Jig, July 11, 2011

Jig, July 11, 2011 (mp3) (pdf)

I came across this recording from 2011 tonight while looking for something else. I had forgotten all about this tune. I probably thought it wasn't quite up to snuff when I recorded it on July 13, 2011 but it sounds fine to me now, almost three years later. The recording is old enough now that I can't tell what guitar I'm playing but I suspect the mandolin is my faithful old Gibson A.

This tune is a bit unusual in having a half-diminished chord in the harmony of the B section. I suspect that fewer than one percent of all jigs from the folk tradition intentionally contain such a chord but, as always, I could be wrong. If you know of other jigs with mb7 chords I'd love to hear about them.

5 Comments

2015-09-05 16:24:02 Fernando:

Hello John! I was wondering if you made the sheet music of July 11, 2013. Thank you for sharing your material!

Fernando

2015-09-06 10:27:35 John:

Hi Fernando, It looks like the PDF music for the tune is posted now. I don't remember if I didn't post it originally. Thanks for asking. I hope you enjoy the tune.

2015-09-06 11:31:49 Fernando:

Thanks for your reply John! I was looking for the sheet music from your Deer Track collection called July 11, 2013, but I only found this post with the key words July 11. I love to play your May 8-9 by the way!

2015-09-06 11:38:39 Fernando:

I also looked at this website but did not fiund: ../../../../../deertracks.htm
It is the number 20 of your collection.

Also I'm curious about your influences. In your Deer Track description you mentioned Marilyn Crispell's, Amaryllis, recorded with Gary Peacock and Paul Motian.

Best wishes!

2015-09-06 23:26:10 John:

Fernando, this clears up the mystery. If you send me an email (you can find the address at the Deer Tracks webpage) I will be happy to send you the music for the July 11, 2013 piece. This is the piece that was commissioned by Chris Acquavella as part of my Kickstarter campaign.

The Crispell, Peacock, Motian CD "Amaryllis" was indeed very important at the time I started writing the Deer Tracks type pieces. I realized over time that while all three musicians play brilliantly on that CD it was really the short Paul Motian compositions that had the biggest influence on my thinking. In a similar vein I find the writing of Dave Holland and Ornette Coleman to be very inspiring also.

I don't mean to imply, however, that my pieces are in the same class as the work of composers like Motian, Holland or Coleman (or many other composers I admire). But I have certainly been inspired by this kind of writing.

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