"Stomping Tonight on the Pennsylvania/Alabama Border," by John Fahey

Welcome back for another monthly lesson. I was thrilled to see so much discussion on last month's post asking for your suggestions. I couldn't help but move forward with the piece that seemed to have the most suggestions/upvotes for this post. I will continue to weigh the other suggestions and see what I can do to keep everyone having fun.

This month we'll have a look at Fahey's "Stomping Tonight on the Pennsylvania/Alabama Border" as it was recorded on the 1967 reissue of Death Chants, Breakdowns, and Military Waltzes.

Fahey borrowed from several sources for this composition, namely Skip James' "Devil Got My Woman" and the Gregorian chant "Dies irae" . He also stated that he borrowed chords from the last movement of Ralph Vaughan Williams' sixth symphony, which would be difficult to know unless he would not have explicitly stated so. The harmonic changes heard at about 1:36 in the audio correspond to the A major 6 and A minor 7 chords that he alternates between in several instances.

I would recommend listening to the various live versions of him performing this on YouTube to get a sense of how the piece developed over time as they may inform which direction you want to take it in.

I was a little disappointed that my recording came out under tempo. I find the shifting tempos and moods in this to be the hardest element to capture. Then again, it is nice to have a piece of music where the notes feel reasonably easy to play and the majority of time spent is on expression, arguably one of the hardest aspects of musicianship to master. 

The first section is comprised of measures 1-14 and borrows ever so slightly on James' "Devil Got My Woman."

Measures 15-31 make up the Fahey-esque take on "Dies irae" which serves as a second section. I love how he morphs this melody into the chords borrowed from the Vaughan Williams symphony.

The third section, measures 32-53 expand on some of the melodic ideas presented in the first section

Measures 54-94  make up the 4th section and are the most challenging. He returns to the "Devil Got My Woman" theme, merges into the "Dies irae" theme, then goes full Fahey for the remainder of the section.

Measures 95-118 are a near literal repeat of the third section.

Measures 119 through the end close out the piece, beginning with an A major harmony then making a chromatic descent into the "Vaughan Williams chords" that close the piece.

I hope you enjoy working on this one as much as I did.

Here is the lesson video https://youtu.be/eOWO7DLFE74

The score is attached below!