Wednesday, December 22, 2010

"In the Bleak Midwinter"

Happy Wednesday, folks.  In honor of the recent solstice event, & also with hope of imparting some Christmas spirit both to Robert Frost’s Banjo & to myself, a re-post of sorts: a video of yours truly playing a fingerstyle guitar arrangement of “In the Bleak Midwinter,” Holst’s lovely setting for Christina Rosetti’s poem (you can read the poem here, at WikiSource.)

I recorded the song & made the video last December when it was originally posted on this blog.  The arrangement (not original, but by Doug Sparling, with some minor variations by yours truly) is for guitar in the DADGAD tuning—so called because those are the notes of the open strings, as opposed to EADGBE in standard tuning.  The DADGAD tuning is particularly used by fingerstyle guitarists exploring British Isles folk music—the open strings taken as a whole are a “suspended chord”—one that is neither major nor minor, but hovering somewhere in between.  It’s a lovely tuning, & one that loves to have open strings ringing.  I played it on my well-loved old Washburn, which is a sweet fingerstyle instrument.

Hope the holiday season has been good to you, & that you enjoy the music.  There’ll be one more holiday tune—from the Alice in Wonder Band archives—on Friday!

8 comments:

  1. Perfect song to accompany your slideshow, John. Merry Christmas to you and E! xx

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  2. Hi Jacqueline & Tess: So glad you both liked it, & a very merry Christmas to you both!

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  3. Good old DADGAD. A lovely treatment, John, fittingly low key. It's my favourite carol, words and music.

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  4. Good work, John! The tuning fits this one very well indeed. BTW, I just posted Loreena McKennitt's instrumental version of this on Monday.

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  5. Hi Dick & Roy

    Dick: It's a lovely piece of music & Rosetti's poem is inspired. She seems to me an undervalued poet.

    Roy: Thanks! I'm woefully behind on blog visits, but hope to amend that within the next two days--will look forward to hearing McKennitt's version!

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  6. Lovely and peaceful - I liked listening to it as I worked. Very calming (and given all the things I need to get done by tomorrow, calming is essential!)

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  7. Hi HKatz: Glad you enjoyed it, & best luck with your projects!

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