Herbert Ellis' Dance of the Spooks

In my never-ending quest for macabre banjo music I have unveiled yet another title, "Dance of the Spooks" by Ellis.  I have not located the published solo (with all parts), this is from an Ellis folio, but I am glad to find it.

If anyone has the full score with all parts and title sheet, I'd LOVE to see it.

This is one I would consider easy to play but is a nice and creepy piece for Halloween.  Give it a try!

Full folio download here:
https://archive.org/details/ellis-seventh-album-of-compositions-and...

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Permalink Reply by Russ Chandler 20 hours ago

Thats a great fun tune Joel, thanks for sharing. 

I'll play this at the folk club on Halloween. 

I love the cheeky grace note on the last low E!

Permalink Reply by Trapdoor2 20 hours ago

Sat down today and keyed it all in. Nice little tune!

I did some modification to the Tab score so that it is a one-pager. The "Dance" section actually simply repeats itself after M20, so I deleted M21-M36 and added the repeat brackets. Other than that, I added an mf for the "Dance" so that the DS al Coda doesn't make the Dance too quiet (it goes to p just before the DS). I think that sounds better.

The "Fine" seems superfluous (since it has a CODA) so I removed it.

The mp3 starts at 130bpm and then the Dance goes to 172bpm. I dunno, it just sounded really slow at moderato and, of course, the Dance needs to be faster.

It begs for a 2nd!

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Permalink Reply by Joel Hooks 19 hours ago

Yeah, I could work out a chord chart but I would love to see what Ellis wrote out for the second.

Permalink Reply by Jody Stecher 14 hours ago

Yes!  I found a version with 1st and 2nd part on the same page. Watch this space as I will get it uploaded soon. Meanwhile I also found another Ellis piece "Dance of The Witches". Do you have that or want that?

Permalink Reply by Jody Stecher 14 hours ago

Dance of The Spooks 1st and 2nd banjo. Pages 1 and 2

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Permalink Reply by Joel Hooks 13 hours ago

Thanks Jody!  

I only have Dance of the Witches with first over piano from a Turners folio.  Do you have a sheet music published version?

Permalink Reply by Jody Stecher 11 hours ago

I have only the First over piano from Turner for Witches tune.

 Sorry to take so long to respond re Spooks. Bit of chaos over here with family visit, busted water heater, piano hauling, day trips and ferry rides. We even forgot to mail our October  rent check! Good thing we have a friendly landlord.

Joel Hooks said:

Thanks Jody!  

I only have Dance of the Witches with first over piano from a Turners folio.  Do you have a sheet music published version?

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