Key signature: Amixolydian
Submitted on December 4th 2011 by Eachann mac Bodach.
This tune has been added to 9 tunebooks.
Recordings of a tune by this name:
X: 1
T: Rocking The Cradle
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Amix
|: cee dee | cee dcB | cee dec | (3AAA A cBA |
cee dee | cee dcB | (3AAA c BcB | A (3cBA AAA :|
|: acc ecc | acc dcB | acc ecc |(3AAA A cBA |
acc ecc | acc dcB |(3AAA c BcB | A (3cBA AAA :|
Rocking the Cradle
Different to tune of same name posted earlier.
This onre attributed to Allan MacDonald
# Posted on December 4th 2011 by Eachann mac Bodach
X:1
T:Rocking the Baby
M:6/8
R:Jig
K: Amix
e | cee dee | cee dcB | cee dee | A2A cBA |
cee dee | cee dcB | A2c B2c | A2A A2 :|
e | acc ecc | acc ecc | acc ecc | A2A cBA |
acc ecc | acc ecc | A2c B2c | A2A A2 :|
# Posted on December 5th 2011 by Solidmahog
Thinking a little the key should be A major, despite the pipieness, as it has no G's.
For me the fun of this tune is all in the pickiness and slight variations there of, the contrast between crotchet and quaver, tripling the crochets results in flattening the tune out, which doesn't work for me......
# Posted on December 5th 2011 by Solidmahog
This tune has no Fs either, which makes it pentatonic, not major. Any chordal accompaniment should reflect that.
# Posted on December 5th 2011 by Weejie
Thats true Weejie, good point.
# Posted on December 5th 2011 by Solidmahog
Pentatonic
Clearly A major, it has a limited range but is not really pentatonic, simply never reaches the 6th and 7th degrees.
# Posted on December 6th 2011 by rwarford
It's pentatonic because it contains only five notes per octave in its entirety. It actually spans a complete octave, so saying that it doesn't "reach" the 6th and 7th degrees is incorrect. It just hasn't got them. If you try and analyse it using the presumption of a classical scale, then you might take the "missing" degrees of the scale as implied (though the 7th degree could just as easily be a G natural - it is pipe music, after all). The 6th and 7th degrees, in reality, don't exist. Pentatonic. Guilty as charged.
# Posted on December 6th 2011 by Weejie
I should say it spans a whole octave - it's as complete as you make it, which is complete as a pentatonic tune IMO.
Some Indian and Chinese tunes use this "scale". I believe.
Harmony isn't really the consideration - it's melodically structured.
# Posted on December 6th 2011 by Weejie
Here's how I'd grace it up a bit, now that I've learned how to do it, from looking at one of ceolachan's abc
X:2
T:Rocking the Baby (with a little gracing)
M:6/8
R:Jig
K:Amix
e | cee dee | cee dcB | cee dee | A2A c>BA |
cee dee | cee dcB | A2c B2c | A>>AA A2 :|
e | acc ecc | acc ecc | acc ecc | A2A c>BA |
acc ecc | acc ecc | A2c B2c | A>>AA A2 :|
# Posted on December 6th 2011 by Solidmahog
Mmm? That must be the same "pentatonic" scale that we hear in "The Grand Old Duke of York" and the chorus of "Jingle Bells". Never did think they were major!
# Posted on December 7th 2011 by DonaldK
The Grand Old Duke of York is hexatonic and although the chorus of Jingle Bells is pentatonic, the verse contains the 6th and 7th degrees of the scale, clearly establishing a heptatonic major scale. Pierpoint composed Jingle Bells as 'One Horse Open Sleigh', originally, and the chorus was different - nevertheless, it was published as a polyphonic piece with chord progressions. Unlike the tune here, Jingle Bells was considered harmonically from the beginning (as you'd expect when the composer was an organist). If you think about pipe tunes in the same manner, then you are off track. It's not what its about.
Both the A major scale and the A mixolydian scale have the third degree a major third from the tonic and the fifth degree is perfect. They differ only in the seventh degree of the scale.
Without that seventh, you could not say that the tune was in A mixolydian or A major - the lack of the sixth as well should tell you that it is not in a major scale but a pentatonic scale (any scale that uses only five notes is pentatonic - it is not dependent on particular notes - though it can be categorised further, depending on those notes). Even though the major third and perfect fifth from the tonic are present in this tune, there are only five notes. Moreover, that major third and perfect fifth from the tonic are also present in the mixolydian modal scale. How can you say that this tune is therefore in A major?
# Posted on December 7th 2011 by Weejie
Pentatonic
Does it sound pentatonic - no it sounds like A major.
Does it sound mixolydian - no, it sounds A major. There you have it.
# Posted on December 7th 2011 by rwarford
"Does it sound pentatonic?" Yes. I can hear only five notes if I play it. Perhaps you mean one of the gapped pentatonic scales (not like this, which is hemitonic with nothing between the fifth and the tonic)? They are not the only pentatonic scales.
"Does it sound mixolydian ?" No.
"it sounds A major. " Why? Without a leading note I don't see how you came to that conclusion. ' A' mixolydian has a major feel to it (because the third from the tonic is major - it is effectively a 'major mode'). Without the leading note, a semitone from the tonic, it doesn't sound "A major" to me. All the notes of the A major triad or chord are there - as they would be if it was in A mixolydian or A major. This tune has no 7th degree (leading note), so it is neither in A major nor A mixolydian. It has no 6th either, so it is pentatonic by definition. The third from the tonic is major, so it has a major feel.but it's not even the scale that's commonly called "major pentatonic".
If you start applying chord accompaniment as if it is in A major, you will be one of those people who give accompanists a bad name in trad music.
There you have it.
# Posted on December 7th 2011 by Weejie
"recordings of a tune of this name"
In the case of John Doherty and Danny Meehan, this is not the same tune. The tune they play is a jig version of the song air 'Rocking the Cradle'
# Posted on December 16th 2011 by The Archivist