Morley Tunes

[Joel Hooks]

Hi Folks,

Sorry that I have not replied to the great comments left on my video... Thanks everyone for the encouragement!!! It means the world to have the great folks here write nice things.

This weekend I went through and downloaded all the Morley pieces from the library.  99% of them are out of my reach I think.

I'll admit that I did not really know much about the feller.  I read some stuff online about him and he seems stand up.

Are the pieces in the library all that were published?  Are there lost #s (not counting MS and unpublished works)?

I was planning on printing out and putting together a book of his stuff for myself, just wondering if that was it.

As is, it is a huge body of work.

I have the PDF of his book, in two parts from Hal's site, but it seems to be missing a chunk in the middle.

What is missing?

[Mike Moss]

Hi Joel,

there are definitely more Morley pieces out there. AFAIK we've got about 200 of pieces by Morley (as well as some arrangements by him) all in all, part of which were published by CE and others during his lifetime, along with a substantial amount of material that was published posthumously in BMG ca. 1950s-1970s. The BMG-published solos tend not to include piano or 2nd banjo parts.

Don't be discouraged by the look of the pieces. Morley can be deceptively easy to play (even his famously difficult pieces like Ad Astra or Egyptian Princess) once you get his characteristic "Morleyisms" down. 

[Jody Stecher]

Morley's "A Banjo Oddity " and "A Banjo Revel" are not hard to play once the player has memorized the various chord positions or double stop positions that are used. These and some other compositions of Joe Morley have  passages and even whole parts that require nothing more from the left hand then to change from one chord position to another. Once those chords become second nature it's really not so very different from playing one of those old Arthur Godfrey ukes where the player pushes a button and the button "fingers" the chord. Kind of like an autoharp.  

[Trapdoor2]

IIRC, there are 238 works currently attributed to Old Joe. If you go to http://www.joemorley.co.uk/ you can find a list of them.

There are three composers who consistently tickle my earbones, Joe Morley, Parke Hunter and A. J. Weidt.

I believe Eli Kaufman holds a large quantity of Morley manuscript. It would be a lot of fun to go visit and dig thru it.

I just Tabbed out Morley's "Dimples" this weekend. Typical dotted rhythms, typical "Morleyisms". There's an underlying sense of humor to much of Morley's writing that I really like.

 

[marc dalmasso]

for me , only 236 more to learn .

On my vidéos : Donkey laugh / Shuffle along / Banjo oddity /Zarana /Circus parade / darktown dandies / El contrabandista / violet mazurka / in the moonlight / Dig dag / Sylvan echoes /Egyptian princess

only beautiful tunes by a fantastic compositor

 

[David Wade]

Don't forget the Morley Magic books - we're up to volume 4.

I'll check my stall stock over the weekend, we might be able to do "some unrepeatable bargains".

[Joel Hooks]

David, what are these books you speak of?  Are they of the Dots over Tab format?  

Notation only (preferred)?

Unpublished material?

I have the special edition sheets from the ABF, very nice publications.

Marc D.-- Get to work you sloth!!!

[Mike Moss]

I think there are two series of unpublished Morley solos from New Clifford Essex -- the older Morley Memories series (dots only, with optional 2nd banjo part albums) and the new Morley Memories series (dots over tab). The solos in both series are the same for the most part, except for a few new ones in the Morley Memories series that were transcribed from wax cylinder recordings.

[thereallyniceman]

Hi Joel,

The Morley books are available from CliffordEssex.net 

Here:  CLIFFORD ESSEX Morley Magic Books

Or:

Wait for David Wade, who is a CE distributor, to see what "special deal, unrepeatable bargains" that he has on offer :-)

[Joel Hooks]

I will certainly wait for David!

So, about the Morley tutor.  The PDF that I have is in two parts, Part one ends on page 42.  Part 2 picks up on page 64.

What was on those 22 pages?  Plectra exercises? Whoever made the scan (Hal?) must of not thought them important.

I usually find something interesting in the various texts and instruction parts of all the banjo tutors.

[Joel Hooks]

I take it back.

I just looked through the table of contents, looks like it is all there.  But what gives with the page numbering?

[Mike Moss]

This is caused by the fact that Hal (or whoever scanned that copy) organised the solos alphabetically rather than in their original order. I've got a different scan in which the original solo order is maintained, "A Refrain" (page 64) is the last solo in the book, and also the last page, but it is placed first in Hal's scan. This explains the odd page order.

[Jody Stecher]

I was intrigued by this mystery and investigated. I think I have discovered the solution to the problem. The pages of part 2 are presented in random order on the website pdf. I suppose it is possible that the actual printed book was mis-assembled and the pdf faithfully reproduces this. If you go through part 2 page by page you will see that some pages are not numbered but the numbered pages go up and down at random. Page 64 is followed by three un-numbered pages and then we come to page 52, after a few more un-numbered pages we come to page 62. and so on.

Joel Hooks said:

I take it back.

I just looked through the table of contents, looks like it is all there.  But what gives with the page numbering?