Annotation:Orvetta Waltz (1)
X: 1 T: Orvetta Waltz [1] C: Vesta Johnson? (1930s) R: waltz Z: 2009 John Chambers <jc:trillian.mit.edu> M: 3/4 L: 1/8 K: G |: "G"B,C DE DB, | "C"CD EG EC | "G"B,C D2 G2 | B4 B2 \ | "D7"D3 EFG | A2 AB A2 | "G"G,2 B,2 D2 |1 G4 G2 :|2 G4 Bc || |: "G"d3 G BA | "G7"G3 D ED | "C"C2 ED ED | C2 E2 AB \ | "Am"c3 B AG | "D7"F3 E FE |1 D2 E2 D2 | "G"G,2 B,2 D2 :|2 "D7"D2 E2 F2 | "G"G6 |]
ORVETTA WALTZ [1]. American, Waltz (3/4 time). USA, Mo. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AA'BB'. A popular and much published waltz by this name [1] was composed by E.B. Spencer and published in Boston by Oliver Ditson Company, Washington Street, in 1879, however, it is a different melody than the "Orvetta Waltz" Missouri fiddler Vesta Johnson plays (see "Orvetta Waltz (2)" for the Spencer piece). Missouri fiddler Charlie Walden says Johnson told him she learned the melody as a girl in Chillicothe, Livingston County, Mo., but had no title for it. Later she heard a pianist friend play it from sheet music that had the title "Orvetta Waltz," which is what she called it thereafter. See also the cognate "Decorah Waltz" by the band Foot-Notes, from Decorah, Iowa.