Gentle Winds O'er The Plains: A Song History
Ellen Pratt's Ensemble Arrangements For The Mountain Dulcimer, Volume 8 includes "Gentle Winds O'er The Plains" in four dulcimer parts, all of them in DGD tuning.[1] The table of contents shown on Pratt's own store page puts the piece in 3/4 time on pages 39 to 42.[2] That store page describes the book as a mix of original and traditional arrangements; its contents page labels two pieces as traditional and credits "Pig Ankle Rag" to M.E. Williams, but attaches no composer's name to this tune.[2] Who wrote it is therefore not stated in the sources consulted here.[1][2]
Auguste Allongé, Gust of Wind on the Poplars, charcoal on wove paper, c. 1873–80. A riverside scene rather than open plains, shown for its wind-stirred trees; it has no connection to the piece.
Pratt's DulcimerDownloads biography dates the start of her own composing to 2004 and says she took up writing and arranging for ensembles once she had joined a dulcimer orchestra in the northeastern part of Connecticut.[3] The same page portrays her as at home both in hard-driving old-time strumming and in a softer, contemporary fingerpicked chord-melody style.[3]
For the title word, Merriam-Webster gives "o'er" the plain meaning "over" and dates its first known use to 1592 as an adverb and 1593 as a preposition; this is background on the word only, with no meaning for the tune implied.[4] No explanation of the title and no recording of the piece turn up in the book's listing or on Pratt's store page.[1][2]
Sources
- Ellen Pratt: "Ensemble Arrangements For The Mountain Dulcimer, Volume 8".
- Ellen S. Pratt: "Ensemble Arrangements for Mountain Dulcimer Volume 8".
- DulcimerDownloads: "Ellen Pratt".
- Merriam-Webster: "O'er".
- Image: Auguste Allongé, Gust of Wind on the Poplars, charcoal on wove paper, c. 1873–80. The Cleveland Museum of Art.