Template:Pagina principale/Vetrina: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 15:40, 29 June 2019

An extremely well-known old-time fiddle tune. One of the earliest printings of a tune by this title is in George P. Knauff's Virginia Reels, volume IV (Baltimore, 1839), where it appears under the title "Love from the Heart" (Knauff also printed a "Mississippi Sawyer (2)" in volume I of his Reels, but this tune is no relation to "Mississippi Sawyer [1]"). Alan Jabbour believes that versions printed in older tune collections suggest the coarse part of the tune was played first, though the fine part is almost universally heard played first among Southern fiddlers in the 20th century. The tune has been known to American fiddlers since the early 19th century, and older fiddlers frequently give the tune's title as "Downfall of Paris (The)." The melody was known particularly in Texas around 1935 as "Downfall of Paris" and was recorded in 1939 (for the Library of Congress) in Tishomingo County, Mississippi, under that title from the playing of John Hatcher. W.H.A. Williams suggests the first section of the Irish tune "Rakes of Mallow (The)" was "appropriated" as the first strain of "Mississippi Sawyer."

Charles Wolfe elucidates the the title and states that a 'sawyer' was a boatsman's term for an uprooted tree whose roots had become partially anchored to the bottom of the stream bed. Though anchored, the river's currents would cause the trunk to bob up and down, often causing the tree to break surface rather suddenly in front of an unsuspecting river craft. On the Mississippi the problem was of such proportions that special government 'snag boats' patrolled the river in order to protect against such menaces. He opines: "Since the Mississippi River trade played a large role in the economic life of most Americans of the 19th century, it could be expected that most fiddlers of the period would have known what a 'Mississippi Sawyer' was, whereas the term's significance has been lost to the majority of contemporary fiddlers" (notes to Rounder Records "Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers The Kickapoo Medecine Show"). Mark Twain, a licensed riverboat pilot in addition to being a renowned writer, knew well the potential menace of sawyers in the river and used the term in fashioning the name of his literary hero, Tom Sawyer.

Ford (1940) relates: "This tune seems to have a strong appeal among old time fiddlers. The writer has heard it at old fiddlers' concerts from coast to coast. When played by a fiddler who loses himself in the swing of its rhythm, his listeners may hear the faint tinkle of anvils, the clinking of horseshoes, and the wetting of sickles and scythes and cradles. It is lively and exciting, yet soothing. The authorship is credited to an early sawmill owner, who set up his mill somewhere near the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. The first enterprise of its kind so far West, it created widespread interest among a people whose only means of producing building materials had been the ax, maul, wedge and rive, and the broadax and adz. Always referred to as 'The Mississippi Sawyer,' the millwright became a noted character and people congregated daily at his mill from miles around. It was a tradition among a later generation that the celebration following the test run of the mill was the occasion for a picnic that lasted for days. The picnickers came in covered wagons, well supplied with good things to eat, and pitched camp in the woods near the mill. All hands took part in handling the logs and lumber as the work got under way, and tables and a dance platform were speedily built of the first boards from the saw. After the day's work an open air banquet was served by the woman, and when it was learned that the sawyer was also a fiddler he was immediately chosen by acclimation to play the opening tune of the dance. Thus came into being 'The Mississippi Sawyer', one of the rare old tunes of American fiddle lore."

It was a 'catagory tune' for an 1899 fiddle contest in Gallatin, Tenn. Each fiddler would play his version of the tune; the rendition judged the best would win the fiddler a prize (C. Wolfe, The Devil's Box, vol. 14, No. 4, 12/1/80).

