Ellen's Song

Description

Ellen's Song is by O. Comeau (1924–1971). According to the Mutopia Project it dates from the 1950s, its style is listed as folk, and its source is given as "memory": the tune was written down from recollection rather than copied from a surviving manuscript. Little else is documented about the composer, and the piece has come down as a simple song.

The key is B-flat major and the metre 4/4. The score has a single staff carrying an unaccompanied melody, with no chords. Just six bars long, about 26 seconds and 55 notes, it moves in small sixteenth- and eighth-note rhythms within a little more than an octave, from F3 to G4. The melody repeats notes and edges up and down as if speaking, before settling on B-flat.

It is rated beginner, and its length and range suit one hand. The notes look busy on the page but the tempo is slow, so the sixteenths should not be hurried; let the rhythm sound like speech. Slow the playback to hear the dotted and tied rhythms clearly, and use an A-B loop to repeat one bar at a time while learning it. Once it is secure, adding a few simple left-hand chords of your own makes a good next step.

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