Template:Featured Tune: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 11:28, 24 February 2019

Seneca Chief Cornplanter Portrait by F. Bartoli, 1796

"Seneca Square Dance" has been, and continues to be, a popular tune among regional fiddlers, now widespread and a part of the core "old-time revival" repertory. The origin of the title is obscure. Jim Kimball, a musicologist from Genesco, NY, points out that many Seneca indians (part of the Iroquois nation) were relocated to Oklahoma after the War of 1812, and that there is still a large community of Seneca in the northeastern part of that state, not far from southwest Missouri. They were located between the Wyandot reserve and the Cherokee Nation on the Grand River. The tune may also be called after the town of Seneca, Missouri, in the southwestern part of the state (which may itself have taken its name from the Indian tribe). It appears to have had a long history in the United States, judging from some of the alternate title that suggest pre-Civil War times and hiding from authority. A Civil War connection is made with the alternate title “Shelby’s Mules,” a reference to the Confederate cavalry commander General Joseph Shelby.

Johnson (1982/1988) notes that there is an old hymn set to this tune, but does not give specifics. The melody is known to Irish musicians as "John Hoban's Polka" and appears to be related to the tune “(What Shall We Do with a) Drunken Sailor” and perhaps the gospel song “Rock-a My Soul (in the Bosom of Abraham).” A distanced, somewhat odd although regularly phrased version appears in Pioneer Western Folk Tunes (1948) by champion Arizona fiddler Viola “Mom” Ruth, under the title “Get Away from the Federals” with “Fall of Paris” given as an alternate title (which, as "Downfall of Paris," more commonly belongs to a precursor of "Mississippi Sawyer").

"Seneca Square Dance" was recorded for Gennett Records (#3284) on a 78 RPM record in Richmond, Indiana, in January, 1926, by ‘Fiddlin’ Sam Long of the Ozarks’. Long (1876-1931) was born in Kansas but a resident of Oklahoma and Missouri at various times, who actually won a big contest in Missouri when living in Oklahoma. At the time of the recording Long lived in the northeastern part of the state of Oklahoma, near both the reservation and Seneca, Missouri, just across the state line. The side was also released on the Buddy label (#8019, a subsidiary of Gennett) and the Challenge label (a subsidiary of Sears and Roebuck), albeit on the latter Long is credited under the pseudonym "Fiddlin' Dave Neal." Long recorded the tune via acoustic, not electronic methods in 1926, and despite the rather poor quality of the sound it sold well in the Mid-west and West. Gus Meade and W.L. McNeil researched Long and discovered he had been born in 1876 and died sometime in March 1931 (in Burns, Kansas). He was the first Ozarks fiddler to have been recorded. The Gennett recording was reissued by County Records on an LP entitled “Echoes of the Ozarks” in the 1970's.

Fiddlin' Bob Larkin recorded a version with words called "Higher Up the Monkey Climbs." Alton Jones (1918-2002) of Theodosia, Mo., calls it "Seneca War Dance" and Cliff Bryan of West Plains calls it "Got No Little Home to Go to." It is infrequently called “Echoes of the Ozarks,” the name of a different tune (by Clyde Davenport, for one). The late John Hartford (2001) notes similarities with “Turkey Buzzard,” and there are musical similarities to “Shoot that Turkey Buzzard.”

The melody was featured in the score by Ry Cooder for the film The Long Riders. It seems that one of Cooder’s associates, David Lindley, previously performed an idiosyncratic version when he played with folk-rock musician Jackson Browne. There was no name attached to it and it was called “David's Fiddle Tune” at the time.

