Dulcitar Music (also known as stick dulcimer & strumstick)

Tenor Guitar

Music with Mandolin

I find it nice to know some tunes that dwell within one octave. 

One reason is that for the majority of my tune writing and playing, I lived with a cat. His ears didn't seem to appreciate any tin whistle notes above the first octave. So out of consideration to his ears, a large amount of the tunes I wrote stayed in the first octave.

I also play musical instruments for people with developmental disabilities. If the mood is calm & quiet, and I'm maybe trying to help them relax or sleep, a tune that goes into the 2nd octave on a tin whistle or flute may be a bit too loud. So one octave tunes are nice for this as well.

One octave tunes also give me an option of what key to play the tune in to best suit a moment. For example, on a D whistle I could play it in the first octave (D) or the second octave (G). If I'm outside and it's windy, I may choose to play in G, since the second octave is a bit more wind resistant (it's tough to play whistles in windy weather). And I could choose D or G depending on the volume of the place I'm playing. It's also nice to have options of different keys to play in so you have more of a chance of playing along with other instuments.

It might also be nice to know some one octave tunes for anyone who plays an instrument that can only play 8 notes or so. For me, this would be my pendant ocarina, which I often bring along to play while out in a forest.

And lastly, I also just find that I enjoy simplistic tunes.

So here are some one octave tunes I've recorded. Most of these are original compositions, with a few traditional tunes here & there.

One Octave Tunes

All tracks from this playlist will be sent to rotation on our radio http://mitota.club
☀ About it: stopcran.ru/blog/2021-08-28-232 ☀ Thanks for sharing!

We want to thank everyone who subscribed and than helped with the publication of the magazine last year! If you would like to have a new issue next year, please subscribe again: https://meticulousmidgets.bandcamp.com/album/subscription-2022

HIT-PARADE: all №1 (november 2021) & MM news

Music in Appreciation of Various Forms of Water

Music for Nature

Original Folk Tunes

A tune titled in appreciation of a very neat looking and very neat sounding bird.

Instruments:
Gold Tone tenor guitar, Burke tin whistle, Mk Pro low whistle

Starlings In The Oak Tree

Instruments:
Nick Metcalf tin whistle, Kentucky mandolin, Gold Tone tenor guitar, Gold Tone tenor banjo, shruti box, tingsha bells, ankle bells, tambourine, bongos, cymbal, triangle, egg shaker

Milkweed

A tune written after encountering some ruby-crowned kinglets.

Instruments:
Dante Music telescopic tin whistle, Gold Tone tenor guitar, Doug Tipple flute

Ruby - Crowned Kinglet

Instruments:
McNally strumstick, Burke tin whistles, Gold Tone tenor guitar, Kentucky mandolin, tingsha bells, triangle, tambourine, sleigh bells, Meinl bell

The Opossum In The Rain

Instruments:
Burke tin whistle, Meinl egg shaker, seed rattle

The Moon Above The Marsh

Within The Sun

This composition is titled in appreciation of a series of various forms of flowing water, which I often meditate at throughout a trail near my home. There's more or less forms of flowing water to experience along the trail depending on the time of year & amounts of precipitation. 

Typically, I first encounter a muddy region; where in certain spots, when standing quietly, gurgling water can be heard flowing beneath the leaf litter & stones. Usually in spring, when saturated by melting snow, small trickling streams flow out of this muddy area and down a subtle hill into the forest below. 

The next stop along the pilgrimage of flowing water (as I eventually grew to affectionately nickname it) is another stream, with a somewhat stronger current, trickling in the form of several small waterfalls; over stones, sticks, and leaves.

A little ways beyond all this is a small brook (or maybe it's a large stream, I'm not entirely certain). The height of the body of water, as wells as the mellow flat sandy bottom creates little sounds to hear. While I find the sight of flowing water beneficial for meditation, the main meditative fuel of these pilgrimage spots is in their auditory experience. Though usually, if quiet enough, subtle trickles & gurgles can be heard. 

Shortly beyond that location is a large & energetic brook, with lots of varying tones & depths. 

And lastly, a little was further, lies a small boggy region; with lots of deep mud (which is fun to step into) & sphagnum moss. To the far corner of small bog-like zone are two small waterfall streams, which have a pleasant gentle bell-like trickle. 

I'm quite grateful to these series of flowing water locations for several very helpful meditations they've been the doorway to.

*I also thought that the title could be interpreted as a river's journey to an ocean. Where water molecules can journey together in the form of a river; with stops at varying bodies of water, until they eventually return to the mother source of all water.

