Johanna: A Song History
"Johanna" is a tune by Molly Mason; the online store she runs with Jay Ungar credits it to her in its listing for a set of mountain dulcimer arrangements of the duo's music.[1] It is printed on page 34 of their tunebook Catskill Mountain Waltzes and Airs.[2] The store's introduction presents that book as decades of the pair's own writing, mixing pieces already used on stage, on record or in documentary scores with others that had never left home, but it does not say which applies to "Johanna."[2] The tune does not appear on any of the track lists posted for the CDs sold in the duo's store, and the sources consulted here document no recording of it.[3] Mason grew up in Washington State and joined the band Fiddle Fever as its bassist; Ungar's "Ashokan Farewell," played by the duo, was later chosen as the main theme of Ken Burns's PBS documentary The Civil War.[4]
John William Hill, Landscape: View on Catskill Creek, watercolor and gouache, 1867. A Catskill creek, shown for the title of the tunebook it appears in; it has no connection to the tune.
Melanie Johnston includes "Johanna" in 22 Selections From Jay Ungar & Molly Mason's Book "Catskill Mountain Waltzes And Airs", her own publication of mountain dulcimer tab for 22 of the duo's tunes, all but one set in DAD tuning; a piano-voiced MP3, made by computer from the tab, lets players hear each arrangement.[5] It is a different piece from the "Johanna" in Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, which opened on Broadway in 1979.[6]
Sources
- Jay Ungar & Molly Mason store: "Catskill Mountain Waltzes & Airs for Mountain Dulcimer".
- Jay Ungar & Molly Mason store: "Catskill Mountain Waltzes and Airs".
- Jay Ungar & Molly Mason: "Recordings".
- Jay Ungar & Molly Mason: "About".
- Melanie Johnston: "22 Selections From Jay Ungar & Molly Mason's Book 'Catskill Mountain Waltzes And Airs'".
- Sondheim Guide: "Sweeney Todd".
- Image: John William Hill, Landscape: View on Catskill Creek, watercolor and gouache, 1867. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.