Amazing grace

I am a fan of plain English. I dislike unnecessary verbosity that you see in signs and notices asking you to "please be advised that" or to note that a facility "may be found situated" somewhere. In matters of interior design I tend towards the clean and uncluttered, the inspiring theme of my wardrobe is understatement.

And yet, less is not always more. When the fan and I got married, many years ago, one of the things I was very sure I wanted was for the service to use the King James bible.

I've been thinking about this as I've been playing Donald MacLennan's Tuning Phrase and listening to Whistlebinkies playing it. The version I have is from the session. It's perfectly servicable, the tune is all there, but it's not as rich, as nuanced as the Whistlebinkies' version. As I play I sling in any grace notes that are structurally necessary to spilt repeated notes. There are varous notes that I thing I automatically grace, normally top hand notes that have a G grace added to them. But the Whistlebinkies' verson is richer than that and I haven't listened carefully enough to work out how, because I'm listening in the car.

Without the extra gracing the tune is a little flat, like a modern version of the bible, or an easy reading Shakespeare. It reminds me that it's still worthwhile grappling with gracing.