Instruments:
Wildwood dulcitar, Burke tin whistle, Gold Tone tenor guitar, ghungroo bells, sleigh bells, tingsha bells, triangle, bodhran

The Pilgrimage Of Flowing Water

Instruments:
Burke tin whistle, WuYou tongue drum

Daffodils Beside The Barn (version 2)

Instruments:
dulcitar, tin whistle, tingsha bells, sleigh bells, triangle, egg shaker

Moon Glowing On The River Flowing

Instruments:
Hora octave mandolin, Burke D & low G whistles

Two Raccoons In A Blueberry Bush

Новая песня из проекта ТУРЬЯ: jasny-svetly.ru/load/50

Страница трека на сайте группы (mp3): jasny-svetly.ru/load/9-1-0-115

Космический видеоклип: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjCchtLir-8&list=PLSgKp70SBQr0HS2tPYCcbOaO7HbtRRgjv&index=4

НЕСКОНЧАЕМО

меж далеких миров
не кончается ночь
день в котором живешь
ускользает как дождь
сквозь ладони твои
сквозь земные пески
нескончаема
нескончаема
нескончаема
ночь, любовь и весна
свет, тюрьма и война
ночь, весна и любовь
свет, война и тюрьма

оставаться собой
растворяясь во мгле
может быть эта ночь
то-то скажет тебе
свет далеких миров
может быть донесет
нескончаемый
нескончаемый
нескончаемый
свет, любовь и война
ночь, весна и тюрьма
свет, война и любовь
ночь, тюрьма и весна

меж далеких миров
продолжается ночь


P.S. https://soundcloud.com/crazycompass/parallelism

ТУРЬЯ (2015): Нескончаемо

Produced by The Inconsistent Jukebox
Ang Kerfoot https://soundcloud.com/angelakerfoot - voice
Garry Marshall - sequencers
Barry Snaith soundcloud.com/barry_snaith - co-pilot voice / extra atmosphere / noise / lyrics
Art by Eric Lacombe
'Sample of hawquindar from the NASA archives'. Courtesty of Electric and Magnetic Field Instrument Suite and Integrated Science (EMFISIS) team at the University of Iowa

Failed mission to the heart of the sun and beyond. Here's the transcript, taken from the Black Box Recorder:

ON SUN (words B. Snaith)
‘Solar Space Kommander Kerfoot logged in… 
 All co-ordinates locked in. T minus 5 minutes. Boosters booted. Space-suited. I got my black box on.
I got my black box on.
And the sun sure shone… “
Ra! Ra! Ra-Atum-Khepri…
I got my black box on.
Journey to the centre. For the core. The hardcore. The corpse corps. The solar dimension.
Past the point of no return.
Let the sun warm you, not burn you. One bad turn can turn you to ash, to a crisp. A will-o’-the-wisp.
And whispers in the wink.
D-Deficient on a one-way mission. Be efficient, even into oblivion.
Flames licked scorch-tipped wings.
Into the corona - One careful owner… Horus (of course, of course).
The solar fission tore us apart. Straight into the heart of the fireball.
27 million degrees farenheit. A one way flight. 
D-Deficient. On a one-way mission
Be efficient, even into oblivion.
Ra! Ra! Ra-Atum-Khepri
One bad turn can turn you.
God of  the sun, the earth, Hades. Heaven or Las Vegas.
Past the point of no return.
Scorch tipped wings. Flames licked feathers.
Over and over and over.
The solar dimension.
That's the helium.
“Ra-Atum-Khepri sails across the sky in his solar ship.Floating his boat into the chromosphere. A trillion tiny lights, so bright that they can only pop like bulbs in a torch and drop like embers.
All forms of life here, Ra called each of them into existence. One by one
By speaking their secret names. 
Ra-Atum-Khepri.

Aaah, peace.. Peaceful. Tranquility. Tranquilised.
Are we in heaven? Or Las Vegas?

Hey, I think we….”   
(Mission aborted.Whereabouts unknown).

On:Sun

Water Droplet Song

Cane Toad 2

A tune written on a tin whistle at Mud Pond Bog in Fox State Forest of Hillsborough, New Hampshire during the winter.

Instruments:
Shruti Box, Tin Whistle

Mud Pond Bog

A waltz that was written while sitting on a stone above a river, surrounded by white caterpillars.

Instruments:
High D Killarney Tin Whistle, Low D Kerry Optima Tin Whistle, Jerry Freeman Tin Whistle in the key of A

Waltz Of The White Caterpillar (version 2)

Instruments: Gardner mountain dulcimer, Kerry Optima low D whistle, Burke low G whistle, Killarney high D whistle, glockenspeil

*The photo is of striped maple bark

Striped Maple

I made my friends some homemade vegetable stock as a gift for their wedding, though i felt another gift to accompany the vegetable stock would be nice, so here's an original waltz written for my friends to accompany their vegetable stock. 

Instruments: Killarney D tin whistle, Kentucky mandolin, Jerry Freeman low A tin whistle, ankle bells, tingsha bells

Vegetable Stock Waltz

A tune written on a nice and chilly late summer morning.

Instruments:
Kentucky mandolin, Killarney tin whistle

Late Summer Morning

An original tune written on the third day of autumn. 

Instruments:
Kentucky mandolin, Jerry Freeman Blackbird whistle, bells

The Third Day Of Autumn

Instruments:
Doug Tipple flute, Moroccan clay drums, sleigh bells, karatala, guiro, tongue drum

Four Pheasants

An original tune that came about while playing a tin whistle and watching the sun shining on an icy pine tree.

