Monday, October 27, 2014

More on "The Moon and Seven Stars" (Calvert manuscript book)

I was surprised to learn that "The Moon and Seven Stars" is a common fiddling tune. I was not surprised to find that the first C# in the final bar of the Calvert manuscript version is very likely a copying error. In notated versions readily available online, the end of both strains is identical: A-D-C#-D. See, for example, Seven Stars or listen to David Hansen. In this performance, Anahata mixes "The Moon and Seven Stars" and another tune called the "Spanish jig" and, just after the minute mark, closes the first tune with what sounds like a mistake, either D-D-C#-D or C#-D-C#-D. It is anomalous but makes perfectly good musical sense -- that is, it seems to realize the ascending line implicit in the consequent phrase, as I argued in my original post.