Annotation:Hanged Man's Reel
X:1 T:Reel du pendu T:Hanged man's reel T:Hangman's reel L:1/8 M:C| N:Play ABACBA D:Victor 263527 (78 RPM), Joseph Allard (1928) F:http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/m2/f7/12535.mp3 Z:Transcribed by Andrew Kuntz K:A P:A E[EA] AB||c3c- cdcB|AB{B}cA EAAc |BABc dcBA|A-c2c- cdcB| ABcA EAAc|(B/c/B) GB A4|A-c2c- cdcB|ABcA EAAc| BABc dcBA|A-c2c- cdcB|ABcA EAAc| (B/c/B) GB A4|| P:B EAAA AGAc|BABd c4|EAAA AGAc|BABd cAA2| EAAA AGAc|BABd c4|EAAA AGAc|BABd cA3B|| P:C c|e2cA eAce|ddB=G dGB2|e2 cA eAce|dB=GA BAAc| e2cA eAce|ddB=G dGB2|e2cA eAce|dB=GB A3||
HANGED MAN'S REEL. AKA - "Hangman's Reel." AKA and see "Nightingale (1) (The)," "Pae du mouton (La)," "Reel of the Hanged One," "Reel du pendu." French-Canadian, Reel. Canada; Quebec, Prince Edward Island. A Major (Brody, Hart & Sandell): G Major (Perlman). AEac# (usually) or Standard tunings (fiddle). AABB (Perlman): ABCC'DEF (Hart & Sandell): AABBCCDDEEFF (Brody). A widely known reel among French-Canadian fiddlers, it is considered one of the "showcase" tunes of the repertoire. "Reel du pendu" (Hanged Man's Reel) exists in myriad versions and variations, some of which are quite distanced from one-another, although they all feature scordatura tuning in the key of 'A'. Fiddler and researcher Lisa Ornstein writes the tune "typically features a nuclear melody which is followed by a number of short strains based on arpeggiated motifs which gradually descend from the upper to the lower octave; many versions include the use of left-hand pizzicato on the open strings... virtually all versions are characterized by the use of an AEac# scordatura and by an associated story which credits the composition of the tune to a prisoner condemned to be hanged." Ken Perlman (1996) writes that this reel is always played in a medley with "Reel du cordonnier" on Prince Edward Island in the form of two time through for "Reel du pendu," once for "Reel du cordonnier" and finally two more times through of "Pendu."
There are several variants of a story associated with the tune, all having to do with a condemned man and an offer of reprieve as reward for a performance or musical task accomplished. One such variant is that the condemned man was able to secure a last-minute reprieve-challenged and given an out-of-tune fiddle, he was able to play a tune no one had ever heard before. Another version goes (from Louis Boudreault) that the (sometimes musically untrained) condemned was given an un-tuned fiddle and was told that if he could play a reel by morning he would be pardoned: he did-he was-and "Reel du pendu" is the result.
The tune's origins remain unclear, writes Ornstein, who was unable to find any antecedents for the melody in music from France. There are some similarities with the Scottish reel "Grieg's Pipes," as well as with the American "Lost Indian" family of tunes (another family with myriad variants, including the Louisiana, back-to-French version, "Reel du sauvage perdu" {Lost Indian}, according to Hart & Sandell, 2001). The earliest mention Lisa Ornstein found of the tune in Quebec was in an account by agronomist and author Georges Bouchard (1888-1956), who wrote about his childhood in the latter part of the 19th century in the village of Saint-Philippe-de-Néri (in the Kamouraska region). There "Reel du Pendu" was played by the fiddler at the end of a dance, returning for the piece, after which the crowd dispersed. The earliest sound recording appears to be by Quebec fiddlers Joseph Allard in 1928, and Isadore Soucy, who recorded it five times on 78 RPM between 1927 and 1952. The melody appears in J.A. Boucher's 1933 collection under the title "Pae du mouton (La)"
Jean Duval [1] (2018) transcribed the tune with all the 'd' notes played as 'd#' notes, reflecting Allard's intonation of the note somewhere between the two. On Allard's 1928 recording the backup piano player, A. Rochon, initially continues to play along in the major mode in the 'C' part, but the second time through catches on to the shift to the mixolydian mode. See also the American old-time derivative under the title "Hangman's Reel (1)."