Firenze: A Song History

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"Firenze" appears in A Long Way From Shady Grove, the Fingers Of Steel book that transcribes Butch Ross's CD of the same name, where it is credited to Robert Force and Al d'Ossché and given in DAD tuning.[1] Ross's Bandcamp page dates the album to May 9, 2009, lists "Firenze" as its third track, and names Quintin Stephens as the second dulcimer on it.[2] Ross's own note calls his version "a funky Latin take" on the duo's tune, and the track credits add that it samples Judy Collins singing "Pack Up Your Sorrows," a Richard Fariña song.[3]

Painting of Florence seen from a hillside at sunset, with the cathedral dome and towers above the city and the river winding through

Thomas Cole, View of Florence, oil on canvas, 1837. Shown for its subject, the city the tune is named for; the painting has no connection to the tune.

Force writes that he met d'Ossché at the Union Grove Fiddler's Convention in North Carolina in 1971, and recalls that no one else in the crowd of some 50,000 was playing a dulcimer.[4] D'Ossché, born in New Orleans in 1947, grew up around jazz musicians before taking up the dulcimer.[5] Their book In Search of the Wild Dulcimer was published by Vintage Books in 1974.[6][7] As a duo they shared bills with performers such as Doc Watson and Robin Williamson.[8] D'Ossché died in 1990.[8][9] In 2010 Force issued The Complete Recordings, a 44-track CD of the duo's work.[8][9]

On his website Force tells how the tune came about: in the winter of 1971 to 1972, just before Christmas, he drove from Munich to Florence to find d'Ossché, who had gone traveling, and played dulcimer on a pensione window ledge while he waited.[10] In his telling, the piece, named with the Italian word for Florence, came out of that sunlit Tuscan afternoon and the hunt for his partner; he counts it as his breakthrough in a drone-heavy style he traces to Richard Fariña's instrumentals, and recalls that it became the pair's usual opening number.[10][11] It appeared, subtitled "Melody for Richard and Mimi," on the Pacific Rim Dulcimer Project LP (Biscuit City, 1977); Force describes that version as a solo, though Discogs lists both men on dulcimer.[10][12] The duo recorded it together on The Art of Dulcimer (Kicking Mule), and sources differ on the year: Discogs dates the LP to 1980, while Force's notes give 1981 for the recording and a site devoted to the Fariñas gives 1981 for the release.[7][11][13] It also opens Double Dulcimer Magic (Gourd Music, 1989).[14] Credits differ: Force's song pages name him alone as author, while Discogs credits the 1977 track to both men, as Ross's book does.[1][10][12]

Our book that contains the song "Firenze"

Sources

  1. Fingers Of Steel: "Butch Ross, A Long Way From Shady Grove".
  2. Butch Ross (Bandcamp): "A Long Way From Shady Grove".
  3. Butch Ross (Bandcamp): "Firenze".
  4. Robert Force: "In Search of the Wild Dulcimer".
  5. Robert Force: "Albert d'Ossché".
  6. Open Library: "In Search of the Wild Dulcimer".
  7. Mimi and Richard Fariña: "Dedications".
  8. Port Townsend Leader: "Force tracks down his wild dulcimer roots".
  9. Peninsula Daily News: "A new stage of life: Port Townsend dulcimer virtuoso reissues classic recordings".
  10. Robert Force: "Firenze (1977)".
  11. Robert Force: "Firenze".
  12. Discogs: "Pacific Rim Dulcimer Project".
  13. Discogs: "Robert Force, Albert D'Ossche, The Art Of Dulcimer".
  14. Discogs: "Robert Force, Double Dulcimer Magic".
  15. Image: Thomas Cole, View of Florence, oil on canvas, 1837. The Cleveland Museum of Art.

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