California Fiddle Tunes 100 Years Ago

Subject: California Fiddle Tunes 100 Years Ago
From: Lighter
Date: 10 Jun 26 - 09:06 AM

The Gustine [Calif.] Standard, Oct. 15, 1936 called attention to the extensive repertoire of a fiddler named Arthur Smith. Smith’s age is unfortunately not given, but the pieces he played are nearly all in the oral/aural tradition: no ragtime hits, no parlor tunes. “Hail to the Chief” and “Hail Columbia” are patriotic outliers; M.W. Balfe’s “Killarney” (included by O'Neill in 19033) came from a popular 1860s melodrama, and Strauss’s “Blue Danube Waltz” (1867) became widely known on the stage.   

The Scottish and Irish influence is strong. Only one or two of Smith's titles are now obscure.

One guesses that Smith’s tunes had been traditional in California and elsewhere in the Far West for at least a generation and very possibly two.

The town was founded in 1915. By 1936 Gustine, roughly a third of the way between San Jose and the Nevada state line, had grown to about 1,200 people.

I’ve alphabetized the titles:

Arkansas Traveler
Billy of [sic] the Low Lands
Blue Bells of Scotland
Blue Danube Waltz
Bonaparte’s March Over the Rhine
Caledonian March
Celebrated Opera Reel
Cincinnati Hornpipe
Devil’s Dream
Fisher’s Hornpipe
Flowers of Edinburgh
Forked Deer
Garry Owen [sic]
Granny, Will Your Dog Bite?
Gray Eagle or Wing Dance
Green Fields of America
Hail Columbia
Hail to the Chief
Haste to the Wedding
Hell Among the Yearlings
Highland Laddie
Hull’s Victory
Irish Washer Woman
Killarney
Larry O’Gaff
Leather Breeches
Monkey [sic] Musk
Ned Kandall’s Hornpipe
O! Susanna
Oyster River Hornpipe
Peeler’s Jacket
Pop Goes the Weasel
Rickett’s Hornpipe
Rosa Lee
Soldier [sic] Joy
Speed the Plow
St. Patrick’s Day
Stony Point
The Campbells are Coming
We Won’t Go Home Until Morning
Wearing of the Green
White Cockade
Wilson’s Clog Dance No. 2

Subject: RE: California Fiddle Tunes 100 Years Ago
From: meself
Date: 10 Jun 26 - 11:58 AM

It's noteworthy that newspapers of the day seemed often to have assumed that their readers would be interested to know which specific tunes were performed in contests and concerts, and, as in this case, what tunes were within a given fiddler's repertoire. Actually, now that I think about it, I can imagine my older, rural relatives - now gone, sadly - reading such a list aloud from the newspaper after supper, with their own commentary ("Now, that's a great old tune!").