SENECA SQUARE DANCE full Score(s) and Annotations and Past Featured Tunes

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-[[File:ricketts.jpg|300px|thumb|right|John Bill Ricketts, aka, Breschard, the Circus Rider, by Gilbert Stuart]]
+[[File:Cornplanter.jpg|300px|thumb|right|link=|Seneca Chief Cornplanter Portrait by F. Bartoli, 1796]]
-The particular Rickett honored in the title was a circus promoter, one John Bill Ricketts [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bill_Ricketts] (1769-1800), a Scottish immigrant who came from England in 1792 and flourished in America through the 1790's until his Philadelphia enterprise was destroyed in a fire on Dec. 17, 1799. He reportedly delighted his audiences by dancing hornpipes on the backs of galloping horses [Ivan Tribe], and toward the end of his career hired another famous American hornpipe dancer, John Durang, to produce pantomimes for him.  Alan Jabbour (in "American Fiddle Tunes") says that circuses under his name appeared in New York City, Philadelphia, Norfolk, Charlestown, Albany, Boston, Hartford, and Montreal.
+"Seneca Square Dance" has been, and continues to be, a popular tune among regional fiddlers, now widespread and a part of the core "old-time revival" repertory. The origin of the title is obscure. Jim Kimball, a musicologist from Genesco, NY, points out that many Seneca indians (part of the Iroquois nation) were relocated to Oklahoma after the War of 1812, and that there is still a large community of Seneca in the northeastern part of that state, not far from southwest Missouri. They were located between the Wyandot reserve and the Cherokee Nation on the Grand River. The tune may also be called after the town of Seneca, Missouri, in the southwestern part of the state (which may itself have taken its name from the Indian tribe). It appears to have had a long history in the United States, judging from some of the alternate title that suggest pre-Civil War times and hiding from authority. A Civil War connection is made with the alternate title “Shelby’s Mules,” a reference to the Confederate cavalry commander General Joseph Shelby.
 <br>
-The earliest appearance of the melody is in Alexander McGlashan's Edinburgh-published '''Collection of Scots Measures''' of 1781, with the title "Danced by Aldridge," a reference to the great Irish-born dancer of the late 18th century Robert Aldridge (see note for "[[annotation:Aldridge's Hornpipe (1)]]"). Unfortunately, McGlashan's 3rd measure in the first strain is garbled, and the fourth measure is missing altogether in the printed version (making the first strain only seven measures long). The tune was popular in Britain under a few titles, chiefly "Manchester Hornpipe" and "Yarmouth Hornpipe."  Imported to America, it became a very popular melody in all regions and genres; in the Appalachians it was one of the imported hornpipe tunes that survived relatively intact, and was only slightly less common among fiddlers than "[[Fisher's Hornpipe]]," which is easier to play. In the South the tune lost all connections with the hornpipe dance, and is often played at the same pace as a breakdown.
-[[File:rickettscircus.jpg|460px|thumb|left|Rickett's Circus, Philadelphia, on the corner of Market and 12th St.]]
-Not everywhere, however, for as Mike Yates (2002) remarks, “the tune was actually more popular in the northern cities and is one of the few tunes that is played in the south as a hornpipe.” Collector Samuel Bayard (1981) agreed that the hornpipe was an "exceedingly well-known" piece whose title was almost invariably the same, and he found it as popular among fifers in his collecting region (southwestern Pennsylvania) it was with fiddlers. "Rickett's Hornpipe" was also popular with northeastern U.S. fiddlers, notes Bronner (1987), who writes that by the 1850's it was a common selection for fiddle-tune collections. It retained its popularity into the 20th century and was cited as having frequently been played for country dances in Orange County, New York, in the 1930's (Lettie Osborn, '''New York Folklore Quarterly''').
 <br>
+Johnson (1982/1988) notes that there is an old hymn set to this tune, but does not give specifics. The melody is known to Irish musicians as "[[John Hoban's Polka]]" and appears to be related to the tune “(What Shall We Do with a) Drunken Sailor” and perhaps the gospel song “Rock-a My Soul (in the Bosom of Abraham).” A distanced, somewhat odd although regularly phrased version appears in '''Pioneer Western Folk Tunes''' (1948) by champion Arizona fiddler Viola “Mom” Ruth, under the title “Get Away from the Federals” with “Fall of Paris” given as an alternate title (which, as "[[Downfall of Paris]]," more commonly belongs to a precursor of "[[Mississippi Sawyer]]").
 <br>
