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Latest revision as of 16:17, 4 October 2024

Composed by Braxton County, West Virginia, old-time fiddler Ernie Carpenter (1909-1997).

According to the booklet accompanying Carpenter's LP, the story behind the tune is one of a difficult adjustment to a forced change in Ernie's life. He had worked most of his life for the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company in Clarksburg, prior to retiring in 1972 to his home in Braxton County, West Virginia.

He was a regular visitor during his working years to his homeplace on the Elk River, and was witness to the planning and construction of the Sutton Dam by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the river during the 1950's and 1960's.

Unfortunately, this resulted in the flooding of his boyhood home and the surrounding area, despite the efforts of himself and neighbors to forestall the project through a lobbyist. He refused the government's initial offer for his land (they didn't offer him anything for his house), and took the case to court.

He was able to gain a marked increase in the money he eventually was paid through this process, although he had to pay legal fees out of his pocket. He stayed in his Elk River homestead while the dam was being constructed, even though most of his neighbors had already left. Workmen blocked the roads in and out of the area, but Carpenter found alternate routes until they too were closed off.

"I was the last person out of there," he said," I went ahead then and tore the old place town and brought it up here. Part of its in this house." Of the tune, he remarked: "I was sittin' here one day, an' I had the blues. I reckon as bad as anybody could, thinkin' about my old homeplace up on the Elk River. I started sawin' on the fiddle an' that's what I came up with."

...more at: Elk River Blues - full Score(s) and Annotations

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{SheetMusic
-|f_track=Banks Hornpipe.mp3
+|f_track=Elk River Blues.mp3
-|f_pdf=Banks Hornpipe.pdf
+|f_pdf=Elk River Blues.pdf
-|f_artwork=Banks hornpipe.png
+|f_artwork=Ernie Carpenter.jpg
-|f_tune_name=Banks Hornpipe
+|f_tune_name=Elk River Blues
-|f_track_title=Banks_Hornpipe_(1)
+|f_track_title=Elk River Blues
 |f_section=abc
-|f_played_by=[https://soundcloud.com/marylaplant Mary LaPlant]
+|f_played_by=[https://soundcloud.com/jatek-zenekar Jatek Zenekar]
-|f_notes= Stephen Grier music manuscript collection (Book 3, c. 1883, No. 1, p. 1)
+|f_notes=Ernie Carpenter (1909-1997)
-|f_caption=The Grier setting has the coherence to justify attributing this tune to Morgan, whoever that Morgan was. Some day we may find out.
+|f_caption=According to the booklet accompanying Carpenter's LP, the story behind the tune is one of a difficult adjustment to a forced change in Ernie's life.
-|f_source=[https://soundcloud.com/marylaplant/banks-hornpipe-instrumental Soundcloud]
+|f_source=[https://soundcloud.com/jatek-zenekar/elk-river-blues Soundcloud]
 |f_pix=420
 |f_picpix=200
-|f_article=[[Banks_Hornpipe_(1) | '''Banks Hornpipe''']]
+|f_article=[[Elk River Blues | '''Elk River Blues''']]
-Irish fiddlers have often recorded "The Banks" as well, including Michael Coleman, Lad O'Beirne, Sean McGuire, Andy McGann, Sean Keane, Seamus McGuire, and Joe Burke. Queens, New York, fiddler Brian Conway plays an exquisite version. However, Fr. John Quinn finds versions in Irish tradition in much earlier musicians' music manuscripts under the title "Morgan's Hornpipe." Fr. Quinn analyzed versions of the tune and came to some surprising conclusions:
+Composed by Braxton County, West Virginia, old-time fiddler Ernie Carpenter (1909-1997).
-<blockquote>
-''If one carefully studied the ABC structure of a fairly complete selection of tune variants, one might be expected to arrive at what the'' ''original setting the composer intended. It might become obvious how jumbled settings arose from performers not understanding the original'' ''intended structure.''
+According to the booklet accompanying Carpenter's LP, the story behind the tune is one of a difficult adjustment to a forced change in Ernie's life. He had worked most of his life for the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company in Clarksburg, prior to retiring in 1972 to his home in Braxton County, West Virginia.
-''A case in point is “Morgan’s Hornpipe”,'' [Stephen] ''Grier’s'' [1883] ''version of which I attach...The tune has a very clear structure:'' ''A, B+A; A’, B’+A’. The second half of the second part is a repeat of the first part. The third part is a variant on the first part, and'' ''the fourth a variant on the second plus a repeat of the variant on the first part. I imagine if Morgan, if he was the composer, wished to'' ''add a further variation, it would be A”, B”+A”, and if another A’’’, B’’’+A’’’, etc. ''
+He was a regular visitor during his working years to his homeplace on the Elk River, and was witness to the planning and construction of the Sutton Dam by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the river during the 1950's and 1960's.
+Unfortunately, this resulted in the flooding of his boyhood home and the surrounding area, despite the efforts of himself and neighbors to forestall the project through a lobbyist. He refused the government's initial offer for his land (they didn't offer him anything for his house), and took the case to court.
-''But it is obvious that nobody that I know of who has gone into print, or who has attempted to play this tune, actually understood the'' ''original intended structure. W.B. Lawrence, in'' '''Köhler''', ''has quite a jumbled structure: A, B+A”, A’+A’’’. Scott Skinner has'' ''perpetuated this structure, only varying the individual bars in his highly ornamented version, published by Hardie. In Ireland, Coleman'' ''and Maguire popularised this jumble.'' '''Ryan’s Mammoth Collection''' ''has a simpler setting, closer to the original, but which also'' ''doesn’t understand the intended structure: he has A, B+A’, B’. He claims Luigi Ostinelli of Boston as the composer, whereas Hardie has''
+He was able to gain a marked increase in the money he eventually was paid through this process, although he had to pay legal fees out of his pocket. He stayed in his Elk River homestead while the dam was being constructed, even though most of his neighbors had already left.  Workmen blocked the roads in and out of the area, but Carpenter found alternate routes until they too were closed off.
-''the story about Parazotti composing it under Mrs. Taff’s roof. The garbled structure of both Ostinelli’s and Parazotti’s “compositions”''
-''is proof enough to me that neither of them was the composer.''
+"I was the last person out of there," he said," I went ahead then and tore the old place town and brought it up here. Part of its in this house." Of the tune, he remarked: "I was sittin' here one day, an' I had the blues. I reckon as bad as anybody could, thinkin' about my old homeplace up on the Elk River. I started sawin' on the fiddle an' that's what I came up with."
-''The Grier setting attached has the coherence to justify attributing this tune to Morgan, whoever that Morgan was. Some day we may find'' ''out. If there were no other reference associating this gentleman with this hornpipe, we might be inclined to say maybe Grier called it'' ''after someone he got it from, for example. But there is an oblique reference to our man: John McCarthy of Cappamore, whose manuscripts'' ''range from 1876 to 1912, has a very minimal manuscript version of the tune, with structure A, A’ only, but with the title “The Morigan'' ''Hornpipe”. The intrusive “i” may be just the way “Morgan” was pronounced, following a similar intrusive “ə” whenever a “g” follows an''
-'' “r” in Gaelic.''
 }}