Cornstalk Fiddle: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 14:44, 9 April 2012

Cornstalk Fiddle Click on the tune title to see or modify Cornstalk Fiddle's annotations. If the link is red you can create them using the form provided.Browse Properties <br/>Special:Browse/:Cornstalk Fiddle Query the Archive
Theme code Index	6533 651H2H
Also known as	Corn Stalk Fiddle, Cornstalk Fiddle and Shoestring Bow
Composer/Core Source
Region	United States
Genre/Style	Old-Time
Meter/Rhythm	Reel (single/double)
Key/Tonic of	G
Accidental	1 sharp
Mode	Ionian (Major)
Time signature	4/4
History	USA(Upland South), USA(Southeast), USA/Central"USA/Central" is not in the list (IRELAND(Munster), IRELAND(Connaught), IRELAND(Leinster), IRELAND(Ulster), SCOTLAND(Argyll and Bute), SCOTLAND(Perth and Kinross), SCOTLAND(Dumfries and Galloway), SCOTLAND(South Ayrshire), SCOTLAND(North East), SCOTLAND(Highland), ...) of allowed values for the "Has historical geographical allegiances" property., USA/Ozarks/Western Tenn"USA/Ozarks/Western Tenn" is not in the list (IRELAND(Munster), IRELAND(Connaught), IRELAND(Leinster), IRELAND(Ulster), SCOTLAND(Argyll and Bute), SCOTLAND(Perth and Kinross), SCOTLAND(Dumfries and Galloway), SCOTLAND(South Ayrshire), SCOTLAND(North East), SCOTLAND(Highland), ...) of allowed values for the "Has historical geographical allegiances" property.
Structure	AABB
Editor/Compiler	Biography:Stacy Phillips
Book/Manuscript title	Book:Traditional American Fiddle Tunes vol. 1
Tune and/or Page number	p. 56
Year of publication/Date of MS	1994
Artist	Clyde Davenport
Title of recording	Puncheon Camps
Record label/Catalogue nr.	Berea College Appalachian Center AC002
Year recorded	1992
Media
Score ()

CORNSTALK FIDDLE (AND SHOESTRING BOW). Old-Time, Breakdown. USA; Kentucky, Mississippi, Arkansas. G Major: A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The title appears in a list of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954. It was recorded by Mississippi fiddler Frank Kittrell for the Library of Congress in 1939 (AFS LC 3035 B2). Although Davenport's tune is different from the tune called "Cotten Eyed Joe," the title "Cornstalk Fiddle" may be in some locales a floating or alternate name for "Cotten-Eyed Joe," a line of whose ditty goes:

Cornstalk fidde, shoestring bow,
Look out, Boys (or, 'Play a little tune'), says Cotten-Eyed Joe.

The ditty that Davenport occasionally sang with the tune went:

My bow's sugar, my bow's sweet;
My bow's sugar and she can't be beat.
Cornstalk fiddle and a shoestring bow (x4)

Jeff Titon (2001) says the 'B' part of Davenport's tune is similar to that of two other of his tunes: it is nearly identical to the 'B' part of "Sugar in My Coffee-O," and close to "Open the Gate and Walk on Through." Titon finds it a variant of "Grape Vine Twist (1)," printed in the publications of Howe and Kerr in the 19th century. The melody also turns up in Lomax and Lomax's Our Singing Country (1941, pp. 68-69) in a song called "Bank of the Arkansas (The)," collected from a woman in Texas.

Source for notated versions: Clyde Davenport (b. 1921, Monticello, Wayne County, Ky., 1990), learned from his father [Phillips, Titon].

Printed sources: Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 1), 1994; p. 56. Titon (Old-Time Kentucky Fiddle Tunes), 2001; No. 28, p. 62.

Recorded source: Berea College Appalachian Center AC002, Clyde Davenport - "Puncheon Camps" (1992). Mississippi Department of Archives and History AH-002, Frank Kittrell (Lauderdale County, Miss.) - "Great Big Yam Potatoes: Anglo-American Fiddle Music from Mississippi" (1985. Originally recorded in 1939).

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 |f_accidental=1 sharp
 |f_mode=Ionian (Major)
-|f_history=USA(Upland South), <b>USA</b>/Southeast, <b>USA</b>/Central, <b>USA</b>/Ozarks/Western Tenn
+|f_history=USA(Upland South), USA(Southeast), <b>USA</b>/Central, <b>USA</b>/Ozarks/Western Tenn
 |f_structure=AABB
 |f_book_title=Traditional American Fiddle Tunes vol. 1