Annotation:Reel Carnaval
REEL CARNAVAL. AKA - "Carnival." French-Canadian, Reel (cut time). E Minor/G Major (third part) {Bouchard/Marcoux}: B Minor/D Major {Hart & Sandell}. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABCC (Hart & Sandell): AABBCC (Marcoux). The tune has harmonic and chordal similarities with "Reel Beatrice." The original source for the tune was fiddler Joseph Bouchard (1905-1980), an important figure in Québec musical tradition, and a member of the group Les Montagnards laurentins (The Laurentian Mountaineers - the Laurentians are a range of mountains in the Province of Québec), who had a long-running radio broadcast in the 1930's and 1940's. The title comes from Bouchard's record label in his later career, Carnaval Records. Joseph Allard recorded a "Reel du Carnaval" in 1937 for RCA Victor, and Isidore Soucy cut a
Gigue du Carnival" (a reel), but both are different, unrelated melodies (and unrelated to each other).
Sources for notated versions: French-Canadian fiddler Omer Marcoux (who later in life lived in Concord, N.H.) who learned the tune from Bouchard's Bluebird recording [Miskoe & Paul]; fiddler Michel Bordleau [Hart & Sandell].
Printed sources: Hart & Sandell (Dance ce Soir), 2001; No. 23, pp. 54-55. Miskoe & Paul (Fiddle Tunes of Omer Marcoux), 1994; p. 3 (appears under the mistaken title "Beatrice").
Recorded sources: Buda Musique, Pascal Gemme & Mario Loiselle - "Musique du Monde/Music of the World" (2013). Carnaval Records CS530, Jos Bouchard - "Reel Carnaval."
Compo Records, Joseph Bouchard - "Reel carnaval" (1968). Laurie Hart & William Coulter - "Gravity Hill" (1992).