U always hear that the blues harp was originally built to play that kind of music. Now I've never heard of "umpa umpa" music here. Is it a specific type of german folk music or is it just a grose generalisation of "bavarian style" german, austrian and swiss folk music, or what?
Now I can say that it would technically work for most german (and some other nations') folk music.
Yeah I think Oompah is as you say a generalisation of "bavarian style" german, austrian and swiss folk music. I'll try and find some examples on YouTube. ----------
I suspect the music goes by many other names that we Americans don't know and couldn't pronounce if we did know. So it is referred to using Onomatopoeia of it most characteristic sound. No disrespect intended.
Here's the Wikipedia stub. It confirms what I merely suspected when I posted the above.
"Oom-pah or umpapa is the rhythmical sound of a deep brass instrument in a band, a form of background ostinato.[1][2]
The oom-pah sound is usually made by the tuba on the root of the chord (bass) and alternate bass on the following measure (5th of chord) — this sound is said to be oom, and is followed by the clarinet's pah on the octave of the chord in each measure[clarification needed]. Oom-pah is often associated with Volkstümliche Musik, a form of popular German-language music.
The musical Oliver! contains a song named Oom-Pah-Pah, which is named after the oom-pah."
I hope the YouTube videos didn't cause you any embarrassment GH but just to even things up a bit, we too have our fair share of traditional folk dances here in the UK. Long may they continue.
Lol. I can play they clip from Oliver. I find songs that got burned into my mind as a child are easier to play than songs I learned later. I still have a hard time playing a song I can't sing. (For instance, I can play the Star Spangled Banner, but only with the lyrics in front of me, because I get lost as to where I am in the song unless I sing along in my head.)
