Theme Vannitaise reel

I thought of this one when someone was looking for one octave tunes, then I thought of it when someone asked for common session tunes from other roots …. then I finally got around to adding it.
This one got very popular in English Sessions in our area (NW UK) a couple of years ago, and still pops up frequently. I gather that it’s being used as a dance tune by one of the Border Morris teams. So not a reel, played briskly, but not at reel speed … somewhere around 100 - 110 feels OK on Navigator.
If you’re not careful with the first few bars of the B part, the speed cranks up until you get whiplashed out the end after a few repeats!
It looks French, it sounds French, so presumably it is French, but I don’t know anything much more about it, except for hearing a rumour that it might come from a French TV Soap (!)
Now I’m off to add links here to the 2 discussions, and see if I can make a Circassian circle of links 🙂
Chris

Common tunes worth learning from other traditions https://thesession.org/discussions/15206
What One Octave Tunes in D exist? https://thesession.org/discussions/15202

Love this tune. It’s so simple and works as well played slow as fast. Around here it is often played in a set with Bear Dance. https://thesession.org/tunes/4195

Nice addition spin… I may have a name for it, or words, I’ll have a look and return here later with anything I might be able to dig out… Wild, played as a Border Morris tune, I love it. I wouldn’t doubt that the circle dancers will have also picked this one up. I can see them circling and spinning around with ding-ding finger cymbals and thump-thump drums in bare footed clump-clump bliss… 😉

Note, this recent addition is also Vannetais and range limited ~ many of their tunes are beautifully simple ~

En Dro
Key signature: Adorian
Submitted on September 22nd 2007 by ceolachan.
https://thesession.org/tunes/7744

In keeping with that tradtion, but realizing the general tendency on these shores to make things 32 measure, this dance tune would probably be played this way ~

X: 1
T: Theme Vannitaise
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: dans Vannetais
K: Emin
|: E2 B2 B2 AB | G2 E2 E4 | A2 AG F2 FE |[1 DEFA G2 F2 :|[2 DEFA E4 ||
|: EFGF EFGF | EFGA B2 G2 | DEFE D3 E |[1 F2 A2 G2 F2 :|[2 G2 F2 E4 ||

This is already here
https://thesession.org/tunes/6932
look for my contribution and you will find this as the second of two tunes that I collected from a pair of musicians in Brittany many years ago. There are slight differences in a few notes.

Sorry ol‘ soul, I don’t quite agree. While it is familiar and similar, so are several other related melodies, but it is good to have the link to compare them. There are some folks who actually believe there are at most only half a dozen An Dro and anything else is just a variation… Here is what you might call a butcher’s job on your second transcript from the ’Comments’ of the above tune, so people can compare:

X: ~
T: An Dro
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K: e minor
R: An Dro
|: E2 B2 B2 _BA | G2 E2 E4 | A2 G2 F2 E2 |[1 D2 EF G2 FG :|[2 DEFD E4 ||
|: EFGF EFGF | EFGA B2 B2 |[1 DEFE D2 _DE | F2 A2 G2 FG :|[2 DEFG F2 _FA | G2 F2 E4 ||

Note: Hetty wrote his transcriptions as 2/4 ~ “convinced that is the better time siganature for the tune and for the tradition anyway. There are 2 beats to the bar. 4/4 gives it 4 beats to the bar.” Actually, 4/4 is more often than not also played as 2 defining primary beats to the bar, such as for reels… Another disagreement, I think the 4/4 suites it better, and it seems of the actual Breton transcriptions I’ve got immediately on hand, so do the Bretons… They also usually have it as given above, 16 measure, rather than the 32 measure you’ve given, but you are not alone, I have seen it elsewhere, as spin has also given it, as 32 measures… Taking the transcript I’ve given, that would be AAAABBBB, as 4 bars to the part…

Key signature: b minor (& e minor in the ‘comments’)
Submitted on April 16th 2004 by I_Fel.
https://thesession.org/tunes/2828

Sorry, I may not be fully clear yet this week, or if ever.

I agree that Hetty’s transcription is the same tune as here, but not that DonaldK’s is, #6932, the link given by hetty previously. Nor do I believe that Hetty’s is the same as DonaldK’s. Feeling that way, that Hetty’s should be here, here it is without my ‘adjustments’, where I think it and his comments better have a better fit…

Cut from ~
https://thesession.org/tunes/6932/comments

X: ~
T: An Dro
S: Hetty
M: 2/4
L: 1/8
K: e minor
EB BA/B/ | CB AF/G/ | AF BA/G/ | F/G/E/F/ GF |
EB BA/B/ | CB AF/G/ | AF BA/G/ | F/E/F/G/ E2 :|
EE FG/F/ | EE F_F/G/ | AF BA/G/ | F/G/E/F/ GF |
EE FG/F/ | EE F_F/G/ | AF BA/G/ | F/E/F/G/ E2 :|

* second tune
EB B_B/A/ | GE E2 | AG FE | DE/F GF/G/ |
EB B_B/A/ | GE E2 | AG FE | D/E/F/D/ E2 :|
E/F/G/F/ E/F/G/F/ | E/F/G/A/ BB | D/E/F/E/ D_D/E/ | FA GF/G/ |
E/F/G/F/ E/F/G/E/ | E/F/G/A/ BB | D/E/F/G/ F_F/A/ | GF E2 :|

I heard this tune played on Mouth organ & guitar some 31 years ago at a folk-camp in Brittany during an evening when members of the local Breton community were invited to our evening dances.
My take is slightly different in bars 3 & 4 of both parts. It was also played with a second tune in such a way that I always associate them together as if they were really the same tune anyway.

