Annotation:Red Brick House in Georgia Town
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RED BRICK HOUSE IN GEORGIA TOWN, THE. American, Breakdown. A Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. "The five forgoing tunes (previous tunes untitled except for 'Swallow Tail'), Nos. 44-48, have been placed together because they are cognates--descendants (so far as we can make out from the internal evidence of their melodic lines, phrasal structure and formulae) of some single original melody. Numerous other versions and variants belonging to this tune-family have been recorded from singers or players in the British-American tradition, and some of them are referred to below. Beside the five versions grouped together here, the present collection contains another member of this widespread family: No. 89 (Bonaparte Crossing the Alps), under which further data will be found. All six tunes are inextricable one from another in our tradition; and comparison of each one with the others, and with other identifiable published versions, simply adds to the tale of overlapping resemblances, and heightens the certainty that they all derive from some common original. That the parent tune must have originated at some fairly remote period is indicated by the number and diversity of the extant versions and variants, and by the fact that they form part of the folk music tradition everywhere in the British Isles. Another witness of antiquity and wide use is the variety of functions fulfilled by the different sets: the versions have figured as tunes for jigs and reels, ballads and songs, children's game ditties, work-songs and marches. It is evident that the tune has long been split up into a number of distinct versions, with their variants, and that some of the versions have been specialized along certain functional lines, as e.g., those of dances or marches. The majority of old-country versions seem to have been recorded from Irish or Scottish tradition, and the air has assumed a particular importance and undergone especially elaborate development among Irish folk musicians. This suggests that it is actually of Gaelic origin, and the structure, intervals, and function of a considerable number of sets imply--without proving--that it may have originated as a march for the bagpipes (see 'Bonaparte Crossing the Alps'). About the time or place of its composition, of course, speculation is useless. The fine old march No. 44 is in the purest Irish style. It should be compared especially with No. 89 and the versions cited thereunder, and with Joyce 1909, No. 816 (first part). No. 45 ('Swallow Tail') is a set of a well-known jig which generally goes under this name, and is the first variant to be discovered in Pennsylvania. A Prince Edward's Island version is in Bayard Coll., No. 376. No. 46 is a widely-known Irish jig and march usually called 'The Three Little Drummers'; it also has not been found hitherto in Pennsylvania. No. 47 goes by a variety of names, one being 'The Hill Side', under which title a certain variant sometimes appears in the commercial fiddle-tune collections. 'The Red Brick House in Georgia Town' is a fairly close form of No. 47, worked over into 4/4 time. Pennsylvania tunes related to 47 and 48 are in Bayard Coll., Nos. 130, 200, 319; and a set ultimately from County Cork, No. 364. Despite close interrelation, the versions of these tunes may be listed more or less along the lines of divergence indicated by the versions in this collection...Sets belonging more to the 'Hillside' group (No. 47 and 48) include Journal of American Folk Lore, XXXI, 163m to 'The Heights of Alma'; Kidson, 'Traditional Tunes', p. 98; H.C. Buck, ed. The Oxford History of Music, Introductory Volume, p. 195, 'The Drunken Sailor'; Thomas D'Urfy, Songs Compleat (1719), II, 83, and VI, 300; Amy Murray, 'Father Allan's Island', pp. 172, 173; Joyce 1872, No. 19; Joyce (Old Irish Folk Music and Songs), 1909, Nos. 73, 155, 193, 241; Petrie, Nos. 318, 319, 1500; O'Neill's Irish Music, Nos. 311, 331; White's Excelsior Collection, p. 15, 'Kennedy's Jig'; Jigs and Reels, p. 4; Harding's Orig. Coll., Nos. 81, 135; O'Neill (Music of Ireland), No. 1598; White's Unique Collection, Nos. 8, 10; Harding's All-Round Collection, Nos. 124, 125 (1st part); Robbins, No. 74; Kerr, Nos. 265, 294, 301, 331; Cole, p. 52 'Joe Kennedy's Jig', p. 54, 'Katy is Waiting', p. 58, 'Lark in the Morning', p. 62, 'Sunday is My Wedding Day', p. 62, 'Hills of Glenurchie'; JEFDSS, I, 143, 'Donald the Dancer'; Costello, 'Amhrain Mhuighe Seola', p. 60, 'ffrench of Tyrone'; Ord, Bothy Songs and Ballads, pp. 39, 52; Scanlon, p. 40, 'The Waves of Tory', p. 68, 'The Tenpenny'. All the sets referred to above should be compared with those to which reference is made under 'Bonaparte Crossing the Alps'" (Bayard, 1944).
Source for notated version: Mrs. Sarah Armstrong, (near) Derry, Pennsylvania, November 18, 1943 [Bayard].
Printed sources: Bayard (Hill Country Tunes), 1944; No. 48.
Recorded sources: