Another Paul Eno banjo solo

[Jody Stecher]

I've been practicing Paul Eno's "Valse De Concert". I've never heard it played by anyone. It's got four parts as well as an intro and a coda. I've got the main body of the piece coherent now but am still bogged down in the intro in which chords and notes played with a tremolo are tied to the first beat of a new measure . These chords and notes at the right hand side of the bar line have no tremolo indication so I'm uncertain whether to let the last tremolo note sustain or to keep on "tremoloing", if that is an acceptable word. I'd post the dots but the page is too big for my scanner. I'll have to bring the notation to some copy place with a giant scanner where I can reduce the size. But meanwhile I can scan just the part I'm unsure of . The first three areas circled in red illustrate the problem I have described. Does the C chord that crosses into the fourth bar from the third bar continue to be played with tremolo? Same question for the G note that spans bars 5 and 6 (the last two bars of the top line of the Intro) and also the G that spans the first two bars of the second line, bars 7 and 8, At the end of the third and final line of the intro there are 3 "double stops". The lower note of each, A, F, and B, are notated as plain notes whereas the upper member of each pair, F, D and G, have tremolo indicated. The only way I can figure out how to play that as written is to play the lower notes with my thumb and the high notes with alternating finger tremolo on the first string. I prefer playing single finger tremolo and I can do that if the bass note is also played with tremolo and each set of upper and lower notes is played on the third and fourth string. But I sure can't do either type of tremolo on the third string and not also contact the fourth string.  Any ideas or advice for me?

 

[Joel Hooks]

I fear I have no official help, but I would continue the tr through the tied notes if I were attempting it.  If it did not work, I'd do it another way.

You could always try and track down or make a Farland patent plectrum with elastic loop-- then trill with plectrum and pay the rest with fingers (Mike, have you seen/have one of these or a photo of one?)

I have tried to take Clarke Buehling's advice when he told me, "if it does not work as written, change it."

[Richard William Ineson]

You could try to get in touch with Pepper or Eno, via a seance, and ask them, otherwise,I think that you're on your own, I've never heard, or seen it played, so cannot offer any advice. Another good Eno tune, without any tremelo problems is 'A Colored Tea Party'.

[Trapdoor2]

The answer is "yes", you trem across any measure line as indicated by the tie.

Also, the "voiced" trem should be as your first guess: thumb plays the lower notes and you trem the top ones. How you actually do that is up to you!

I'm on vacation at the moment in Myrtle Beach, SC. If I remember when I get back, I'll play around with it in my TAB/MIDI program.

[Jody Stecher]

Thanks everyone. As you may have noticed from the videos I've posted it is not unusual for me to make changes to a written score in my own playing or to play a given passage differently and freely with each repetition. But before I make a change I'd like to know what the composer meant. I can't "interpret" something I don't understand or make my own version of something I never knew in the first place.

[Trapdoor2]

I'm right with you dere, Jody. I want to hear what the sheet music sounds like as written before I start messing about with the tune...which is part of my need to key it all in so the computer can play it thru at any speed and never make a mistake. Then, if I choose to learn it, I'll mess about with it to suit myself.

[Jody Stecher]

Yup, that's it. To me it is basic respect. I try to find out was intended first. Maybe I find a passage unplayable either because of the limit of my technique or because of a printer's error. OK. I'll try to find a solution that seems musical and which is in keeping with the rest of the composition. This isn't simply humility (who am I to change what a Great One composed?) though that sentiment is also present. There is also pride. I'd be embarrassed to play a half-baked phrase in place of one that is more difficult to play but more beautiful to hear.  

And then there is the arrogance of the arranger.  I had a theatre gig one time, playing in the orchestra pit for a musical play. I was playing several string instruments, different sounds for different scenes. The tenor banjo chords that were written were insane. As an analogy, try to imagine on a five string banjo, a chord that demands that the open bass C note and E flat on the third fret of the same string played not as an arpeggio but at once and the next note in the chord is at the 19th fret of the first string.  It was something like that. Not possible in the physical universe in which we live. I telephoned the musician who had the job before me, in an earlier production on the other coast, and asked him what he had done.  He said the arrangement was done by a non-banjoist and that he (the musician on the telephone)  just played a chord of his choosing that had the same root as the unplayable chord and that no one was the wiser. So when you have an idiot writing the arrangement you have to elect to be non-idiotic. But what about when the score is correctly reproduced? It represents the composer's intent. This person went to some trouble to get it right. I'd like to know what was meant before making a change lest I behave like the editor in the old joke from the word publishing world. An editor and a writer are crawling in the desert and come upon an oasis. At last, water!  The writer is about to drink but the editor says "wait, let me piss in it first, and make it better."

Trapdoor2 said:

I'm right with you dere, Jody. I want to hear what the sheet music sounds like as written before I start messing about with the tune...which is part of my need to key it all in so the computer can play it thru at any speed and never make a mistake. Then, if I choose to learn it, I'll mess about with it to suit myself.