Annotation:Valley Forge
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VALLEY FORGE. Old-Time, Breakdown. USA, Arkansas. D Major/Mixolydian. AEae or Standard tuning (fiddle). ABC (Silberberg): AA'AA"BB'CC' (Phillips). From the playing of Ramona Jones, who may herself have learned the melody from Arkansas singer and instrumentalist Jimmie Driftwood. Jones is credited with popularizing the tune among modern old-time fiddlers, although she apparently played the tune in the key of ‘A’ with fiddle cross-tuned in AEae. Most modern old-time fiddlers, however, play it in ‘D’. Driftwood, born James Corbett Morris was a schoolteacher who gained fame with his song “The Battle of New Orleans” in 1962. However, he learned “Valley Forge” from fiddler Absie Morrison, whose repertoire contained numerous pieces named for events in American history (here named for George Washington and the Continental Army’s Pennsylvania encampment in the winter of 1777-78). Where Morrison obtained the tune, or if the title “Valley Forge” is his own, is unknown.
Source for notated version: Ruthie Dornfeld [Phillips]; Stephanie Prausnitz [Silberberg]; Jimmie Driftwood (1907-1998, Timbo, Arkansas) [Beisswenger & McCann].
Printed sources: Beisswenger & McCann (Ozarks Fiddle Music), 2008; p. 181. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), vol. 1, 1994. Silberberg (Tunes I Learned at Tractor Tavern), 2002; p. 161.
Recorded sources: Happy Valley Records PRP 43871/2) – “Ramona Jones - "Back Porch Fiddlin’.” Heritage Records 36, Ramona and Mark Jones "Women of Old Time Music" (Brandywine, 1980). Rounder CD0364, The Ill-Mo Boys - “The Marimac Anthology: Deep in Old-Time Music.
See also listing at:
Jane Keefer’s Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources []
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