Learn the Camp Tune - we be jammin' wid it

Two years ago composer and veteran music camp faculty member Barbara White cooked up 16 bars for us, inspired by events concerning then-announced changes to Canadian currency. Her tune is now our official camp tune, so we hope you'll all get a bit familiar with it before camp. We will plan to play St. Peter's Pennies all together during our Music Camp jams.

 

She's prepared the tune so it can be played by musicians at every skill level. The full blown version for advanced players is the 'Gold Version'; and there are progressively easier 'Silver' and 'Copper' versions.

 

Download and listen to the Gold Version, and download any or all of the 3 sheet music versions and the Chord Changes using the links below:

 

Audio File: St. Peter's Pennies, by Barbara White
StPetersPenniesGold.mp3
MP3 audio file [1.4 MB]
Sheet Music: St. Peter's Pennies, Gold version
StPetersPenniesGold.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [221.3 KB]
Sheet Music: St. Peter's Pennies, Silver version
StPetersPenniesSilver.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [220.2 KB]
Sheet Music: St. Peter's Pennies, Copper version
StPetersPenniesCopper.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [219.1 KB]
Chord changes: St. Peter's Pennies
SPetersPenniesChordChanges.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [131.7 KB]

 

A message from the composer - c. 2013

 “As I began to imagine a tune that anyone can drive—from enthusiastic beginner to weekend jammer to virtuoso daredevil—Greg told me about the death of the penny, and I listened to enraged callers on Cross Country Checkup protesting the disappearance of the one-cent coin. (As a resident of Nova Jersia, I was amused when one of them exclaimed, “The Americans would never go for this!”) Anyway, I started dreaming about collections of small, simple things, and I found myself writing a tune that uses only five notes. I was inspired to think that those five notes, like a handful of humble pennies, could join together and arrange themselves to add up to something of worth, like a nickel!—and that a meal of modest ingredients prepared with care could provide more than enough nourishment and pleasure. One of the Cross Country Checkup callers mourned that we may be losing appreciation for little things, and so, thinking of the setting of our Camp, I liked the idea of St. Peter, usually associated with pearls, marveling at an assortment of outdated cents in his palm. Now that it has been deemed worthless, maybe the antiquated penny will become a new-old treasure.”

 

You can play the tune in any octave.

 

     – Barbara White