Annotation:Grand Square
X:1 T:Grand Square N:From a c. 1930's recording of fiddler, dancing master and caller Edson Cole N:(1880-1952, Freedom, Carroll County, east-central New Hampshire). Cole is N:accompanied on the recording by Pearl Cole on piano, while Edson fiddles N:and keeps up a continuous calling of figures. M:C| L:1/8 Q:"Fast" D:https://www.slippery-hill.com/content/grand-square D:https://fortytwo.ws/~cbaker/edson-cole.html Z:Andrew Kuntz K:D FG|A2 FA fedc|B2GB gfed|cAce aece|defg a3A| A2 FA fedc|BBGB gfed| cBAG FEDC |D2F2D2:| |:f2 AF A2FA |g2 BA B2ef|gfge [c2e2]e2|edcB A2 f2 AF A2FA |gdBA B2ef|gfed cABc|d2f2d4:| P:March Tempo |:f>ff>f f2A>^G|A>AA>B A2A>d|(3[ce][ce][ce] [ce]>[ce] [c2e2] [B2e2] |(3BAG A>B A2F2| f>ff>f f2A>^G|A>AA>B A2A>d| [c2e2][ce]>d c>AB>c|d2[d2f2]d4:|
GRAND SQAURE. American, Reel and March (cut time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCC. "Grand Square" is from the playing of fiddler Edson Cole. Folklorist Eloise Hubbart Linscott included him in her 1939 book Folk Songs of Old New England (1939), and gave this snapshot of him:
Edson H. Cole of Freedom, New Hampshire, has been fiddler, caller, and dancing master for more than 30 years. When he was a boy he was sent to Boston to study the violin but he had acquired his taste for music and his prompting from his uncle, Jim Cole, famous in the section as a past master in these arts for 50 years. Edson Cole, an old-time dancing master, conducted his own dancing school for 17 years. Today he is caretaker of two large farms—one his own—tax collector, takes an active part in town and county affairs, and with two of his children to carry on his music, he still plays and calls the changes for the old dances.
