Ian Gammie
Corda Music Publications : Score and 2 separate parts (28, 16 and 8 pages )and a CD
13 songs are included here, all arranged by Gammie and with a large introductory section explaining everything about these songs. Many you will have heard of before, including The Rowan Tree, The Water is Wide, Afton Water, and Black is the Colour of My True Love’s Hair, to name but four.
Interestingly, and very thoughtfully, Gammie has provided the score in two ways, firstly with a fully written out guitar part, of course with the vocal line above, but then he has also provided a score with just the chord symbols above the vocal line, so that any guitarists can have a go at their own version of the accompaniment .Either way the vocalist is covered. Finally the other separate part is for three of the songs where page turns could be a problem and so these three guitar parts have been separately printed off, so that it is all readable at one time.
The actual music is of course wonderful stuff, with folk and traditional songs being the most common, but also with a number of stage songs that my Victorian- born grandmother would have known! The guitar parts are very friendly with no surprising harmonies but with lots of interesting themes and secondary melodies and yet nothing too modern to make the pieces sound out of place.
The CD is just as good, with Michael Sanderson playing violin and singing, Katherine May playing Harp and Harpsichord, and our composer playing various guitars and bass viol. It also includes, by the way , several songs from another publication , reviewed elsewhere on this site .It makes a superb addition to the book and worth the money alone! All in all this is a lovely volume /CD package, and should be seen and heard by any interested duos.
Chris Dumigan