Posted in: My Videos
Here's a little tin pan alley tune I recorded a few weeks ago. It's "For Me and My Gal" Music by George W. Meyer, words by Edgar Leslie and E. Ray Goetz, written in 1917. I hope you enjoy it! For more ukulele tunes see my Youtube channel.
This post combines two projects - my public domain project and my French airs project. I've realized the figured bass for "L'aimable Iris est de retour" by Joseph Chabanceau de la Barre. It would have originally been accompanied by theorbo, lute or harpsichord, but I've arranged it for piano which is much more common in a modern voice studio. I'm singing just the first verse; the second verse (called a double) is highly ornamented. Performance of just the first verse was standard practice for voice students in mid-seventeenth-century French airs and makes the piece very useful for lessons today. This way students can work on the French language while singing simpler vocal lines and they can also master the small ornaments that are expected on repetitions. As they master the language and technical skills required they can begin to work on the double.
Here's an idiomatic translation:
The lovely Iris has returned, but she has not changed. She is as indifferent as always, Just as I am enamored as always.
This is the latest video in my public domain video project. "Toot, Toot Tootsie" by Gus Kahn, Erie Erdman and Dan Russo was published in 1922. Any later and it wouldn't be in the public domain! The original publication has the highly apropos subtitle, "A Cute Fox-Trot Song."
The song is quite well known, but most performers have sung only the chorus. I've included the first verse, which puts the chorus in the third person rather than in the first person. Instead of the singer telling a girlfriend good-bye in a ridiculously happy way, it becomes a story about a silly man saying goodbye at the train station that the singer tells to friends. Hope you enjoy it!
Check out my Youtube channel for more videos.
This is the first post as part of my new project to find performing outlets. In the internet age that can include Youtube. I've already made several videos and I'm having lots of fun doing it. The only rules are that I perform any instruments used and that the work must be in the public domain. This performance isn't perfect, but the goal isn't perfection, the goal is to do it.
I've been teaching myself ukulele for a while and I've also been interested in tin pan alley songs. This video combines the two. It's "Look for the Silver Lining," music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Buddy DeSylva. This was made famous by Judy Garland in the mid-twentieth century, but was originally written in 1920.
I'll be posting more videos in the coming days and weeks, but if you'd like to view more sooner check out my Youtube channel. Enjoy!