Annotation:Whiffle Tree

Back to Whiffle Tree

---

WHIFFLE TREE. AKA and see "Old Gray Mare (The)." American, Air and Quadrille. "The Wiffle Tree Song" is another name for the venerable song "Old Gray Mare (She Ain't what She Used to be)." The whiffletree (also known as 'whipple tree' or 'singletree' is a wooden strut the divides and attaches to the traces (leather harness), where the horse is in between tines of the whiffletree to pull the cart. Depending on the vehicle, the whittletree is usually positioned between the hock and upper thigh and is always well behind the harnessed horse.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources:

Recorded sources: Edison 51236 (78 RPM), 1923, John Baltzell (appears as last tune of "Old Red Barn Medley Quadrille") {Baltzell was a native of Mt. Vernon, Ohio, as was minstrel Dan Emmett (d. 1904). Emmett returned to the town in 1888, poor, and later taught Baltzell to play the fiddle}.

---