Help: St Ann's Reel

Subject: St Ann's Reel
From: richardw
Date: 21 Mar 00 - 11:30 AM

Does anyone know who wrote or where St. Anne's reel comes from?

Richard

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: kendall
Date: 21 Mar 00 - 11:35 AM

St. Ann's reel is an old tune from Canada. My friend, Dave Mallett wrote a song about the tune which I would post if you want it.

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: Willie-O
Date: 21 Mar 00 - 11:50 AM

Usually identified as a Quebecois tune. There are several songs and ditties which use and purport to be about it.

Such as...

(A part melody)
everybody's wondering if St Anne's real
If Ste Annes' Real, if St Anne's real,
Everybody's wondering if Ste Anne's real,
Is she really really really really real?

(B part melody)
Is she really really real, is she really really real
Is she really really really really really really real?
Is she really really real, is she really really real?
Is she really really really really really really real?

Try that with a few pints inya...

Willie-O

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: kendall
Date: 21 Mar 00 - 12:16 PM

Dave does not write ditties

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: zander (inactive)
Date: 21 Mar 00 - 02:15 PM

It's a traditional Irish reel tune. Dave

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 21 Mar 00 - 03:55 PM

It's played a lot in Ireland (and Scotland and England), but only arrived there relatively recently; from Canada, according to most.  I believe it's also known as Reel de Sainte Agathe.

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: Barbara
Date: 21 Mar 00 - 05:21 PM

I believe there is also a leg-puller of a song about St Anne's (fishing) Reel, that I heard was written by Michelle Shocked.
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: richardw
Date: 21 Mar 00 - 08:04 PM

Thanks for all the help.I am hoping it is from the 19th C, for a recording project.

Richard

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: Bud Savoie
Date: 21 Mar 00 - 08:55 PM

My guess is that it was written by a fiddler from the Quebecois parish/village of Ste-Anne, possibly identical with Ste-Anne-de-Beaupre. Yes, it is also known as Ste-Agathe, which is the name of another parish/village. I have never met a French-Canadian fiddler who did not play it and consider it one of his standards. I don't believe that there ever were any French words for it.

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 21 Mar 00 - 09:26 PM

Could someone stick a link to a sound file of it? I love the tune when I'm listenig to it or playing it, but I just can't bring it to mind at otgher times, for some reason.

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: harpgirl
Date: 21 Mar 00 - 09:32 PM

...McGrath...I go here for tunes

but I forgot my html

http://trillian.mit.edu/~JC/music/abc/FindTune.html

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: harpgirl
Date: 21 Mar 00 - 09:33 PM

... also known as JC's ABC tunefinder

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 21 Mar 00 - 09:46 PM

This may work:   Saint Anne's Reel  at JC's Tunefinder.

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 21 Mar 00 - 11:06 PM

harpgirl, I don't think your URL is correct. Malcolm, your link takes me to St. Anne's reel, but is there a way of getting to the intro page for this? It sounds like it should be a great resource!

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 21 Mar 00 - 11:30 PM

OK, I found it in -- where else? -- the Mudcat Links. Here is JC's ABC Tune Finder. (harpgirl, I think your problem was your capital letters.)
Now I have to find out how to turn those cryptic ABC files into real (written) music. I followed the link to the ABC homepage and got hopelessly lost in a discussion of compilers. Anybody know a program that will do it painlessly? Or is it already in the Tune Finder and I just didn't go far enough?
(St. Anne's Reel was the first -- and only -- tune I learned on the mandolin!)

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 21 Mar 00 - 11:33 PM

Mark:

http://trillian.mit.edu/~jc/music/abc/FindTune.html.

Certainly is useful!

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 21 Mar 00 - 11:42 PM

Sorry for the duplicated link; I was composing as you were posting!  Chris Walshaw's ABC Homepage is the best place for links to abc-related software, though the variety is a bit confusing at first.  ABC2Win does a good job of rendering abc to staff notation; I should try that.

