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REVIEW FROM www.livingtradition.co.uk

 


 

 

 
JULIAN GOODACRE - Some Of Me Tunes (And Some Of Me Friends’ Tunes) 

JULIAN GOODACRE - Some Of Me Tunes (And Some Of Me Friends’ Tunes) 
White House Tune Books 11 

This is a generous selection of 236 tunes composed by English (though now Scottish resident) bagpiper Julian Goodacre, plus a further 56 contributions, e.g., tunes sent to him as birthday presents.

Potential purchasers should note Julian’s own words: “I never learned to read music, yet I love buying tune books. I read the tune titles, the introduction, the stories; the more words the better”. He has carried over this philosophy into his own book, and there’s virtually an entire autobiography dotted around the 184 pages. Some readers will find this quirkily engaging, others, irritatingly self-indulgent; Julian adheres to Buddhism, so hopefully he won’t mind too much either way!

I can’t claim to have classified all the tunes, but the opening pages indicated a preponderance of G and D major 4/4 tunes ahead of those in 6/8, plus a number of 3/4 and 3/8 waltzes and mazurkas. There is no accompanying CD, so those using the book have maximum flexibility in interpreting phrasing and tempo – folk music is so different to classical music with its “allegro” and “crotchet = 80” markings (although I suspect such instructions are ignored in many musical genres).

While it may not be literally true that there is ‘something for everyone’ here, you stand a good chance of finding items for your own repertoire given the number of tunes included.

www.goodbagpipes.com

Paul Mansfield

 

This review appeared in Issue 131 of The Living Tradition magazine