Help ID this fiddle tune

Subject: Help ID this fiddle tune
From: Dave Ruch
Date: 21 May 08 - 09:39 PM

Can you?

Fiddle tune from Dick Law, northern NY fiddler, circa 1988

Subject: RE: Help ID this fiddle tune
From: Beer
Date: 21 May 08 - 10:36 PM

I maybe totally off here but it sure has a Quebec flavor to it. Can't help with the name but will pass it on to friends whom I'm sure can help.
Beer (adrien)

Subject: RE: Help ID this fiddle tune
From: Melissa
Date: 22 May 08 - 02:00 AM

Lovely!
I hope somebody knows the name so I'll know what to call it..

Subject: RE: Help ID this fiddle tune
From: Dave Ruch
Date: 22 May 08 - 07:18 AM

Thanks Beer for passing it along. Melissa, I agree, a nice tune. Anyone else?

Subject: RE: Help ID this fiddle tune
From: clueless don
Date: 22 May 08 - 09:23 AM

I'm sorry that I cannot ID the tune. It sounds like what, in the Irish music tradition, is variously called a Barndance or a German.

Don

Subject: RE: Help ID this fiddle tune
From: Lynn W
Date: 22 May 08 - 02:47 PM

This is driving me mad as it sounds so familiar! Definitely sounds like a barndance/schottische and would sound at home in Northumberland as well as Ireland I think. It reminds me a bit of this one-
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/7795/comments

Not the same tune but there are a few similarities and this appears to be a tune with lots of different versions - there is a link to others in the comments.

Subject: RE: Help ID this fiddle tune
From: Dave Ruch
Date: 22 May 08 - 07:48 PM

Thanks Clueless Don. Others I've run the tune by have also mentioned the barndance or german/schottische, or even reinlander connection.

Lynn W, thanks for the link. Similar in flavor, but definitely a separate tune.

Hmmm.....

Subject: RE: Help ID this fiddle tune
From: GUEST
Date: 23 May 08 - 07:55 AM

I thought I had it! I sure did think that....grabbed the old tune book and it wasn't it...but very similar....listed in "The Fiddler's Tune Book" edited by Peter Kennedy as "The Lass on the Strand"..lovely hornpipes in that book....it's close but no cigar...

Subject: RE: Help ID this fiddle tune
From: Beer
Date: 23 May 08 - 09:20 PM

Dave,
This tune is bugging the hell out of me. This morning I called Ottawa to a fellow who is suppose to know just about all fiddle tune names. Nope, not this time. I then called two knowledgeable fiddle players in Quebec with the same response. I then called Nova Scotia and spoke to Gordon Stobbe"s wife but had no luck as Gordon is out on a Gig and they are leaving first thing in the morning for Montreal. They will give me a call once they get here. I then called Gilles Losier home in New Brunswick only to find out he is also visiting in Montreal. I am now awaiting his call. Gilles plays fiddle but use to do a lot of back up piano playing with T.Jean Carignan .
I am not going to give up on this one. Hopefully an answer will come soon.

Subject: RE: Help ID this fiddle tune
From: GUEST,Songster Bob
Date: 23 May 08 - 09:53 PM

It sounds a lot like the tune that's usually called "The Schottisch" among midwestern fiddlers, and "Rustic Dance" in other places. It's exceedingly common, but doesn't seem to have another name that sticks to it.

I tabbed a version of it on banjo, as played by a traditional player, for my Master's Thesis, back in 1978. I'd have to look up the thesis to recall the player's name and locale, and the thesis is in a file cabinet somewhere.

Bob

Subject: RE: Help ID this fiddle tune
From: Melissa
Date: 23 May 08 - 09:57 PM

It doesn't sound at all like the version of Rustic Dance played around here..by midwestern fiddlers? The second part seems more familiar to me than the first (which reminds me of Mockingbird Hill) The version of Rustic Dance I'm familiar with sounds more like the Swedish Chef song from the Muppet Show to me.

Subject: RE: Help ID this fiddle tune
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 24 May 08 - 05:36 AM

To me this is just another version of a tune that seems to be known throughout the states and UK under various names; Rustic Dance, Schottische, Rochester Schottische, Parkersburg Landing, Heel and Toe Polka etc etc. I once made up a tape of versions from Kentucky, Lousiana (a cajun version) Virginia, East Anglia in the UK and more that I cannot presently recall. My theory is that it was a tune used by traveling dance masters and that the locals heard it, picked it up and played their own versions via the usual folk process. But I ain't a fiddle player so what do I know?

Call it what you like everybody else seems to have done so.

Hoot

Subject: RE: Help ID this fiddle tune
From: greg stephens
Date: 24 May 08 - 07:08 AM

It's very like any number of other English hornpipes, but I can't place it. Sorry. Nice tune!

Subject: RE: Help ID this fiddle tune
From: GUEST,sessioneer
Date: 24 May 08 - 03:51 PM

submit the same question to theSession.org and you'll probably get lucky

Subject: RE: Help ID this fiddle tune
From: Dave Ruch
Date: 27 May 08 - 08:04 AM

Many thanks to all of you (Beer!!) for your comments and efforts. This tune has been run past dozens of others on my personal email list over the past week as well, including many Northern NY fiddlers, and it hasn't clicked for anybody. I guess that makes it
"Dick Law's Clog" or "Dick Law's Schottische" or "Dick Law's Hornpipe".