One of the topics I've been planning to write a series of posts on is on the evolution of melodies. There are many songs that have evolved over the years, and are sung differently now then they were even a few years back. I've not had the time to write these posts, but I hope to get to them eventually.
If any readers would like to get the ball rolling in the meantime...
At any rate, one a somewhat related note, I've recently taken a look at Chaim David's Nigun Ratza Vashov (popularly referred to as Yamamai). A client asked me if I would transcribe the tune for his kid. I'd already transcribed the tune a few years back, so I pulled out my transcription as well as several other transcriptions I have from various places to compare. It was immediately obvious that none of the transcriptions were alike. The melodies were all notated differently, and the chords were different too. In some cases the differences were minor, and in others they were more significant.
A few examples:
Some of the sheets had the ad lib intro while others didn't.
1) The chords in the fourth bar of the A section were different in each version. One version had |F Gm|. Another had |F / Ab Bb|. A third had |Bb Gm|
2) Some of the sheets had the B section rhythm notated with anticipations with beat three being anticipated by a sixteenth note throughout while others had the notes landing directly on the beat.
3) In the fourth bar of the B section, some sheets have the note on beat three as an F accompanied by an F Major chord, while others have it as a G accompanied by a Cm chord.
4) Some of the versions have many bars of 2/4 time added in, while others omit them.
What's interesting is that all of these sheets have been used by bands for years and they all seem to get the job done.
You can find an audio file of Chaim David's original recording linked from this Lazer Beams post.
I have another recording of Chaim David performing this tune, on his live from the Carlebach Shul album, and he plays it differently than the linked audio sample.
One of the limitations of lead sheets as opposed to full scores is that you have to distill the nuances of many repetitions into one condensed "representation" of the tune. This is more difficult with tunes that the composer varies greatly in performance.
I'm interested in hearing from musicians how they perform this tune with regard to the notational differences I pointed out above. How do you play it?
