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etparadox - Posted - 06/06/2014: 18:39:47
For this TOTW I’ve chosen a tune that isn’t traditional old time canon or a common tune on the banjo, but works well in both respects and is worthy of more play.
Josephine’s Waltz, or Josefins Dopvals in its original Swedish, is a waltz composed by the guitarist Roger Tallroth of the acclaimed Swedish Folk band Väsen (pronounced vesen). It appeared first on their 1994 album Essence. The literal translation is Josephine’s Baptism Waltz, and as the name suggests, Tallroth wrote the waltz to celebrate the christening of his niece. Since then it has appeared on their albums Spirit, and Trio and has been covered by numerous other, primarily Celtic, groups.
The tune is a favorite of mine to play solo because of its beauty and how well it takes to clawhammer with a little coercion. I’ll often use it as a last song of the night because of its peaceful feel and meandering pace. This also makes it an easy tune to teach once one become accustomed to the somewhat unusual measure of the B part.
First here's the original:
And here's my arrangement:
Sorry for the bad audio. All I have is an old webcam.
A Note on Tempo and Rhythm
First off, it is a slow waltz. The fastest I’ll play it is ¼=150bmp, most of the time landing around 140bmp (about where Väsen plays it) but sometimes even slower if It’s not being danced to. Even at a slower speed, this tune boasts a robust rhythm with plenty of room for eighth note fills between melody notes making up for the short sustain of the banjo. The tune has a bit of melancholy or nostalgic feeling to it so leaving the melody sparse can emphasize the emotion.
The melody is almost entirely quarter notes, with all other notes omissible or accessible via hammer-ons or pull-offs. This means the entire tune can be played without drop thumb, though occasional drop thumb fills do add good texture to the piece. Without these fills, the repeated chord brushes can become repetitive.
Additionally, one should keep in mind that the tune is crooked. The A part is 16 bars, but the B part is 24. Examining the structure in more detail, the B part has a typical 16 bar section followed by an 8 bar tag. One could call it a C part, except that it is a clear continuation of the B part melody. The tune structure as a whole is AABB.
A Note on Key Signature
The tune was composed in the key of Fmaj and that is how Väsen plays it, but they use a nyckelharpa, 5-string viola, and open tuned 12-string guitar which have the proper range to execute the tune in its original key. On more conventional instrumentation, playing the tune in F is somewhat inconvenient as the lowest note in the direct transcription is out of reach on the fiddle. For this reason many groups choose to play it raised a whole step in Gmaj which also gives more opportunity to use droning strings.
The banjo also benefits from the use of open strings, but is still slightly problematic because when the A part of the tune is played in 1st position the melody still goes lower than the banjo’s normal range in open G. To get around this there are a few options. You can tune to gCGBD, which helps reach the most important low notes but is still too high for some of them. Another option is to jump up an octave when the melody goes too low. You’ll have to do this for some notes even in gCGBD so it’s up to you whether you think it’s worth retuning. Finally, you can play the whole thing an octave up (mostly on the 1st string, climbing up the neck to the 12th fret for the A part and past 12th for the B). Playing in the high octave you can reach all the notes, but if you’re more comfortable staying in one position, playing around the low notes and tuning down will probably be easier.
My personal solution is a bit different. To fit the tune to clawhammer, I play it in Dmaj using Double D tuning. Played as such, the A part fits fully in 1st position and the B part ventures only as far as the 10th fret (and fleetingly at that). D still works decently on fiddle, though the B part will either have an octave jump or venture past 1st position. For most fiddlers this won’t be an issue. Double D tuning also is beneficial in that the intervals and sympathetic resonance more closely matches the somewhat modal character of the tune. This setting is also a good way to play the tune in its original key of Fmaj by way of capoing up 3 frets.
TAB and Examples
Because of all the variations, I’ve included TAB for G(low, gCGBD), G(high, gDGBD), D(simple, aDADE), and D(Adv, aDADE) settings as well as MP3 and tabledit files for each arrangement plus and mp3 of the F setting (D capo 3).
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