-At mid-20th-century it was one of the tunes often in the repertories of amateur fiddlers throughout the country, as, for example with Buffalo Valley, Pa., region dance fiddlers Ralph Sauers and Harry Daddario. Patrick Bonner, a fiddler from Beaver Island, Michigan, recorded the tune on 78 RPM for the Library of Congress. Bonner was the youngest son of immigrants from Arranmore Island, County Donegal (Beaver Island was destination for a number of Arranmore families), and the Donegal fiddle tradition can be heard in his playing. It was even recorded on a 78 RPM by the Irish-American group Dan Sullivan’s Shamrock Band. The tune was recorded for the Library of Congress by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph from Ozarks Mountains fiddlers in the early 1940's, for the same institution by Herbert Halpert from Mississippi fiddler Stephen B. Tucker (b. 1859) in 1939 (under the title "[[Raker's Hornpipe]]"), and in 1937 from the playing of Luther Strong (Hazard, Kentucky). It was played by R.L. Stephens of Camp Hill, Alabama, at a contest in Columbus, Georgia, according to the '''Columbus Enquirer''' of December 10 & 12, 1926 (Cauthen, 1990). One Georgia band heard on mid-1920’s radio playing “Rickett’s Hornpipe” consisted of a pair of uncles and a pair of nephews; the uncles were fiddlers Newt and Ed Tench, aged sixty-four and sixty-one years of age, who claimed to have been playing the fiddle for forty-five years or more.  According to the newspaper the '''Atlanta Journal''', they had “an enviable reputation as musicians in the mountain districts of Georgia,” and they had fiddled together so long that “harmony between the two is merely a matter of second nature.” (quoted by Wayne W. Daniel, '''Pickin’ on Peachtree''', 1990, p. 54).
 <br>
+"Seneca Square Dance" was recorded for Gennett Records (#3284) on a 78 RPM record in Richmond, Indiana, in January, 1926, by ‘Fiddlin’ Sam Long of the Ozarks’.  Long (1876-1931) was born in Kansas but a resident of Oklahoma and Missouri at various times, who actually won a big contest in Missouri when living in Oklahoma. At the time of the recording Long lived in the northeastern part of the state of Oklahoma, near both the reservation and Seneca, Missouri, just across the state line.   The side was also released on the Buddy label (#8019, a subsidiary of Gennett) and the Challenge label (a subsidiary of Sears and Roebuck), albeit on the latter Long is credited under the pseudonym "Fiddlin' Dave Neal."   Long recorded the tune via acoustic, not electronic methods in 1926, and despite the rather poor quality of the sound it sold well in the Mid-west and West. Gus Meade and W.L. McNeil researched Long and discovered he had been born in 1876 and died sometime in March 1931 (in Burns, Kansas). He was the first Ozarks fiddler to have been recorded. The Gennett recording was reissued by County Records on an LP entitled “Echoes of the Ozarks” in the 1970's.
 <br>
-Versions of “Rickett’s” are still quite common among traditional musicians in southern England, where it’s usually called “[[Pidgeon on the Gate]]” or “[[We'll Sit upon the Gate]].” Cumbrian (northwest England) musician William Irwin entered a very similar hornpipe in his c. 1850 copybook under the title "[[Orton Hornpipe]]." County Cork cleric and uilleann piper Canon James Goodman's mid-19th century music manuscript collection (vol. iii, p. 97) contains a version of "Rickett's" called "[[Merthyr Hornpipe]]." Cecil Sharp collected a version he called "Six Hand Reel" from Oxfordshire concertina player William Kimber on 17.4.1908 (Full English Digital Archive Reference: CJS2/10/1658).
+<br>
+Fiddlin' Bob Larkin recorded a version with words called "[[Higher Up the Monkey Climbs]]." Alton Jones (1918-2002) of Theodosia, Mo., calls it "Seneca War Dance" and Cliff Bryan of West Plains calls it "Got No Little Home to Go to."  It is infrequently called “Echoes of the Ozarks,” the name of a different tune (by Clyde Davenport, for one). The late John Hartford (2001) notes similarities with “[[Turkey Buzzard]],” and there are musical similarities to “[[Shoot that Turkey Buzzard]].”
+<br>
+<br>
+The melody was featured in the score by Ry Cooder for the film '''The Long Riders'''. It seems that one of Cooder’s associates, David Lindley, previously performed an idiosyncratic version when he played with folk-rock musician Jackson Browne. There was no name attached to it and it was called “David's Fiddle Tune” at the time.
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-[[Annotation:Rickett%27s_Hornpipe|RICKETT'S HORNPIPE full Score(s) and Annotations]] and [[Featured_Tunes_History|Past Featured Tunes]]
+[[Annotation:Seneca_Square_Dance|SENECA SQUARE DANCE full Score(s) and Annotations]] and [[Featured_Tunes_History|Past Featured Tunes]]
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-T:Rickett's Hornpipe
-M:C
-L:1/8
-S:Anonymous 1862 American music manuscript collection (p. 3)
-N: https://archive.org/stream/MerryMen/MUMSS-00079#page/n0/mode/2up
-Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion
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