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: GUEST,Den
Date: 22 Mar 00 - 12:19 PM

Isn't this the same tune as Miss MacCloud's? Den

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: Willie-O
Date: 22 Mar 00 - 12:41 PM

Certainly isn't. Sorry. Definitely not. If you are basing this notion on an ABC file or something, someone mislabelled something.

They are both I-IV-V major scale reels with two parts, and the B parts are somewhat similar. But definitely different. St Annes is usually played in D, Miss McLeods in G or A.

Kendall, I know Dave Mallett doesn't write ditties. I don't know who came up with the one I inserted above-- "wrote" is probably too strong a word. But its fun to sing once or twice if you're with a bunch of players and they seem stuck on that tune...benn known to happen.

W-O

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 22 Mar 00 - 02:11 PM

"St Annes is usually played in D, Miss McLeods in G or A"

Surely it depends where you are, and whose playing what. I know bluegrass musicians seem to be very aware of some keys as being "correct" for particular tunes, but that's just bluegrass musicians for you...

Anyway that's a really handy tune resource. Thanks. And it's a great tune isn't it?

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: GUEST,Barry Taylor
Date: 22 Mar 00 - 04:07 PM

I've done a midi of the tune here. Great tune!

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: GUEST,beadie
Date: 22 Mar 00 - 04:44 PM

On one of the generic "Folk Music of Scotland" cds available at most music outlets, you should be able to find a cut of a vocal variation on St. Anne's by a trio called North Sea Gas. They call their piece "The Ballad of St. Anne's Reel. The reel is actually the intraverse interlude and ending fade.

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: Kim C
Date: 22 Mar 00 - 05:31 PM

St. Anne's goes back AT LEAST to the 19th century, if not before. Fiddle and dance tunes are often so old, and have been handed down and around so many times, sometimes there's no definitive answer on their origins.

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: SDShad
Date: 22 Mar 00 - 06:25 PM

I've only recently become aware of the song you mention, beadie, "The Ballad of St. Anne's Reel." Tommy Makem and Liam Clancy did a marvelous version of it on, I believe, _Two For the Early Dew_.

Chris

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: harpgirl
Date: 22 Mar 00 - 06:30 PM

Mark, The GIF files are the music and the MIDI is there as well!

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: PA Dan
Date: 22 Mar 00 - 06:42 PM

The Clancy-Makem version is also on their 'Collected' CD (Shanachie)

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 23 Mar 00 - 02:19 AM

Forgive me if it's been mentioned already but BALLAD OF SAINT ANNE'S REEL is in the DT at http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=454

Can anyone confirm please that it is sung to the same tune as the reel. The DT is silent in this regard. Cheers, John

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 23 Mar 00 - 03:16 AM

Don't know squat about the tune, but I do know that St Anne's story (being the virgin mother of the blessed virgin Mary) was made up entirely to continue the veneration of said BVM and she has more churches named for her in UK than St Joseph, husband of the BVM who is actually mentioned in the bible! It was his feast day on Monday and he's the patron saint of workers, a feast transferred from May 1st - that is why that day has always been associated with workers and holidays.....

LTS who is going to go back to bed now, and stop being so smarmy smartass....

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: jeffp
Date: 23 Mar 00 - 08:42 AM

Dave Mallett's "Ballad of St. Anne's Reel" is not to the tune of St. Anne's Reel. However, on Makem and Clancy's version, the reel is used for the instrumental interludes, and, if I recall correctly (don't count on it!), as an outro. Great song, always gives me chills.

jeffp

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: DocMando
Date: 23 Mar 00 - 09:59 AM

There's a very pretty version of St. Anne's Reel (as well as a bunch of other tunes) in .mp3 format here: http://www.traditionaltunes.com/tunes.html#tunes

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 23 Mar 00 - 08:15 PM

If my memory serves me well, didn't John Denver also record the Ballad of St Anne's Reel ?

