Any old-timey aficionados out there in the ether? If so, maybe one of you could supply me with the title of the tune in this YouTube clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvUFe3Zrg04
Thanks in anticipation of any info … 🙂
There are a slew of tunes, both Irish and old-time, which bear the name “Bonaparte’s Retreat”, and this might be one of them. The tell-tale “snake-charmer” motif, also found in one of the Ballydesmond polkas, can be heard at the beginning of the clip. The remainder of the tune sounds rather Appalachian-generic to my ears.
Thanks for your suggestions, Larry - but I’ve just trawled through all the tunes that I could find called Bonaparte’s something-or-other and it doesn’t seem to be any of them.
Yes, mixed mode. The tune is in D-Maj in the first part, then in the second part modulates into A-Mix before going back into D-Maj for the last two bars I think.
BTW - “tell-tale snake-charmer motif” - you’ve lost me there - what exactly do you mean by that phrase?
Picky and pedantic here again-the B section is in D mixolydian,not A-the chords are clearly C,G,D-not an A chord to be heard (until the last phrase of course D-A7 D)
As for the tune,I know I’ve heard it, may even have played it but just can’t place it. The A section sounds a lot like the Irish song Mountain Dew which is similar to The Girl I left Behind which is similar to Waxie’s Dargle…
Sorry, 5-String - that was a typo - yes, I meant D-Mix - not A-Mix - it must be, as the “C” in that part of the tune is natural, not sharp.
Yes, I too spotted the similarity with “Mountain Dew” in the “A” part, but taking the tune as whole I don’t think that it’s close enough to be a variant.
If the title of it suddenly comes back to you, please let me know - thanks!
Among the many versions of Bonaparte’s Retreat shown at the JC’s Tunefinder site, at least one has the part I’m thinking of with the “snake-charmer” strain -- it’s listed as “Bonaparte’s Retreat -#105”. The sequence in ABC form is like this: |c2B2|A2AB|cdBc|A2AB:| I remember that strain used in old Warner Brothers cartoons during snake-charmer scenes.
I remember playing a tune similar to the one in the video at sessions years ago, but only the “snake-charmer” part sounds familiar.
Thanks for response, Larry - I get your “snake charmer” analogy now!
I found "Bonaparte’s Retreat #105 on John Chambers - but as you say, it’s not the tune I’m looking for.
It’s a tune called “Snake River Reel” by Peter Lippincott
Thanks Don! 🙂
And I see that you have only just joined the session and that your answer to my question was your first-ever posting - That’s really cool! 😎
@Larry - a “snake charmer” tune indeed!
Yup. Snake River Reel.
@Larry Ayers: FYI - I think that this might be the “snake charmer” tune that you referred to earlier in this thread:
X: 1
T:The Streets of Cairo
M:4/4
L:1/8
Q:1/4=120
K:DMin
|: DE | F2 E2 D2 DE | FA EF D2 :|
z2 | AA AB AG EF | GG GA GF DE |
FF FG FE DE | F2 EE D2 z2 ||
K:F
|:A4 A3 F | G>A G>F D2 C2 |[1 F2 A2 c2 d2| c2 d2 cA G2:|[2 F2 AF G2 A2 | F4 z2 |]
That’s the “cartoon tune” I was thinking of, Mix! I played through it and my partner recalled several stanzas of children’s lyrics, perhaps from jump-rope rhymes. One stanza:
Well we wear no pants
In the southern parts of France
And they wear no jeans
In the German submarines…
@Larry: I too remembered that tune after I had tracked it down and tried it!
Takes me right back to my childhood - going to the cinema on Saturday mornings. Yes, like many of my age, I grew up on a cinematic diet of westerns, Laurel and Hardy and Tarzan - and of course cartoons.
When that snake-charmer tune was played, all us kids used to sing along to it:
All the girls in France,
Do the jelly-wobble dance.
All the westerns we saw there had happy endings. When the shooting had finished and all the guys in black stetsons were safely locked up in the town jail, the scene often switched to a hoedown at sundown back at the ranch - with some good ole-timey music.
I’ve recently acquired a liking for that particular genre - must be some latent effect from my early days at the cinema on Saturday mornings …