Emmett Lundy of Galax, Virginia, said: "This tune is a little difficult to play; they ain't many fiddlers that can lay it. They play at it, but they don't get all of it" (Reiner & Anick, 1989). He reportedly felt that fiddlers who did not note with the fourth finger but instead slid up with the third finger did not play the tune correctly. It was in the repertory of early 20th century Arizona fiddler Kenner C. Kartchner (Shumway) and also in repertoires of Uncle Jimmy Thompson (Texas, Tennessee), and Uncle Bunt Stevens (Tennessee), and Buffalo Valley, Pa., region Harry Daddario. The tune was recorded for the Library of Congress by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph from Ozark Mountain fiddlers in the early 1940's, and by Herbert Halpert in 1939 from the playing of Mississippi fiddlers W.E. Claunch, Stephen B. Tucker and Hardy Sharpe. “Mississippi Sawyer” is one of ‘100 essential Missouri tunes’ listed by Missouri fiddler Charlie Walden. Virginia old-time musician Wade Ward played a wonderful, crooked, version of the melody. Interestingly, the Kessinger Brother’s recording of “Mississippi Sawyer” was re-released in Québec, with a French title, “Reel Gaspesien (Le).” 78 RPM recordings were numerous (Gus Meade lists 23 early commercial sides), the earliest being North Carolina fiddler Don Richardson (1916). This was followed by releases by Al Hopkins (1926), Uncle Jimmy Thompson (1926, as “[Karo]”), Ernest Stoneman (1927), Gid Tanner (1928), and the Kessinger Brothers (1929). Arkie the Arkansas Woodchopper recorded it in 1941, and east Kentucky fiddler John Salyer was recorded playing his version (which he called "Fish on a Snag" that same year, by his sons using a home disc recording machine.

An odd, 'crooked', albeit interesting, version of the tune was recorded in 1929 by Montreal fiddler J.O. LaMadeleine as "Quadrille des seigneurs 5ème partie," the last part of a quadrille set.

MISSISSIPPI SAWYER full Score(s) and Annotations and Past Featured Tunes

Mississipi Sawyer

@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 <div style="text-align: justify; margin-left: 0pX; margin-right: 0px;">
 {{break}}
-[[File:Macaroni2.jpg|200px|thumb|left|...and called it Macaroni]]
+[[File:richardson.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Don Richardson]]
-There is some mystery and controversy about the exact origins of one of the most famous tunes in American tradition, "Yankee Doodle" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yankee_Doodle]. Elson ('''The National Music of America''', 1899) finds that the first part of the melody was once quite familiar to Dutch musicians and “has been used in Holland from time immemorial as a children’s song,” however, the second part was not known. The Irish musicologist Flood (1906) maintains "Yankee Doodle" derives from a Jacobite era (early 18th century) song called "[[All the Way to Galway (1)]]." Claims have also been made for Spanish and even Hungarian musical origins. The earliest appearance of the complete melody was claimed by Dr. Rimbault (1876) to have been a printing in Walsh's '''Collection of Dances for the year 1750''' where it he said it appears as "[[Fisher's Jig]]" (a reference to the ‘notorious lady’, Kitty Fisher, who died in 1771). Rimbault later wrote that it was a country dance found under the title “[[Kitty Fisher|Kitty Fisher's Jig]],” written in triple time, but that it was afterwards altered to common time, although the title remained the same (he printed what he said was the Walsh tune in the magazine '''Leisure Hour''', see abc below). The problem is that no one has been able to locate the melody in either Walsh’s publication or in any of Thompson’s Country Dance Books of the same era. “Kitty Fisher” does exist in Thompson and Son’s '''Twenty-four Country Dances for 1760''' but it is a different, duple-time tune, unlike anything resembling what we know as “Yankee Doodle.” A nursery rhyme exists that goes:
+An extremely well-known old-time fiddle tune. One of the earliest printings of a tune by this title is in George P. Knauff's '''Virginia Reels''', volume IV (Baltimore, 1839), where it appears under the title "[[Love from the Heart]]" (Knauff also printed a "[[Mississippi Sawyer (2)]]" in volume I of his '''Reels''', but this tune is no relation to "Mississippi Sawyer [1]"). Alan Jabbour believes that versions printed in older tune collections suggest the coarse part of the tune was played first, though the fine part is almost universally heard played first among Southern fiddlers in the 20th century. The tune has been known to American fiddlers since the early 19th century, and older fiddlers frequently give the tune's title as "[[Downfall of Paris (The)]]."  The melody was known particularly in Texas around 1935 as "Downfall of Paris" and was recorded in 1939 (for the Library of Congress) in Tishomingo County, Mississippi, under that title from the playing of John Hatcher.  W.H.A. Williams suggests the first section of the Irish tune "[[Rakes of Mallow (The)]]" was "appropriated" as the first strain of "Mississippi Sawyer."
-<blockquote><i>
-''Lucy Locket lost her pocket,''<br>
-''Kitty Fisher found it,''<br>
-''Not a bit of money in it,''<br>
-''Only binding round it.''<br>
-</i></blockquote>
-<p>
-This contains Fischer’s name (misspelled, while Lucy Locket was presumably a name taken from a character in '''The Beggars Opera''' of 1727) and scans to the “Yankee Doodle” tune, but any direct relationship remains speculative.
 <br>
 <br>
-If one discounts Rimbault’s claims, it was once thought that the earliest corroborated printed appearance of the “Yankee Doodle” tune was in James Aird’s '''Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 1''' (1782, sometimes dated 1775–76), and George Colman’s opera '''Two to One''' (1784) as a song entitled “Adzooks, Old Crusty, Why so Rusty?”  The tune's mocking connotations with at least a portion of the American colonial population were apparently well-established somewhat before that time. In fact, the tune paired with the "Yankee Doodle" title had been in circulation for some time in America. It was entered into the c. 1730 music manuscript copybook of the Rev. James Pike, a clergyman in Somersworth, New Hampshire, on a page with the "Freemason's March." J.A. Leo Lemay's researches ["The American Origins of 'Yankee Doodle'." '''William and Mary Quarterly''', 33 (July 1976): 435–64] have uncovered that a comic ballad opera (and the first American play) by Andrew Barton, called '''The Disappointment; or, The Force of Credulity''', was the first time the tune appeared in print (in New York and Philadelphia in April, 1767). "Yankee Doodle" appears as Air IV in Act 1, scene iii, sung by "brother Racoon," a dupe on his way to excavate for buried treasure. Unfortunately, Barton's satire proved a bit too biting—at least for Philadelphia, where it was thought that references to the Freemasons and some powerful personages brought too much risk on the production's sponsors—and the performance was cancelled.
+Charles Wolfe elucidates the the title and states that a 'sawyer' was a boatsman's term for an uprooted tree whose roots had become partially anchored to the bottom of the stream bed. Though anchored, the river's currents would cause the trunk to bob up and down, often causing the tree to break surface rather suddenly in front of an unsuspecting river craft. On the Mississippi the problem was of such proportions that special government 'snag boats' patrolled the river in order to protect against such menaces. He opines: "Since the Mississippi River trade played a large role in the economic life of most Americans of the 19th century, it could be expected that most fiddlers of the period would have known what a 'Mississippi Sawyer' was, whereas the term's significance has been lost to the majority of contemporary fiddlers" (notes to Rounder Records "Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers   The Kickapoo Medecine Show"). Mark Twain, a licensed riverboat pilot in addition to being a renowned writer, knew well the potential menace of sawyers in the river and used the term in fashioning the name of his literary hero, Tom Sawyer.
 <br>
 <br>
-Regarding the lyrics, there is little hard evidence for the derivation of the word Yankee, although it was in use as a term to identify New Englanders since the early 18th century. Doodle, on the other hand, has been traced to the Lancashire dialect, and means a trifler or shiftless individual. Of the song itself, Winstock (1970) writes "It is generally accepted that the words were written by (the Englishman) Dr. Richard Shuckburgh around 1755 in derision of the odd looking colonials who had come to help the British regulars fight the French, and the redcoats continued to use it in contempt...”. Elson ('''The National Music of America''', 1899) traces this claim to an early 19th century publication called '''Farmer & Moore’s Monthly Literary Journal''', although there are other, separate attributions to Shuckburgh (whose name is spelled various ways).  The good and witty doctor did not live to see his satire used in the war of rebellion for he died in August, 1773, the '''New York Gazetter''' reporting: “Died, at Schenectady, last Monday, Dr. Richard Shuckburgh, a gentleman of a very genteel family, and of infinite jest and humour.”  In October, 1768, the '''New York Journal''' gave the earliest notice of its performance:
+Ford (1940) relates: "This tune seems to have a strong appeal among old time fiddlers. The writer has heard it at old fiddlers' concerts from coast to coast. When played by a fiddler who loses himself in the swing of its rhythm, his listeners may hear the faint tinkle of anvils, the clinking of horseshoes,  and the wetting of sickles and scythes and cradles. It is lively and exciting, yet soothing. The authorship is credited to an early sawmill owner, who set up his mill somewhere near the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. The first enterprise of its kind so far West, it created widespread interest among a people whose only means of producing building materials had been the ax, maul, wedge and rive, and the broadax and adz. Always referred to as 'The Mississippi Sawyer,' the millwright became a noted character and people congregated daily at his mill from miles around. It was a tradition among a later generation that the celebration following the test run of the mill was the occasion for a picnic that lasted for days. The picnickers came in covered wagons, well supplied with good things to eat, and pitched camp in the woods near the mill. All hands took part in handling the logs and lumber as the work got under way, and tables and a dance platform were speedily built of the first boards from the saw. After the day's work an open air banquet was served by the woman, and when it was learned that the sawyer was also a fiddler he was immediately chosen by acclimation to play the opening tune of the dance. Thus came into being 'The Mississippi Sawyer', one of the rare old tunes of American fiddle lore."
-</p>
+<br>
-<blockquote><i>
+<br>
-''The British fleet was bro’t to anchor near Castle William, in Boston Harbor,''
+It was a 'catagory tune' for an 1899 fiddle contest in Gallatin, Tenn.  Each fiddler would play his version of the tune; the rendition judged the best would win the fiddler a prize (C. Wolfe, '''The Devil's Box''', vol. 14, No. 4, 12/1/80).
-''and the opinion of the visitors to the ships was that the ‘Yankey Doodle''
+<br>
-''Song’ was the capital piece in the band of their musicians.''
+<br>
-</i></blockquote>
+Emmett Lundy of Galax, Virginia, said: "This tune is a little difficult to play; they ain't many fiddlers that can lay it. They play at it, but they don't get all of it" (Reiner & Anick, 1989). He reportedly felt that fiddlers who did not note with the fourth finger but instead slid up with the third finger did not play the tune correctly. It was in the repertory of early 20th century Arizona fiddler Kenner C. Kartchner (Shumway) and also in repertoires of Uncle Jimmy Thompson (Texas, Tennessee), and Uncle Bunt Stevens (Tennessee), and Buffalo Valley, Pa., region Harry Daddario. The tune was recorded for the Library of Congress by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph from Ozark Mountain fiddlers in the early 1940's, and by Herbert Halpert in 1939 from the playing of Mississippi fiddlers W.E. Claunch, Stephen B. Tucker and Hardy Sharpe. “Mississippi Sawyer” is one of ‘100 essential Missouri tunes’ listed by Missouri fiddler Charlie Walden. Virginia old-time musician Wade Ward played a wonderful, crooked, version of the melody. Interestingly, the Kessinger Brother’s recording of “Mississippi Sawyer” was re-released in Québec, with a French title, “[[Reel Gaspesien (Le)]].” 78 RPM recordings were numerous (Gus Meade lists 23 early commercial sides), the earliest being North Carolina fiddler Don Richardson (1916). This was followed by releases by Al Hopkins (1926), Uncle Jimmy Thompson (1926, as “[Karo]”), Ernest Stoneman (1927), Gid Tanner (1928), and the Kessinger Brothers (1929). Arkie the Arkansas Woodchopper recorded it in 1941, and east Kentucky fiddler John Salyer was recorded playing his version (which he called "[[Fish on a Snag]]" that same year, by his sons using a home disc recording machine.
-. . .
+<br>
+<br>
+An odd, 'crooked', albeit interesting, version of the tune was recorded in 1929 by Montreal fiddler J.O. LaMadeleine as "[[Quadrille des seigneurs 5ème partie]]," the last part of a quadrille set.
 </div>
 ----
-[[Annotation:Yankee_Doodle_Dandy|YANKEE DOODLE DANDY full Score(s) and Annotations]] and [[Featured_Tunes_History|Past Featured Tunes]]
+[[Annotation:Mississippi_Sawyer_(1)|MISSISSIPPI SAWYER full Score(s) and Annotations]] and [[Featured_Tunes_History|Past Featured Tunes]]
 <div class="noprint">
@@ Line 35: / Line 29: @@
 </div>
 ----
-[[File:Yankee Doodle Dandy.mp3|left]]
+[[File:Mississippi Sawyer LW.mp3|thumb|left|Mississipi Sawyer]]
 {{break|3}}
-{{#lst:Yankee_Doodle_Dandy|abc}}
+{{#lst:Mississippi_Sawyer_(1)|abc}}