Learn our offical Camp Tune

Barbara with guitar sidekick Chuck MacDonald

St. Peter's Pennies

In 2013, Composer Barbara White cooked up 16 bars for us, for our Official Camp Tune - inspired by then-current events concerning Canadian currency.

 

Campers: check it out, and please give 'er a try! You can download the audio (MP3) and music notation (PDF) files right here. Learn the tune at home and bring it to Music Camp with you.

 

Available for download here: the Gold version - for more experienced players. This is performed by Fork and Spoon, that's Barbara on penny whistle with guitarist Charles MacDonald.

 

Barbara has also adapted the tune to Silver and Copper versions – for novice and early intermediate players. Those versions are available to everyone who registers for music camp. When you register, we will send you the links.

 

Download St. Peter's Pennies audio file
This is the Gold version - for more advanced players.
StPetersPennies.Gold.20130324.mp3
MP3 audio file [1.8 MB]
Download St. Peter's Pennies sheet music
This is the Gold version - for more advanced players.
StPetersPenniesGold.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [221.3 KB]
Download St. Peter's Pennies sheet music
This is the Silver version - for intermediate players.
StPetersPenniesSilver.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [220.2 KB]
Download St. Peter's Pennies sheet music
This is the Copper version - easy peasy.
StPetersPenniesCopper.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [219.1 KB]
Download St. Peter's Pennies guitar chords only
SPetersPenniesChordChanges.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [131.7 KB]

A message from the composer

 “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.”

 

     – Barbara White