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Celtic Meditations
Into the Light
by Maggie Sansone

Savoring the Irish Reel

Sergeant Early's Dream on Hammered Dulcimer

In time to learn for St. Patrick's day we're featuring "Sergeant Early's Dream," from Maggie Sansone's Celtic Meditations book and CD. Here are Maggie's tips on playing this tune, slowing it down, savoring the melody and ornamenting it.

This tune is a traditional Irish reel which I slowed down and played as an air. I played the reel real slow and gave the melody a lot of space to breathe...to let the beauty of the melody come through.

Two main techniques are used. The use of rubato and the use of a relaxed style of ornamentation that involves grace notes, flams, and some bounced triplets.

Rubato is a way of playing music by stretching the time of the notes within a phrase or within a measure. The literal meaning is "rob time" as the musician is taking some time away from one note and adding it to another.

The use of ornamentation adds a lot to the piece, and some of the ornaments are notated in the music. All these types of ornaments are not meant to clutter the music but enhance the beauty and emotion of the melody and to emphasize and bring out specific notes.

The first ornament is the slide grace notes in measure 3. I use my right hammer to hit the G then let it bounce down to play the F# , then strike with the other hammer the E.

The next ornament is in the next measure. It is notated as a triplet with a number 3 above the 3 notes, but rather than strike each note - it is played as a bounced triplet. I hit one of the three notes with one hammer and play the other 2 notes with the other hammer.

Next ornament is a Flam. It is notated with a little sign "" above the note. Flams are a type of swoop effect where the left hammer plays the melody note at the top of the chord (G) and the right hand pays the bottom two notes by swooping from the left treble side of the hammered dulcimer (D ) and bouncing across to the bass bridge to hit the G note.

Next, in the same measure, is a ornament sign "" called a Turn.

For this ornament- play the main note, then note above, the main note again, and the note below in rapid succession but with a very light delicate touch.

Listen to "Sergeant Early's Dream" as played by Maggie Sansone on hammered dulcimer and Rico Petrucelli on electric bass.

About the Author

Maggie Sansone is an internationally-known hammered dulcimer player and an award-winning record producer an distributor. Her hammered dulcimer playing has been featured on CBS-TV's "Sunday Morning," NPR's "All Things Considered," "Performance Today," and "The Thistle & Shamrock." She is co-founder and CEO of Maggie's Music record label, which celebrates over 20 years in the music industry and over 50 recordings distribute worldwide. The label received 8 Record Label of the Year WAMMIE awards, and The Washington Post said, "Gaelic traditions are alive and well...Maggie's Music has been a driving force behind the popularity of Celtic 'chamber folk.'" You can meet Maggie in person at her performances and workshops. Active as a teacher, Maggie produces music books for Mel Bay Publications, and has been a guest instructor at many folk festivals around the U.S., including the Swannanoa Gathering Dulcimer Week. For a complete catalog of Maggie Sansone's recordings and books visit www.maggiesmusic.com