Alex Magee Plays `Canadian Capers`

[Shawn McSweeny]

To help celebrate Canada's 158th birthday today, Alex Magee plays his arrangement of this lively piece, accompanied by Karen Magee. They were recorded at a 1949 concert in New Rochelle, NY. The sound was quite muffled, as if the microphone were placed beneath several heavy overcoats while recording.

A few digital tricks have improved the sound quality somewhat, but transcription remained difficult. Inevitably I got stuck, reached out to the ABF library for whatever they may have for reference, and was stunned to receive an A notation, manuscript transcription of Alex's arrangement !! It is now transposed to C and typeset in both standard notation and TAB.

Incidentally, Alex liked to play as in the photo, sideways on his chair with his right arm draped over its back.

[Jody Stecher]

Back in the middle half of the 20th century there were some rough-hewn country people who made good music with their voices and instruments that was beautiful and compelling in spite of a rough timbre... not because of  the scratches, splinters, and countrified vowels. Imitators have mistaken an artifact —noise, in fact — for the thing itself. These noises were never the point. One listened through it, not *to* it.   They spoke that way too. And some of them had substantial things to say.

Now we have younger people who put an artificial edge on their fiddle playing and think they are being authentic when in fact they are being noisy.  One can usually identify the classically trained violinist attempting to fiddle not from the smooth tone but from the absence of awareness about phrasing and rhythm. The tunes sound stilted and stiff.   I once gave a fiddle lesson to a young woman from England who was a student at Oberlin Music Conservatory.  She had a quick ear, excellent technique, and a decent fiddle repertoire. And she sounded bloody awful. I asked her to relax her stiff upright posture, ramrod spine, and humorless mien. She caught on instantly and as soon as she relaxed she sounded like a fiddler. She was thrilled, so were her parents who were sitting in, and so was I.  It was all about attitude. She kept her sweet tone. It wasn't the absence of bow scratches that made her sound like a Violinist, it was the absence of playfulness. 

Joel Hooks said:

Regarding me and the fiddle, I hate to make broad generalizations about tone but when I hear a fiddle player there tends to be a certain goal that my hearing finds unpleasant.

However, I love the sound of a "violin" played by a "violinist" and I often listen to various interpretations of Paganini's music played by violinists. I used to think that it was a matter of the violinist tendency to drill down and focus on pure and smooth tone from their instrument. But that is not being fair to fiddle players.

Someone once told me that they could pick the "classically trained violinist" (whatever that means) out of an old time jam, to which I responded, "that is because they sound good". Again, that is unfair as obviously many people enjoy and strive for the "fiddle" tone. And I am glad for them.

[F. Chris Ware]

Greetings to all,

Happy Canada Day, three days late, in the spirit of our two nations' longtime friendship and trust, despite our current US administration's appalling efforts to the contrary.

Anyway, the original recording of Magee is not muffled, but dubs of it probably got that way from, well, dubbing. Here's a much clearer version, along with Arden and Ohman's great piano duet if anyone learns the piece and would like to play along; it's one of the finest recordings of the composition extant, in my completely unsolicited opinion.

All very warmest and kindest of regards, 

Chris W.

[F. Chris Ware]

And, herewith the actual files!

[Jody Stecher]

Thanks! Now I'll listen.

F. Chris Ware said:

Greetings to all,

Happy Canada Day, three days late, in the spirit of our two nations' longtime friendship and trust, despite our current US administration's appalling efforts to the contrary.

Anyway, the original recording of Magee is not muffled, but dubs of it probably got that way from, well, dubbing. Here's a much clearer version, along with Arden and Ohman's great piano duet if anyone learns the piece and would like to play along; it's one of the finest recordings of the composition extant, in my completely unsolicited opinion.

All very warmest and kindest of regards, 

Chris W.

[Jody Stecher]

Ning strikes again. My reply has vanished. And so has my second attempt.  Here comes the third I hope.  The Magee recording is playing nearly a half step sharper than the piano recording. The pianos are playing at C on the duet recording. . Magee is obviously playing using the fingering for the key of C major but the actual pitch is closer to C sharp. I don't know whether he had to tune higher to be in tune with a sharp piano or whether there is another reason. But that is easily remedied with pitch changing software. And this recording is indeed much clearer.  It's now sunset and for the first time in a decade or so it is not fogged in on July 4th in San Francisco. I'm going to go out to the back porch now and maybe I'll see fireworks.

thanks again for these recordings, Chris!

-jody

[Shawn McSweeny]

Happy 249th Independence Day (a day late), Chris ! Let's hope the U.S. has many more.

Thanks very much for sharing your much clearer version of Magee's performance. The Arden & Ohman duet was a treat.

F. Chris Ware said:

Greetings to all,

Happy Canada Day, three days late, in the spirit of our two nations' longtime friendship and trust, despite our current US administration's appalling efforts to the contrary.

Anyway, the original recording of Magee is not muffled, but dubs of it probably got that way from, well, dubbing. Here's a much clearer version, along with Arden and Ohman's great piano duet if anyone learns the piece and would like to play along; it's one of the finest recordings of the composition extant, in my completely unsolicited opinion.

All very warmest and kindest of regards, 

Chris W.

[Shawn McSweeny]

Assuming you are referring to the graphic at the top of the Discussion : in Photoshop I combined the original piano score cover art, a scanned and then "ovaled" photo of Alex, and added some text in a colour matching the deep green border of the mushroom cap.

Austin said:

What program did you use for this beautiful engraving?