Hilary Dirlam:
melodica

Zach Schneider:
tenor guitar, Killarney D tin whistle, karatala, ghungroo bells, frame drum

Sunshine On An Icy Pine (with Hilary Dirlam)

A tune that arose in the bright sunshine after a snow squall.

Instruments:
tenor guitar, Kentucky mandolin, Killarney D tin whistle, clapping

The Sun Beyond The Squall

An original tune, titled in appreciation of one of my favorite fungi to encounter and eat. 

Instruments:
McNally strumstick, Doug Tipple low D flute, Moroccan clay drums, frame drum, egg shaker, tingsha bells

Black Trumpets

An original tune that came about while sitting beside a San Pedro cactus.

Instruments:
Kentucky mandolin, Killarney tin whistle

San Pedro

An original tune written while sitting beside some moose antlers that I found frozen in ice out in the woods.

Instruments:
tenor guitar, Killarney tin whistle, wooden spoons, Kentucky mandolin

The Moose's Antlers

While this tune was being written a turkey flew by the window beside me, and up into a tree. They're quite a sight to see when they're flapping their wings through the air by your window. And they always seem to look peculiar in a tree. But I always really appreciate wild turkeys, and I'm glad to finally have an original tune titled for them. 

Instruments:
Kentucky mandolin, Doug Tipple low D flute, sleigh bells, tingsha bells

The Turkey In The Tree

Instruments:
Burke low G whistle, tenor guitar, organ

White Goat

This composition arose while sitting beside a window with my cat and listening to the birds chirp in the morning.

Instruments:
Gold Tone tenor guitar, Doug Tipple low D flute, Jerry Freeman low A whistle

Sitting Beside A Cat And Listening To The Chirps Of Birds

Dan Jones: acoustic guitar
Rob Newton: Snapple cap
Zach Schneider: McNally strumstick, Killarney whistle, frame drum, tingsha bells, tambourine

Rob for the Win

Instruments:
Gold Tone tenor guitar, Killarney D tin whistle, frame drum, tambourine, ghungroo bells, karatala, egg shaker

Green Heron

An original whistle waltz, written on a day that I saw a lot of Eastern Pheobes.

Instruments:
Burke tin whistle, Gold Tone tenor guitar

Eastern Pheobe

We're not from round here
Where are we from
Beyond the fire
Beyond the Sun.

We're not from round ere'
We don't fit in
We are the missing links
in Evolution
Bald weak and thin yeah?
Needs armoured skins
Or else we'd freeze out here
Or fry under the Sun
We builded guilded picket cage
Divides it up in lines
We're crumbs of plastic buried deep into the sands of time
We mined a shiny plughole
In the butthole of this can
We spaffed up in the ozone
Shadow puppets
Bloody hands.

We're not from round here
Where are we from
Beyond the Fire
Beyond the Sun

Shitting on the doorstep
Fucking up the farm
What's it all about and what have we become?

It's fine
It's all about the fines
These glue blood lines
Tapping gold seams deep
In dark satanic mines
It's a farm and you aren't even the Cattle
You're more like the petrol for the gears that grind the offal into Fucking Falafel
Crappy Crab Apple
Krabby Patty for 
Colossi
Hungry Horror Waffle Monster Money Gobble Goblins dripping gore down  dank walls guarding dark secret corridors
We eats the poor
Feed me Seymour
More and more and more
ho ho ho  etc etc..

It's groping at your mind
You feel it deep inside
There's a mill that never ceases
Weaving wool to cover eyes
They gots all the sheeps they needs
And they defo' gots the time
You can feel the gears grinding
You can hear the Cattle cry
"It's fine"

It's all about the fines
Get in line and pay me mine
Oh, Donald..
Where are your Trousers?

Fines From Beyond The Sun

Instruments:
McNally strumstick, Burke tin whistles, sleigh bells, karatala

Yellow - Rumped Warbler

Written after visiting a beautiful spot called Farrar Marsh.

Instruments:
Gold Tone tenor guitar, Doug Tipple flute, karatala

Farrar Marsh

Instruments:
Seagull Merlin dulcitar, Burke tin whistle, Gold Tone tenor guitar, tingsha bells, tambourine

Dark - Eyed Junco

Instruments:
Burke tin whistle, Doug Tipple flute, bongos, conga, frame drum, karatala, egg shaker, shruti box, organ effect on iPad

Downy Woodpecker

Original compositions played upon various acoustic instruments. 

At the moment, the majority of music I record is original folk tunes. Most of these tunes arise whilst out in natural ecosystems or shortly after visiting a natural ecosystem. The titles often reflect an aspect of the ecosystem I had noticed while the tune came about. Lately this is usually a species of bird.

Tin whistles and flutes appear the most often in my recordings; though mandolin, tenor guitar, lyre harp, jaw harp, dulcitar, and a handful of other instruments show up fairly often as well.

And here's some more music I've made along with my friend Dan Jones:
https://soundcloud.com/user-453898279