Annotation:Reel Acadien (1)
X:1 T:Reel Acadien [1] N:From the playing of fiddler Girard, probably not Rosaire Girard (1916-1985) N:who was friends with Willie Ringuette. M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel N:Play AAABBBAAAB'B'B' D:Starr 15563B (78 RPM), Girard & Bernaquez (1929) D:https://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/m2/f7/13299.mp3 Z:Transcribed by Andrew Kuntz K:D [FA]-[AA][A2A2]-[AA]Ade|fded (3BdB AG|[FA]-[AA][A2A2]-[AA]Ade|[M:3/2]fgab afeg (f/g/f) d2:| P:B |:[M:C|]F2 AF DFAF|G2 BG DGBG|F2 AF DFAF|GBAG (3FAF D2:| P:B' |:{g}f2 af dfaf|(g/a/g) bg dgbg|fgaf dfaf|gbeg (f/g/f) d2:|
REEL ACADIEN [1]. French-Canadian, Reel (cut time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAABBBAAAB'B'B'. Researcher Jean Duval finds that the fiddler was listed as "A. Girard" on the Compo-Starr recording notes from 1929, and he believes that the fiddler was from the Trois-Rivières area of Quebec, as one of the tunes he recorded for Starr was called "St-Léon", the name of a nearby a village. "There is a strong Acadian community just the other side of the St-Laurent, in Nicolet," remarks Jean.
Duval finds the tune to be a version of "Braes of Mar (1) (The)." The tune can also be found elsewhere in Acadian repertory, as in fiddler Erskine Morris's "Tune from the North Coast" (which may not be the name of the tune notes Morris researcher Glenn Patterson, but rather a descriptive--Erskine recorded it several times on home recordings without a title). Morris (1913-1997) was originally from Douglastown, a community at the eastern end of the Gaspé Peninsula. Paul Fackler suggests the tune is a variant also of "Belle Catherine (3) (La)."