Another fiddle tune in honour of, er, Fiddle Tunes.

The title says it all: I wrote this one last year on the Sunday that everybody was packing up and taking their tunes and memories home. I had two amazing weeks ahead in Seattle, which inspired Sleepless In Seattle. Now I’m at the Gooikoorts festival, which is also nice, but not half as overwhelming as Fiddle Tunes.

Like Sleepless, this is supposed to be a mazurka. Now a number of people told me that Sleepless is definitely not a mazurka but a waltz. Perhaps we’re having different mazurkas in mind here: I meant to write both tunes as mazurkas in the French/Belgian/pan-European bal folk tradition. These mazurkas are played in a somewhat dotted style, with the 1st, 3rd, and 5th eigth notes slightly longer than the 2nd, 4th, and 6th (which is why some people tend to write them in a 9/8 measure, but that is wrong – it’s not a slip jig or polska). The emphasis is on the 1st and 3rd count and the tune (and dance) should have a somewhat dreamy, romantic feel to it. See here for an example.

Anyway, here goes:

And here is the abc:

X:1
T:Leaving Fort Worden
M:3/4
K:A
L:1/8
e (3 efg |: a3 bag | f<d2 df<a | e2 d2 c2 | B3 BAB |
 c<e2 edc |1 B3 BAB | c3 A c<e | B3 e (3 efg :|2 B3 EG<B | (A6 | A3) AGA ||
|: B3 BAB | c3 cBc | d2 e2 f<a | e3 edc |1 d2 e2 (3 fed | e2 d2 c2 |
| (B6 | B3) AGA :|2 d2 c2 B2 | A3 EG<B | (A6 | A6) ||


Still miss that place. Someday I’ll visit it again.