Re: [Harp-L] Suggestion for playing "Ashokan Farewell"

[Vern <jevern@xxxxxxx>]

Ken Burns did it with unaccompanied violin. Of course in his documentary it was background music for pictures and voice-over. It requires dead-on intonation and just-right vibrato.  

Our band does it starting unaccompanied, adding second violin, then finger-picked guitar and finally bass and piano.  We reason that changing the accompaniment by adding instruments keeps it from being monotonous.  Unless you are a diatonic purist, C or D chromatic works very well.

Changing keys for the repeat might also add some variety.

Vern

On May 6, 2012, at 11:50 AM, Steve Shaw wrote:

>> I play Ashokan Farewell on an "A" Circular Tuned harp, which has "D" major as the underlying key.
>> All of the notes in the song are available without any bending, except for the "C" (flatted 7th) in 
>> measure 27. That requires a half-step draw bend, to be held for two beats (the song is a waltz in
>> 3/4 time), which is easy to do on a Circular Tuned harp. I use the second octave as the base 
>> reference, so that I can drop down for the really low notes on the low end of the harp, using hole 
>> 1 blow ("A", the 5th of the "D" major scale). The Circular Tuned harp gives you the range to lay 
>> out the song across the entire harp.
>> 
>> References for the melody notes can be found by Googling for "Ashokan Farewell melody notes".
>> There are various arrangements; you'll have to pick one that most closely fits your conception of
>> how to play the song. There are also MIDI versions if you want to learn to play it by ear.
> That C nat is a pain. If I have to play the melody I use a D chrom. If someone else (the fiddle player) is playing the melody then there are infinite harmonising possibilities on a D blues harp. Personally I find the melody to be a bit threadbare, requiring lots of lushness in the harmony to make it work well.