Comments on: Name that tune?

Question: Name that tune?

ooklala — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 21:55:29 -0800

Can you help me identify a freakishly old (I think) song that I recently found? I know nothing about it other than it is old, and has been used for many years in a Maypole dance.

*link to song* (mp3)
Note: Song is very catchy.

By: Steven C. Den Beste

Steven C. Den Beste — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 22:02:09 -0800

It's a polka, for whatever that's worth.

By: your mom

your mom — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 22:12:06 -0800

It sounds a bit like a morris dance. Maybe Staines Morris?

By: Dave 9

Dave 9 — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 09:50:31 -0800

I don't recognize the tune, but this is why they invented the Musipedia contour search. Enter this melodic contour (just cut & paste from here)

UDUUDDDUUUDDDDDDDUUD

or else use Staines as a keyword search. First result. Looks like your mom has it.

By: nonane

nonane — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 10:49:20 -0800

It sounds more like an arrangement (for a school program?) than the version of Staines Morris I've learned, even given a lot of folk-processing. The musipedia link sounds peculiarly modal, like they've left out an accidental the whole way through. The top two videos here have the minor version that I'm more familiar with. The "Now to the Maypole haste away" part seems particularly different.

By: ooklala

ooklala — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 14:04:05 -0800

@nonane: Your lyrics seem mostly correct. Never thought anybody would know about this song!
@your mom: I think you are correct that it is a different version of that song.
@Dave 9: How did you get that melodic contour thing you speak of?

By: Dave 9

Dave 9 — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 17:45:04 -0800

ooklala: The concept of melodic contour is explained under "Parsons Code" on the musipedia page that I linked above. It's a way of identifying a tune with a minimal amount of information -- just the shape (the ups and downs) of the tune:

"Each pair of consecutive notes is coded as "U" ("up") if the second note is higher than the first note, "R" ("repeat") if the pitches are equal, and "D" ("down") otherwise. Rhythm is completely ignored. . . . You can enter an asterisk (*) in the Parsons code field for the first note.

"In his "Directory of Tunes and Musical Themes" (Spencer Brown, 1975), D. Parsons showed that this simple encoding of tunes, which ignores most of the information in the musical signal, can still provide enough information for distinguishing between a large number of tunes."

The Ups and Downs that I wrote out above are just my quick transcription, by ear, of the tune in your mp3.