Annotation:Bummer's Reel (1)
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BUMMER'S REEL [1]. AKA and see "Fletcher's Delight," "Levantine's Barrel," "Reilly's Own," "Tullamore Piper (The)." Old-Time, Breakdown. USA; Pennsylvania, Vermont. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The tune was printed by S.S. Stewart (Phila., Pa.) in a piano/banjo arrangement (by Thomas J. Armstrong) in 1884. Stewart was a music publisher as well as a banjo manufacturer. Bayard (1981) finds no particular antecedents from the British Isles or Europe, and believes it may be an American composition that perhaps derived from Irish tradition; at any rate he says it was a great favorite with Pennslvania fiddlers. He did find an Irish tune, "Bean an Tighe ar Lar" (Woman of the House), with an 'A' part that was similar to the 'A' part of "Bummer's Reel," but with a different 'B' part. O'Neill maintains the piece is similar to "Cows Are a-Milking (The)," while Bayard finds another Irish tune with similarities under the title "Maighstreas an Ti" (Lady of the House). Some versions of "Bummer's Reel," keeping in mind that many American variants have considerable differences, are similar to the American tune "Peaches and Cream." R.P. Christeson (1973, p. 109) gives a tune, "Breakdown No. 155" from Bob Walters (Burt County) [Nebraska], and identifries the parent tune as "Bummer's Reel." A version also appears in Howe's collection, c. 1860.
Source for notated version: Harvey Thompson (Pa.) [Christeson]; Harry Daddario (Union County, Pa.) [Guntharp]; Bayard (1981) gives 10 versions from 10 different southwestern Pa. fiddling and fifing sources; Elmer Barton (Vt.) [Phillips].
Printed sources: Bayard (Hill Country Tunes), 1944; No. 49 (appears as an untitled reel). Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 247A-J, pp. 206-209. R.P. Christeson (Old Time Fiddlers Repertory, vol. 2), 1984; p. 74. Guntharp (Learning the Fiddler's Ways), 1980; p. 104. Sweet (Fifer's Delight), 1964; p. 49.
Recorded sources: