Annotation:Little Donald in the Pigpen

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LITTLE DONALD IN THE PIGPEN. Canadian, Reel. Canada, Prince Edward Island. A Mixolydian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Dunlay): AAB (Perlman): AABB (Songer). Ken Perlman, in The Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island (1996), writes that fiddler Hector MacDonald (Bangor, Kings County, PEI) came up with the name in the 1930's while performing it on the radio. Dunlay & Greenberg note that the second turn of the tune sounds like some settings of "Pigeon on the Gate."

Sources for notated versions: Stanley Myers (of Holbrook, Mass., originally from Marinvale, Prince Edward Island) [Dunlay & Greenberg, Dunlay and Reich]; Leonard MacDonald (b. 1933, Emyvale, Queens County, Prince Edward Island) [Perlman]; Oregon fiddler David Reich via Rick Macquoid (Portland, Oregon) [Songer].

Printed sources: Dunlay & Greenberg (Traditional Celtic Violin Music of Cape Breton), 1996; p. 54. Dunlay and Reich (Traditional Celtic Fiddle Music of Cape Breton), 1986; p. 37. Perlman (The Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island), 1996; p. 98. Songer (Portland Collection), 1997; p. 126.

Recorded sources: CEI 8001, Winnie Chafe - "Echoes" (1988). RF-9001, John Morris Rankin - "Fare Thee Well Love." Nimbus NI 5383, John Morris Rankin et al. - "Traditional Music from Cape Breton Island" (1993).

See also listing at:
Alan Snyder's Cape Breton Fiddle Recordings Index [1]
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [2]

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