The Dreary Plains Of Toil

strathspey

Key signature: Eminor

Submitted on October 8th 2003 by fiel.

This tune has been added to 15 tunebooks.

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

What is the name of this...

...beautiful strathspey?
Can anyone give more information about it?

# Posted on October 8th 2003 by fiel

The Dreary Plains of Toil

Fiel, where on earth did you come across this obscure little tune?!?! Who did you learn it from?

I'm also curious why the first line of your comment has a question mark...is it because you're not sure that it's a beautiful tune, or that you're not sure it's a strathspey?

I ask only because I happen to really like this tune, and I *think* it's a strathspey, but I'm biased.

Y'see, I wrote this a while back when a bunch of us here were commiserating over being stuck on musical plateaus. Hence the name.

You can find my posting of the tune here:

http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display.php/300

And I'm astounded that someone else is playing it! Thank you!

# Posted on October 8th 2003 by Will CPT

Hahaha Will that's funny! It's gone in a full circle and come back to you. Interesting that the key's been changed in the process. I think you've misunderstood fiel's question mark. "...beautiful strathspey" is a continuation of "What is the name of this..."

# Posted on October 8th 2003 by Dow

This is so weird, to hear of people in other parts of the world playing "my" tunes (does anyone ever *own* a tune, even if they wrote it? I like to think that the tunes are just there, and if you play enough, you'll be fortunate to have some of them come out through you.) Glauber had a guy launch into Bang Your Frog on the Sofa at a session in Chicago, and now Dreary Plains shows up in Denmark! That makes my day!

# Posted on October 8th 2003 by Will CPT

I especially like how these tunes have dispersed, apparently into some small corners of the tradition. It's a remarkable experiment in how a tune might come to be known as traditional--*of course* in some other key, and likely under some other name (or the time-honored "gan ainm"). It's a bit like banding a warbler and then getting a call from a distant downwind country....

# Posted on October 8th 2003 by Will CPT

LOL LOL LOL -- KERRI! KERRI! Where are you, girl? Look what you did! LOL

# Posted on October 8th 2003 by Zina Lee

Fiel

Fiel, so here's the story of the tune:

http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display.php/112

# Posted on October 8th 2003 by Zina Lee

I'll leave this one stand

Normally I delete duplicate tune postings but this is just such a classic example of the way tunes get propagated (and these comments are such a delight to read) that I'm going to leave this one go as a testament to the viral power of a good tune.

:-)

# Posted on October 8th 2003 by Jeremy

LOL, "viral power," LOL, does that make me the original vector, the Typhoid Mary of this particular "strain"? :-D

Jeremy, I was hoping you'd leave it up, especially since it's in a different--and no doubt more useful--key than the original. Thanks!

# Posted on October 9th 2003 by Will CPT

WILL

Will! You wrote it! Its certainly a very beautiful strathspey!, How can anyone doubt about that.
I found it on a piece of paper I don't know where I got from. The Foresight maybe?.
I transposed it to e minor because we play it together with The road to Lisdoonvarna and Cooley's Reel, AND "A house in New Orleans" also in e minor. By the way, do you think it is a peculiar blend? A slide, a reel, a strathspey and a song? Anyway we think it is just as peculiar a blend as we think music (and life) should be to bother to play. Right?
I will of couse refer to you as the composer everytime it's possible. Could please make some more of this stuff?

# Posted on October 9th 2003 by fiel

*blush, blush*
Thanks Fiel. This was one of those tunes that wrote--or more accurately, *played*--itself. I just happened to be the one it picked to give it first voice.

Your set sounds interesting, though it's more common to put a strathspey before a reel. Either way, I'm just tickled silly that Dreary Plains of Toil is played in Denmark!

So what is "The Foresight"? A music magazine? Another web site? I'd really like to trace how this tune travelled such a distance.

-will

# Posted on October 9th 2003 by Will CPT

Foresight ;~]

Execute my poor �nglish. I just jumped into assuming a (too) direct translation from danish (noneatable): meaning a bit smaller than a revelation. more.... eh! something intentioanally without notice from outer space entering my life. But whose intention?
Fiel

# Posted on October 9th 2003 by fiel

will, my compliments for this lovely strathspey.

# Posted on October 9th 2003 by gian marco

Fiel, yes I see your meaning. "Serendipity" perhaps. The Muse, eh? And your English is lightyears better than my Danish :o)

G.M.--thanks, that means a lot coming from someone whose original tunes I play.

# Posted on October 9th 2003 by Will CPT