would interpret it like #2. It's two-part writing--essentially two musical lines that could be notated on two different treble clef staffs, but are instead overlaid onto one single staff. This is often indicated (as it is here) with the higher part having the stems always going up and the lower part having the stems always going down.

You would, as Tom points out, play both parts at the same time if you can. The song should still sound perfectly fine if you just played the part that carries the melody though.

A bit odd to look at in measure two, since the parts briefly share the same note at the beginning (so just one note played even though two are notated). You could think of it as exactly equivalent to a single C quarter note on beat one, followed by the same C plus another one an octave up for beat two... then imagine that the low Cs on beats one and two are tied together.

 

[Dingo40]

Thanks, Jeff!?

 

[NickC]

For the second measure, I would think of it as two singers singing in harmony. The lower voice will hold the middle C for two beats, while the upper voice sings middle C, then jumps up an octave for the higher C. I guess technically, since this is played on one instrument, the quarter note middle C doesn't need to be there. But if there was a rest on beat one, then the melody wouldn't be spelled out for the upper voice. For example, if this was SATB chorus notation, and the sopranos dropped out for that middle C (while the altos sang it) then came in with the octave C on beat two, then the melody would sound disjointed. In this scenario, I think it is included for phrasing purposes.

 

[godgi]

I have a variation for stadella called "accordionizing on the swanee"by a person called (Eddie Sere) not sure of spelling as score in somewhere in the house - fairly advanced level with boogie woogie section etc.
A big variety piece many pages.
Godgi