I write them in 2/4 as I am convinced that is the better time siganature for the tune and for the tradition anyway. There are 2 beats to the bar. 4/4 gives it 4 beats to the bar.

I play first tune twice before changing to 2nd tune. repeat ad lib and as you please.

# Posted on March 13th 2007 by hetty

“better have a better fit” ~ sheesh!, I guess I still haven’t made up for lost sleep and lost everything else… 😏

I must have come across at least half a dozen ‘similar’ tunes to this basic melodic structure, but consider them different enough to exist on their own, also, they were often sung to and not with the same lyrics…or so it seemed…

You want ‘daft’, proof of my current state, I had ‘3’ windows open to this one page, the ‘comments’ for this tune, while I was out messing around with trying to dig up other information. Not only that, I had at least two unfinished comments going with what eventually went here, and several ‘Notepad’ pages going simultaneously as well… Maybe I can get some sleep tonight?

I like both tunes, and they make an interesting set, DonaldK’s with the hetty/spin tune… No?

But they’re all gorgeous anyway!
I love these minor keys 🙂

Yes, I agree, and these two do make an interesting pairing, more so if you can switch keys. I love the music and dance of Breizh / Brittanny. I love the food and drink too… For me, already spaced out at times, the music and dance has a hypnotic quality about it, the buzz and the repetition. This, of course, is tempered by the larger and madder events and having to weave around the ‘evacuated’ ~ collapsed bodies and mysterious puddles ~ and the few posessed, locals and tourists… 😎

A couple of years ago, I spent a fortune (over 60 euros!) on Polig Monjarret’s ‘Toniou Breizh Izel’, which is considered to be the standard reference (aka the O’Neill’s) of Breton traditional music, a vast collection of dances and song melodies.

In this book, An Dros (Tour, Rond, Kas A-Barh) are written in 4/4 time, rather than 2/4, but it seems that a lot of people prefer to transcribe them in 2/4 (I do).

The same is tue for the Gavottes des Montagnes: some people write them down in 4/4, while others (including myself) prefer to put them in 12/8 time…

Obvioulsy, there are no hard-’n-fast rules.

There is, it has to do with pronounced beats, whether or not there are two or four to a measure, though that doesn’t always hold true, for example with reels, given as 4/4, but with a definite 2/2 pulse, two beats to the measure. 4/4 marches have the clear 4 count beat… If you see a strong 4 count, such as ~ | A2 G2 F2 E2 | ~ then 4/4 would be the better representation of the tune, but if it is strongly 2, or ~ | AG FE | ~ then 2/4 would be the best representation…

My understanding is that the tune: “Thème Vannetais” was written my members of the band “Tri Yann” for the French (Breton) television series “Picou Fils de Son Père” – circa 1973.

Here is their recording of it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LWQ0tR4Vgg

play video

Border Morris side “Planet Morris” (from Sheffield, UK) used it for a new dance that they choreographed in 1995 called “Twiglet”. This dance was subsequently adapted and copied by many other Morris sides - which explains why the tune itself is now often called “Twiglet” (or “Twiglets”).

However, the Ouse Washes Molly Dancers (from Norfolk, UK) have been using the tune since 1992 for their dance: “Mucky Porter”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npJwIzqHaMQ

play video

The tune is also used by Crook Border Morris (from Kendal, UK) for their dance: “Knickers in the Hedgerow”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBb6Q6Y5n_c

play video

And it would seem that the Welsh have also adopted the tune, calling it “Bwrlwm" (=bubbling/gurgling).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj6YesxUNjo

play video

Finally, (for those who don’t know), “Twiglets” are a twig-like savoury snack covered in a substance similar to Marmite:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twiglets

… you either love ‘em, or you hate ‘em … 😉

And it’s called Twiglet because someone was munching on a bag of “marmite snacks” while the dance was being worked out by Planet.

A player at a session in Lewes (Sussex, UK) told me that it’s also known as ‘The French Tart’. Presumably a culinary reference.

Updated link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPozLUT2pWw

play video

Just for the record, Jean Choucun , of Tri Yann, confirms that he wrote this tune, along with other members of the band.
It was the theme music for Picou Fils de Son Pere, a Breton 70s soap opera.
Performed by and credited to the Breton Folk Rock band Tri Yann, 1975, who just called it An Dros, after the Breton Dance form (like calling a waltz "Waltz)
The dance Twiglet, which is generally associated with it was, indeed, written by the Sheffield side, Planet Moris, but the tune was introduced to the morris repertoire by an Australian itinerant musician called David Jacobs (no relation to the Juke Box chap).