Annotation:Downfall of Water Street (2)

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DOWNFALL OF WATER STREET [2]. AKA and see "Pull Down the Sheets." American, Reel. USA, southwestern Pa. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Bayard was unable to trace this reel to old country sources. He notes the tendency for Pennsylvania fiddlers to sharp the fourth of the major scale, "possibly after the example of fifers, who do it even more constantly." It is possible Bayard's source mis-remembered the ("Downfall...") title, which goes to another reel that was printed in Ryan's Mammoth Collection (1883). "Pull Down the Sheets" is the title another Pennsylvania fiddler used. Bayard noted some similarities with O'Neill's "Paddy Mack," but did not claim a relationship.

Source for notated version: James Bryner (elderly fiddler from Fayette County, Pa., 1960) [Bayard].

Printed sources: Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 163B, p. 101.

Recorded sources:

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