Annotation:Tiddle Took Todfish
X:1 T:Tiddle Took Tod Fish M:4/4 L:1/8 R:reel N:David (Dave) P. Gilpin, Connellsville, P.A. 1943 (in his 60’s) N:Dave lost his ring finger in an accident and had to relearn N:his tunes using the first 2 fingers of his left hand. N:Samuel P. Bayard (collector of this tune) stated that Dave’s N:playing was some of the best he’d collected and the loss of fingers N:was not at all a handicap. B:Samuel P. Bayard – Hill Country Tunes (1944) K:D (3ABc)|d2[Af]e c2ec|BcdB AFDF|G2BG F2AF|EDEF GABc| d2fe c2ec|BcdB AFDF|B2BG F2AF|EGFE D2(A2|| |:A)cef gf gz||Ace^g ag az|Acef g2gf|1 faec d2B2:|2 faec d2||
TIDDLE TOOK TODFISH. American, Reel (whole time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB'. Bayard was not able to trace this tune, though he notes a resemblance to "Cosmopolite (The)" in Cole's 1000 Fiddle Tunes (1940, p. 31). I believe that the first part of “Tiddle took Todfish,” however, is a variant of the second part of “Liverpool Hornpipe (1),” although there are several other tunes that have similar first-strain melodic material, including "Whiskey before Breakfast" and "Speed the Plow." The second strain is a variant of the same part in the Québec tune "Galope de la Malbaie", also called "Mackilmoyle Reel."
