Annotation:Napoleon's Charge

Back to Napoleon's Charge

NAPOLEON'S CHARGE. AKA and see "Charge of Bonaparte," "Piney Ridge." Old-Time, Breakdown. USA, Kentucky. D Major. DDad tuning (fiddle). AABB. Titon (2001) notes that the names Bonaparte and Napoleon were both variously used by Kentucky fiddlers for the tunes "Bonaparte's Retreat," "Bonaparte's March" and "Bonaparte's Charge" (source Alva Greene also played "Bonaparte's Retreat"). Some fiddlers, he says, played all three tunes together in a kind of suite. Titon also finds W.H. Stepp's "Piney Ridge," recorded by Alan and Elizabeth Lomax in 1937, to be a variant of this tune. "Napoleon's Charge" seems to be related to "Dry and Dusty (2)."

Source for notated version: Alva Greene (Sandy Hook, Elliott County, Ky., 1973) [Titon].

Printed sources: Titon (Old-Time Kentucky Fiddle Tunes), 2001; No. 108, p. 137.

Recorded sources: Pearl Mae 002CS, Bruce Greene & Jim Taylor - "Little Rose is Gone" (1991).

See also listing at:
Hear Alve Greene's field recording (by Kevin Delaney, 1973) at the Digital Library of Appalachia [1] and Berea Digital Content [2]