Annotation:St. Lawrence Jig

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X:1 T:St. Lawrence M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Jig K:D F2G|:"D"SABA FAd|f2d A2d|"A"c2B G2B|"G"B2A "D"F2G| ABA FAd|f2d A2d|"A"cec ABc|1"D"d3 dFG:|2 "D"d3 def|| |:"G"a2g "Em"B2g|"D"g2f "Bm7"A2d|"Em"cde "A7"ABc|"D"dcB "D7"A2f| "G"a2g "Em"B2g|"D"g2f "Bm7"A2d|"Em"d2c "A7"cBc|"D"edd def:|2 edd dFGS||



ST. LAWRENCE JIG. AKA - "6/8 du St-Laurent." AKA and see "Set de Vaudreuil 1ère partie." Canadian, American; Jig (6/8 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (Miller & Perron, Page, Sweet): AABB'BB' (Phillips). The tune has been part of the core repertoire for New England contra dances for some time, and is a popular dance tune throughout French and English speaking Canada. Jean Carignan, the most famous Quebec fiddler of the mid-20th century, played the jig as "6/8 du St-Laurent" [1], which Carignan said he had learned from his mentor, fiddler Joseph Allard (1873-1947). Allard himself recorded a tune with the same first strain in 1930 as the first figure in his "Set de Vaudreuil 1ère partie," a four-part quadrille set, however, the second strain of Allard's recording is different than that of "St. Lawrence Jig." Jean Duval [2] notes that Quebec fiddler J.O. Albert LaMadeleine also recorded a tune with the shared first strain (with yet another second strain attached) as "Quadrille des Seigneiurs 4ème partie." Similarly, Quebec fiddler Isidore Soucy recorded in 1930 a jig as "Canadian Clog", again employing the first strain of "St. Lawrence Jig." Allard used the first strain again, finds Duval, as the opening part of his three-part "Reel de St-Clet", recorded in Montreal in 1933.

Additional notes

Source for notated version: - Donna White Reed [Phillips].

Printed sources : - Jean Duval (La Musique de Joseph Allard), 2018; No. 130, p. 62 (as "6/8 de St-Laurent"). Miller & Perron (New England Fiddler’s Repertoire), 1983; No. 7. Page (The Ralph Page Book of Contras), 1969; p. 13. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 2), 1995; p. 378. Sweet (Fifer’s Delight), 1965/1981; p. 35.

Recorded sources: -



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  1. Collected by Carmelle Bégin
  2. Jean Duval, La Musique de Joseph Allard, 2018, p. 72