Annotation:Lardner's Reel (1)
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LARDNER'S REEL [1]. AKA and see "King of all Reels." American, Reel. USA, southwestern Pa. A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AA'B (irregular in the 'B' part). The tune originally appeared in blackface minstrel James Buckley's New Banjo Method (1860) under the title "King of all Reels." In his analysis of the tune, Bayard treated the two parts of this tune as separate and pointed out they are seldom found together. "While the first half of this tune occurs pretty frequently in our instrumental tradition, it seems to have no steadfast association with any one second strain." The second strain is shared with "Turnpike Reel (The)", while the first strain is shared with (or related to) "Leviathan Hornpipe" and "Prairie Hornpipe."
The title appears in a list of traditional Ozarks Mountains fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954. Irish variants include the hornpipe "Halfway House (The)" and "Turnpike Reel (The)."
Source for notated version: Irvin Yaugher (Mt. Independence, Fayette County, southwestern Pa., 1946) [Bayard].
Printed sources: Bayard (Hill Country Tunes), 1944; No. 20. Cole (1000 Fiddle Tunes), 1940; p. 19. Harding's Original Collection, 1928; No. 107. Harding's All-Round Collection, 1905 & 1932; No. 178 (appears as "Prairie Hornpipe"). Miller & Perron (New England Fiddlers Repertoire), 1983; No. 69. Robbins (Collection of 200 Jigs, Reels, and Country Dances), 1933; No. 9. Ryan's Mammoth Collection, 1883; p. 44.
Recorded sources: