Annotation:Calgary Polka
X:1 T: Gaudette Polka T: Calgary Polka C: Louis Gaudette Z:V.T. Williams M:2/4 K:A cd|(3efe ce fecf|(3efe ce c'aec|(3efe ce fecf|(3efe ce c'aec| (3efe de bged|(3efe ce c'aec|b2gb (3aba fa|(3gag eg (3fgf df| (3efe ce fecf|(3efe ce c'aec|(3efe ce fecf|(3efe ce c'aec| (3efe de bged|(3efe ce c'aec|bagf edcB|A4[ca]2|| AB|c2[cf]4cd|e2e4ea|(3fgf ea (3fgf ea|(3fgf ec dfec| B2[Bf]4Bc|d2[de]4eg|(3fgf eg (3fgf eg|(3fgf ea fedB| c2[cf]4cd|e2e4ea|(3faf ea (3faf ea|(3faf ec dfec| ddbd adbd|ccac gcac|(3gag fe (3cdc BG|A4[ca]2|| CB,|A,2 A,3 C EA|c2(3dcB ceac'|e'c'ae c'aec|aecA ecAF| E2 E3 G Be|g2(3agf gege|d'bge d'bge|c'aec AFEC| A,2 A,3 C EA|c2(3dcB ceac'|e'c'ae c'aec|aecA ecAc| ddbd adbd|ccac gcac|(3gag fe (3cdc BG|A4[ca]2|]
CALGARY POLKA. AKA and see "Gaudet Polka, Gaudette Polka." American; Polka. USA, New England, Western/Pacific, Texas. A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AA'BCAA'. Composed by Louis Gaudette, who may have been a French-Canadian musician living in New England. Frank Ferrel brought this tune to the Northwest from New England, and Washington State fiddler Joe Pancerzewski learned it from him. Joe and Mark O'Connor both competed at a fiddle contest in Calgary, and Mark learned the tune from Joe, but didn't learn the name of it, so Mark called it the Calgary Polka.
Calgary, Alberta, was named in 1876 by Colonel MacLeod, after his boyhood home, "a little inlet on the sparsely populated island of Mull, with a few grey cottages and one big house" (Matthews, 1972). The word is Norse in origin and may have meant an enclosure for calves.