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: BanjoRay
Date: 23 Mar 00 - 08:48 PM

So that's how you spell it. I always thought it was called Stan's Reel. Cheers Ray

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: Gypsy
Date: 24 Mar 00 - 12:23 AM

Backing way up....(haven't checked in for a few days), the easiest ABC program is Jim Vints, and (tah dah) it is shareware. Yep, absolutely free. go to: www.execpc.com/~jimvint/ You can buy the program for about 20.00, and it really works like magic. Punch it in, and it spits out notation like nobodies business.

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 26 Mar 00 - 10:38 AM

The Dubliners do David Mallett's song on their 'Celebration' album (1987). Is the original reel used in this recording? (I don't know the reel, not being a musician, so I wouldn't recognise it and would be grateful for a pointer.) - Susanne

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 12 Mar 03 - 02:09 PM

Just got here from a more recent thread so this answer is more than a little late...

Susanne, yes the Dubliners did play the reel in between verses and at the end. As there is mention of keys here, from memory, they did the song and reel in G and then moved it up to D (the key I would normaly expect in a session) for the last couple of runs through.

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: GUEST,Murray on Salt Spring
Date: 12 Mar 03 - 04:04 PM

Yes, folks, but can anyone answer the question of its origin? First publication? Etc.

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 12 Mar 03 - 04:50 PM

Where does it come from?

In our local session book it comes from a few pages in front of "St. Ruth's Bush."

Excuse the attempt at a joke. All the print copies I've seen simply call it "trad," but the local books aren't big on historical accuracy.

It might be worth noting that what appears to be the more traditional (folk?) version is quite a bit different from the version favored by our local "Irish" players. The Irish version is a little "modal?"

There is also a third version favored by the local bluegrassers that's adapted to "very fast guitar play" by leaving out all the pretty notes and keeping only the beat. A few of our local fiddlers also seem to like this one, but probably only because they learned from the guitar player. (note: no insult to real bluegrass musicians intended - you know the kind I mean.)

The local "guitar" version is obviously a fairly recent corruption, but it would be interesting to know which of the other two (musical) versions came first.

John

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: GUEST,sorefingers
Date: 12 Mar 03 - 08:02 PM

Obviously it was penned by St Anne.

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 12 Mar 03 - 09:20 PM

I don't know the origin but the tune was made popular from the playing of Don Messer. I think that Mallatt's ballad was written as a tribute to Messer.

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 12 Mar 03 - 10:08 PM

Among much else, The Fiddlers' Companion states:

"The earliest printing of St. Anne's [Reel] appears to be in the Jarman collections of the 1930's and 1940's, where arrangement is credited to John Burt with a copyright date of 1937."

The Jarman collections are Canadian tunebooks. I doubt if the reel reached Ireland (or Scotland and England, where it is played quite as much) until the 1970s, but one never knows.

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: Terry K
Date: 13 Mar 03 - 02:36 AM

and it's included in the BBC folk website's Virtual Session if anyone wants to play along with it.

cheers, Terry

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: open mike
Date: 13 Mar 03 - 04:22 AM

in emergency medical terms bvm = bag valve mask, used in resuscitation.
I presume liz uses it meaning blessed virgin mary? The senior fiddler
I often accompanied when he was a contestant in fiddle championships swore the tune was called St. Angie's reel--it was often his winnning number! Does anyone remember a canadian fiddle tune metioned in a thread recently that was attributed to a canadian fiddler not too long ago? I wanted to search for the tune, but now have quite forgotten the name, is that enough of a clue to remember the name? I believe it was within the week it was mentioned in another thread, but no search has brought it back. brain fart.

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: Snuffy
Date: 13 Mar 03 - 08:45 AM

Not Ashokan Farewell?

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: TS
Date: 07 May 04 - 03:56 PM

I'm not sure that Dave Mallett wrote St. Anne's Reel. He certainly wrote the lyrics to "Ballad of St. Anne's Reel"

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 07 May 04 - 04:07 PM

You haven't read the thread, have you?

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 07 May 04 - 05:21 PM

When all is said and much less is done, it looks like the tune was composed in the 1930's. Too bad.

open mike: is the song you are thinking of the Ookpik Waltz? There was a thread on it recently. Ookpik is an Inuit word for a kind of owl.

