ndlxs - Posted - 03/25/2022:  09:29:55

 Banjo Hangout Tune of the Week, March 25, 2022



This is not your average old time mountain tune with a name like Grandma Sat on my Hat or Little Sally Sharp with One Sock Gone (you will have to write these tunes yourself).   It is from mountains, though not the Appalachians: it is from the Ossau Valley in the French Pyrenees.  I have found that French traditional music can be a very good fit for clawhammer banjo.  My former go-to fiddler, Dorothy H, was deeply into the US West Coast French music scene for a while. (former because she moved to Oregon with her husband).  I have not recorded any of these; and we never did this particular tune, but it works well on banjo.



It was a deep dive for me about 3 weeks ago after I heard this song and saw this video:

youtube.com/watch?v=hwMyyV2MLuU

It comes from this recording, which is not strictly speaking a banjo recording but is excellent:

therheinganssisters.bandcamp.c...eady-home

The Rheingans Sisters come from Sheffield, midway between London and Newcastle in the middle of England.



The recording notes of Banjo Branle say it was from The Béarn region of southwest French in the Ossau Valley; that is the only clue I had as to its origin.  I found this website, in French, which has the notation for this tune:

cauhape.bernard.free.fr/Fichie...sau.html#



This particular tune does not have a field recording with it; the others like it though are simple dance tunes, with a simple whistle or pipe with a drum.  The instrumentation means it is a one octave tune.  It is a tune that fits a particular dance; one part toward the end has a part in 6/8 time to fit a particular figure in the dance.  I play this part square; see below. 



Here is the badly translated French description of the dance: before you open this link, keep in mind that one particular word which I believe refers to what one does with ones’ hands during this dance is not what the phrase means in badly translated English.  A human translator would select a different word or phrase. You may or may not find this funny.

cauhape.bernard.free.fr/page_danses.html



Here is a video of the dance from the region:

youtube.com/watch?v=zd1Uu3fiNBg

Note the odd way this tune (not the same one as above) starts off like Old Joe Clark.  Learn this tune and surprising your buddies at the late night Bluegrass Festival jam with your buddies Slim and Roscoe.



The Rheingans do a great job showing how it should be done.  Here is my tab of tune:

banjohangout.org/tab/browse.as...p;v=25328



Here is me playing it:

youtu.be/-J8s7qnANWU

Here is my transcription (transposed to D) of the melody; note that the second part of the second tune SHOULD be played in 6/8 time, which is peculiar to this particular dance. 

banjohangout.org/photo/284661

The banjo playing Rheingans Sister fluffs over the first triplet with a percussive sound but pulls off the second triplet. I have simplified the tab, and unless your jam session is suddenly overwhelmed with French peasants with smocks on, I would advise you do that too.



Au revoir mes amis!

Edited by - ndlxs on 03/25/2022 11:27:50

m06 - Posted - 03/25/2022:  11:29:37

The Rheingans sisters are superb. I’ve been fortunate to hear them play live twice. Not gigs I’ll forget in a hurry.

They played Banjo Branle. Lovely tune. I recall one of the sisters lives/lived in France and studied the music from that region.

Edited by - m06 on 03/25/2022 11:33:57

ndlxs - Posted - 03/25/2022:  11:42:08

You would definitely have to be a student of French trad. music to find this one.  It has a trancelike quality that I have heard from the West Coast US French players I have heard. 

gentrixuk - Posted - 03/25/2022:  11:54:47

Great choice Andy. I've seen them live as well and they play an excellent range of different music. I just bought a great new banjo from their father, who is a fantastic luthier and old time banjo player. I believe he made their banjos and some of their fiddles.

I think I read somewhere that "branle" translates approximately as "brawl", as a description of the dancing style!

carolynf - Posted - 03/25/2022:  15:54:16

Nice, Andy! When you first suggested it for learning, I watched the video, but I didn’t think I could pick out the tune well enough. This will help.

ndlxs - Posted - 03/26/2022:  10:49:32

I've changed the way I fingered some of them phrases since; simplified them.  Apparently there is no way to update one's tabs here in BNL.  

JanetB - Posted - 03/26/2022:  11:16:08

Thank you, Andy. You've once again offered and nicely played a unique and enchanting tune for clawhammer. I listened to the Bandcamp recording (and purchased the digital CD where one of the tunes is Dancing in the Cowshed). It's a happy coincidence that Mike in England actually saw the sisters perform.



I'm playing in double C tuning, which would be retuned to play in the key of D like the sisters. The notation from France was in the key of G, which I see you transposed. It would claw easy enough in G tuning, too. I played around with some of the fingering and chose the pull-off as opposed to a drop-thumb, as in the 12th and 16th measures.

Rheingans Sisters courtesy Bandcamp (it may be in their father's shop with a luthier's fiddle poster on the wall)

Banjo Branle (TOTW)

Banjo Branle (CH) tab