Music
PGS Member Rick Tinling has generously offered to share one of his arrangements with the group. Enjoy!
Notes on “O Beauty, Ever Ancient”: James Tinling
This is a lovely church melody. It has a little bit of a Celtic feel to it. It looks much harder to play than it is! I arranged this because I loved the tune and others for whom I have played it love it too. In the first part the melody is in the bass and should be brought out over the accompaniment. Be careful of the 2/4 time signature in measure 15 and also the natural f in measure 16. I wanted to have measure 18 be a pickup, but the cheap version of Finale I’m using doesn’t support pickups in the middle of a piece (and I’m too poor to buy the more expensive version!).
The second half of the composition has the melody in the upper voice and the chords of the first half are more or less broken up in a syncopated fashion. Anyone with a background of Travis picking will have no trouble.
When I play this and reach the end, I usually return back to the d at the end of measure 26 and play through to the end again. Makes for a nice coda.
My teacher, Jeff Ashton (probably the best arranger around!) helped me with this and taught me that fewer notes are better and less clutter to the overall arrangement. He wasn’t overly happy with my full chords in measure 16 and 35, but, hey, I’m the arranger!
I’ve kept any fingerings to a bare minimum. I am always annoyed at others’ fingerings because we are all different. Half the fun of learning a new piece is finding the fingerings that work for you (apologies to Segovia who was intransigent on the subject!). If you would like a clean copy with no fingerings, please email me at ricktinling@comcast.net. I’ll be happy to email you a copy.
I’m curious if anyone actually plays this as it will decide whether I submit more of these. If you play it (and like it!), drop me an email… I need the motivation to continue doing this.
-- Rick Tinling
This is a lovely church melody. It has a little bit of a Celtic feel to it. It looks much harder to play than it is! I arranged this because I loved the tune and others for whom I have played it love it too. In the first part the melody is in the bass and should be brought out over the accompaniment. Be careful of the 2/4 time signature in measure 15 and also the natural f in measure 16. I wanted to have measure 18 be a pickup, but the cheap version of Finale I’m using doesn’t support pickups in the middle of a piece (and I’m too poor to buy the more expensive version!).
The second half of the composition has the melody in the upper voice and the chords of the first half are more or less broken up in a syncopated fashion. Anyone with a background of Travis picking will have no trouble.
When I play this and reach the end, I usually return back to the d at the end of measure 26 and play through to the end again. Makes for a nice coda.
My teacher, Jeff Ashton (probably the best arranger around!) helped me with this and taught me that fewer notes are better and less clutter to the overall arrangement. He wasn’t overly happy with my full chords in measure 16 and 35, but, hey, I’m the arranger!
I’ve kept any fingerings to a bare minimum. I am always annoyed at others’ fingerings because we are all different. Half the fun of learning a new piece is finding the fingerings that work for you (apologies to Segovia who was intransigent on the subject!). If you would like a clean copy with no fingerings, please email me at ricktinling@comcast.net. I’ll be happy to email you a copy.
I’m curious if anyone actually plays this as it will decide whether I submit more of these. If you play it (and like it!), drop me an email… I need the motivation to continue doing this.
-- Rick Tinling