Marcy Prochaska: Hammered Dulcimer

I’ve been hired to provide music for a short nature film that the Cornell Lab of Ornithology is putting together. The video is mostly plants, with some birds and animals and water, running through the seasons from summer to spring.

The first stage was negotiating a fee — I have no experience in film scoring whatsoever, so I had no idea how much time it would take or how else to decide on a fee. I ended up asking other musicians and researching a bit online, then deciding what seemed reasonable given my standard performance fees, the estimated time involved, the kind and length of the project, and the kind of organization the lab is. Whew.

Once the lab accepted my fees, I met with the person I’d been in contact with, David Brown, who did the camera work for the film. He showed me a draft of the film and introduced me to other folks working on it. A week or so later I got a copy of the film to work with.

One day I watched it, looking for the water scenes that would mark musical and seasonal transitions, and paying attention to the moods of each section. Another day I brainstormed ideas of tunes for each section, and started trying them out along with the video. A few more days of this, and I was ready to show the team what I’d come up with. I was excited because I thought the music I’d chosen worked well with the film, but since I’ve never done this before I was also a little nervous, uncertain what the lab folks would think.

This afternoon, I set up the dulcimer in David’s “Cave” (a small office full of audio-visual equipment), David got the film running, and he and Bob (one of the engineers) listened while I played the two options for the first section: “Praeludium I” (Bach) and “Winter East and Kensington” (an original). David immediately liked the original piece, which was gratifying, but Bob suggested the Praeludium would be easier to work with. They want to include natural sound, and it’s still up in the air whether the music will be simply lowered in volume during the natural sounds, or turned off altogether. I suggested that while the Praeludium has a nicely repetitive rhythmic pattern, it has more drastic modulations, whereas the original piece follows a repeating chord progression and only has one key change. We decided why not record both and then see which works better with the natural sound.

What a relief! They liked it. In fact, at one point David said he was having a hard time not jumping up and down, he was so excited. Very nice.

The rest of the session went similarly. I’d chosen “Hewlett” (O’Carolan) for the summer-to-fall section and my own “Third Street Market” for the final spring section (fun because David had first heard me playing at that market). For the fall-to-winter section, I had two options again: “Easter Thursday” or “Menuet” (Quantz). Both guys liked “Easter Thursday” for that section, and we decided to use “Menuet” for the credits. Carrie Crompton, whose version of “Menuet” I play, will be pleased; when I asked her permission to use the arrangement in this project, she mentioned she was a birder and a fan of the Cornell Lab.

Well — a good meeting! Made my day.

After listening to our takes from the previous sessions, we realized that we had some problems with Morrison’s Jig and with the Cakewalk software.

On Morrison’s, I found that I was playing harmony notes in the B part that didn’t work with the guitar chords. Jerry and I had also both learned the tune with high B’s in the B part, but I’ve since found out that it’s traditionally played with high A’s instead. Just as well, because none of the five takes were really good enough anyway.

So, after warming up with some Scandinavian tunes — Jerry was going to be marching with Laurie Hart’s group in the Ithaca Festival Parade, and I’d learned the tunes two years ago in a workshop with Laurie — we tackled the Out on the Ocean / Morrison’s / Kesh set again.

We had some good takes. But when we stopped to listen to what we felt was the best one, we found that Cakewalk had cut off the end of it. We had waited a decent amount of time for the dulcimer’s sustain to die down before hitting “stop,” but the cut off point was in the final B part. We tried a few things — restarting the program, changing some of the options — and then finally figured out that it must be a processing delay.

Computers are fast, but some of the sound, in working its way through the program, must be delayed enough that when we hit “stop” it’s much earlier than we think it is. The strange thing is that some takes get cut off and some don’t; there must be some variable that delays some more than others.

We turned to Winter East and Kensington. It’s a tune I wrote in honor of two dulcimer friends who lived on those streets. If I remember right, I wrote different parts of it at their houses: during a rehearsal break at Tom’s, and I think during the evening at Tim’s where I was comparing his dulcimer to Anne’s to decide which one I wanted to order. I recorded it as a dulcimer solo on No Loose Threads.

When we moved here and I started playing with Jerry in Trim the Velvet, I wrote a fiddle harmony with sustained notes to contrast with the note-y melody. Craig comes in on the second A part with fingerpicking. Mmmm. I’m excited about recording this trio version.

We did a few takes, experimenting with waiting much much longer before hitting “stop” — once we played it through twice with a pause in between. That one got cut off towards the end of the second time through. We did another, continuing to make noise after a sufficient pause to let the dulcimer’s sustain die out. It was cut off during the noise, but we got the whole actual take. It might even be a good one.

I’ve been listening to our takes so far.

We’re using Cakewalk’s Guitar Tracks Pro, which our guitarist Craig has on his home computer. Cakewalk also has a trial version, which I’ve downloaded. Craig gives me the takes as Cakewalk bundles, which means I can not only listen to them, but adjust the mix, panning, effects, etc. The trial version does have limits, but it’s sufficiently functional for this.