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: Lyrical Lady
Date: 08 May 04 - 01:41 AM

I always thought it originated from St. Anne's on Prince Edward Island Canada.. could be wrong though. It's one of my favorite tunes that Musicman does...maybe PM him for more info.

LL

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: kendall
Date: 08 May 04 - 07:15 AM

Many people have recorded Dave's Ballad of St. Anns Reel. It's a song about a tune, and of course he didn't write the tune, hell he's just a kid!

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: open mike
Date: 13 Feb 05 - 07:37 PM

http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display.php/103
http://www.dulcimers.com/tunes/stanne.html--this one is good midi and pdf file of written music...
this one nees some sort of plug-in--
http://bluegrassguitar.com/tabs/StAnnesReel.html
http://otsma2003.tripod.com/fiddle_tunes/stannesreel.htm

Subject: RE: Help: St Anne's Reel
From: GUEST,mandolearner
Date: 16 Aug 09 - 05:38 PM

This is a lovely version - and it comes in notation and tablature for guitar, mandolin, fiddle ... etc. etc. etc. AND with an MP3 you can play along with!!

http://jaybuckey.com/free_tablature.htm

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 16 Aug 09 - 07:56 PM

Don Messer playing the tune:

St. Anne's Reel

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: HiHo_Silver
Date: 16 Aug 09 - 08:05 PM

Over the years have heard many variations of this tune. It has been around this region since at least the early forties. I first heard it from fellows who came home from the lumber camps in N. S. and N. B. The followinmg is the version I play.
T:Saint Anne's Reel
M:C|
L:1/4
R:reel
Z:Originally French Canadian, now firmly adopted in Ireland. Madison.
K:D
de|fedf edcB|A2 FA DAFA|B2GB EBGB|A2 FA DAFA|fedf edcB|A2 FA DAFA|BGBd c
Ace|d2 dc d2:|
ag|fdfa fdfa|aggf~g3f|edcB Acea|baa^g a3=g|fdfa fdfa|aggf~g3f|edcBAcec|d
edc d2:|
% ABC2Win Version 2.1 12/6/2000

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 16 Aug 09 - 08:06 PM

Mallett's song:

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 16 Aug 09 - 08:08 PM

Mallett's song:

The Ballad of St.Anne's Reel

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: Jeremiah McCaw
Date: 17 Aug 09 - 11:03 AM

On the lighter side, here's a lyric from 'Stompin' Tom Connors


ST. ANNE'S SONG AND REEL
"Stompin'" Tom Connors



I was livin' in the city where you never get to know why they never play a fiddle on the radio
Then one day I met a country girl and now I'm a -livin' in another world

Up and to the barn dance we did go, swing your honey and you doh-se-doh
Fiddle up a little bit of St. Ann's Reel, promenade her home and you click your heels



A little sip of cider wouldn't do her any harm when you take her for a hayride on the farm
Make that country girl your wife and you'll be happy all your life

Pick a little guitar, sing a little song, Gran' ma got the old man steppin' right along
Do a little kissin' if you get a little chance when you do a little swingin' at the Old Barn Dance



The little dog chewin' on the old man's pipe and the old man chewin' at the dog all night
Where did the caller's hair-piece go? It's hangin' on the end of the fiddler's bow

Have another corn-cob, yellow and big, clap your hands now and do a little jig
Swing your honey all around the hall, promenade her home now and that'll be all.


Note: the vocal follows the form of one "A" part followed by one "B" part. The instrumental part follows the conventional A A B B form

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel/dance notation
From: GUEST,veronica partridge
Date: 20 Sep 09 - 03:22 PM

i'm doing a scottish ceilidh soon.. anyone know if there is a dance for st.anne's reel

Subject: RE: Help: St Ann's Reel
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Sep 09 - 07:47 AM

It occurred to me recently that you could write some great lyrics and sing it as "Satan's Real" if you were that way inclined.