Subject: TOP 20 AMERICAN FIDDLE TUNES
From:
Lighter
Date: 12 Aug 26 - 03:57 PM
Well, the titles anyway, though for this bunch I'd say titles and tunes are pretty stable.
For a long time I've been searching old newspaper databases for mention of fiddle-tune names. Before the big fiddlin' revival (roughly in the 1980s) there wasn't much mention of tune titles except in the case of "old-fiddlers' contests," which only became newsworthy in the 1890s. And the further back you go, the less you find.
Part of this is because new tunes and titles were/ are always being created.
To make a long story short, the following titles were reported as being played in person (not on recordings, and not just given in tune books) in at least *30* different states between by 1925.
And not just in the South or the Ozarks. These were truly national tunes long before the rise of disk recordings.
The order is roughly from most to least widespread, but this is not a scientific analysis. And remember, these are just titles. There is some overlap in tunes; e.g., "Turkey in the straw" is a post-1860 name for the nearly identical "Natchez Under the Hill," which is a fancier way of playing "Old Zip Coon." By trad standards, all three are the same tune - which is probably the most popular tune of all, with "Arkansas Traveler" number two.
1. Arkansas Traveler
2. Money Musk
3. Fisher's Hornpipe
4. Devil's Dream
5. Soldier's Joy
6. The Girl I Left Behind Me
7. Turkey in the Straw
8. Leather Breeches
9. Sugar in the Gourd
10. Mrs./Miss McLeod's Reel
11. Buffalo Gals
12. Old Dan Tucker
13. Polly (Molly, etc.) Put the Kettle On
14. Old Zip Coon
15. Haste to the Wedding
16. Possum Up the Gum Stump
17. Soapsuds Over the Fence
18. Billy in the Low Ground
19. Durang's (Durant's, Durand's, etc.) Hornpipe
20. The White Cockade
Of the 20 titles, half are directly from British tradition. The reason is simple: they are all from the 18th century and so had a head start in America and have been around much longer. (They are also great tunes.) All of the Top Twenty were common before 1870.
By the way, the complete list runs to more than 5,000 titles - most of which are rare or even idiosyncratic.
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