What fun! One of the things I loved about my studio recordings (No Loose Threads, recorded at Outback Studio in Virginia, and What Child Is This? at Electric Wilburland just south of Ithaca) is getting a close look at the engineering part of things. Mixers, effects, editing, etc. It’s fascinating to me. Now here I am getting a little chance to try it myself.

Today I’ve been listening to a set of reels: Star of Munster and Old Copper Plate. We start Star slow with just fiddle, then dulcimer, then hit dance tempo and the guitar joins in. There’s a dramatic transition, then on the last Old Copper Plate, while the fiddle is playing the melody, I’m playing a march called Down the Brae that fits with it in interesting ways.

I’ve decided that I like the medley best when the guitar is panned 50% left and the dulcimer 50% right, fiddle center; I’ve adjusted the volume for a good balance; and with the right reverb, the fiddle soars on that opening solo. Now I need to figure out which of the thirteen takes are good enough all the way through, and then we can choose the best of those.

One of my favorite places to play is the Ithaca Farmers Market. It’s a covered pavilion, sort of shaped like a t with a long cross-bar and a shorter vertical line. The wooden boardwalk-style floor and the peaked roof are charming, and the open sides allow the freshness of outdoors to come in. Vendors range from the usual produce sellers to organic meats and cheeses, flowers and plants, arts and crafts, and a delicious assortment of breakfast, lunch, and dessert foods.

This year’s season opened April 2; I was busy elsewhere that weekend but went down to play this Saturday. It was sunny but a bit chilly; perhaps a third of the vendor booths were occupied, but there was still a nice crowd of visitors. I had a great time, despite not feeling my toes until after lunch. I got to chat a bit with some interesting listeners, I got to eat some delicious French onion soup and a sticky bun, and after lunch I got to jam with a fiddler and a concertina player. I love the market.

Still, there are a few concerns.

Locations: Another band was playing and singing in the center intersection — a location that is usually off-limits to musicians once the market is in full swing — and I played in the shade of the tree at the crossbar end — where the Cambodian food usually is. Once the season gets going, these locations won’t be available. In the past I’ve often played in the other end of the crossbar, where the pavilion opens into a circle with some seating. Crow, the fellow who organizes music for the market, tells me that there is some debate about whether the market will allow music in the circle end this season. The concern is that musicians would attract standing crowds, blocking traffic through the aisles. However, a soloist like myself does not take up much space and doesn’t attract standing crowds. People tend to stop and listen for a tune or two and then move on. If they disallow this location, there’s only one other place for a band: the boat landing on the shore of the lake. Most Saturdays, there’s been two or three musicians or bands, one officially scheduled, and the rest fit in where we can. If only one location is allowed, there’ll be a lot less music this season.

Checking in: All musicians and bands are supposed to check in with Crow before setting up and playing at the market. He schedules one official band each week and then fits in any other musicians where they will not interfere with one another, with foot traffic, or with vendors. Too often, musicians just show up and play without checking in. When they set up in a bad place — too close to another musician, right in front of a vendor, or in an area where they’re blocking traffic — it provokes vendor complaints and makes all of us look bad. I’ve suggested that the market make two or three badges, one for each music location, with the term “Musician” and the location on them. That would make it easier for the market manager and vendors to enforce the checking in policy. Besides, I think a lot of folks see musicians playing and just assume anyone can come play; badges will let them know that musicians need to check in.

Imagine playing the same medley fourteen times in a row; now imagine doing that without getting bored. That was tonight’s session.

We were working on Star of Munster / Old Copper Plate. We start out with the fiddle playing Star about half dance speed, like an air. In the second A part I join in with some light arpeggios. Then the second time through we hit dance tempo and the guitar joins in.

Once more, then we transition to Old Copper Plate, starting with a spare accompaniment for a sense of subdued suspense or tension. The third and final time through I play Down the Brae, a march, under the Old Copper Plate fiddle melody, while the guitar is also playing Old Copper Plate chords. It’s a fun arrangement.

The tricky part is managing both tempo and accuracy. The more energetic we get, the more we feel it, the more we tend to creep up the tempo and the harder it is to hit the right notes and to stay together.

Jerry says it’s also hard to just start the medley, partly because he’s got to play all by himself, but partly just because beginnings are always hard. I’ve found that, too; the first note or phrase is often the most difficult.

Endings are tough too. By the end of this piece, Jerry’s almost out of bow, so it’s challenging to draw out the last note. Once the bow slipped over the bridge during that last note, making a sudden squeak almost like a slide whistle — gave us all a good laugh.

I think the fact that I didn’t get bored after fourteen takes says a lot for the group dynamics of our trio. I get a lot of energy listening to and playing with these guys. We work well together. And I like just being with them, too.