This is a setting of a version of the tune, "Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine," made available by mswlogo. I grabbed the midi from his site in March 2013. This tune strikes me as having a Celtic sound, with its pentatonic passages, though it does tend toward a straight D major scale -- lacking an overall modal or purely pentatonic flavor.
I was curious about the name of this Appalachian favorite, so did some "research" on the net; found many YouTube presentations of this tune; and the site,
http://thesession.org/tunes/7, which gives a bewildering number of alternate names and ancestor or related tunes.
It was a surprise to me to find out that there was a long history of Irish regiments in the French military:
- Légion irlandaise 1803 - 1815 (established by Napoleon Bonaparte and most pertinent, possibly, to this tune)
- Irish Brigade (France) 1690 - c. 1791
- Royal Irlandais c. 1635 - 1664
This duet is fairly easy for both recorders. The high a in the soprano and the low f# in the alto may need special attention. I tried to keep the alto part as an accompaniment while still giving it its own melodic contour.
Walt
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