Monthly Archives: August 2012

Quebec Session Class

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September 2012 Quebec Session Class

When: September 9, 16, 30, and Oct. 7 2012, from 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Where: the music studio (1605 SE 27th Ave. Portland, OR)

Great Quebec session tunes await you: reels, waltzes, 6/8s and more from fiddle legends such as Louis Boudreault, Jules Verret, and Edouard Richard. This 4-week class will expand your repertory of tunes to share at dances and Portland’s Quebec Jam Session (a free house party held first Tuesday of the month). There will be NO CLASS on September 23rd…I’ll be playing a gig at Mississippi Pizza with Leela Grace and Betsy Branch.
Quebec Session Class is a group class series where traditional tunes typically played in Quebec are taught by ear in an inclusive, relaxed setting. Class members receive a CD of all tunes and downloadable sheet music.
Cost: $75 ($65 pre-paid)
To Register: E-mail me (lisa.ornstein@hotmail.com)

Québécois Tune of the Month for August 2012: Le petit métier

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Here is a fiddle tune I learned from Magdelan Island fiddler Avila LeBlanc (1914-2010). This is one of several tunes which Avila classified as “rabestans” (my spelling), a type of of dance tune composed of short strains with a set of associated lyrics (generally just a couplet or two). A good singer, by combining the sung verse with lilting, could fill in for a fiddler when people wanted to dance and no musicians were present.

The words to “Le petit métier” (sung to the first part of the tune) are:

Si j’avais c’que j’ai pas,
Un métier pour fair’ d’la toile,
Si j’avais c’que j’ai pas,
Un métier pour fair’ du drap.

Le petit métier [wpdm_file id=32]

Le petit métier [wpdm_file id=33]

Old-Time Tune of the Month for Aug. 2012: Ducks in the Pond

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Henry Reed (1885-1968) of Glen Lyn, Virginia, recorded this tune for Alan Jabbour in the 1960s. During the summer of 1973, I spent a couple of months as an intern at the Library of Congress Archive of Folk Song. My boss was Alan Jabbour and I spent much of my time transcribing his recordings of Henry Reed’s fiddling. This particular tune seems to be a variant of “Lady of the Lake,” which appears in an early 19th century publication from the state of Virginia. You can learn much more about Mr. Reed and listen to his music on the Library of Congress website Fiddle Tunes of the Old Frontier: The Henry Reed Collection.

Ducks in the Pond (dance speed) [wpdm_file id=34]

 

Ducks in the Pond (sheet music) [wpdm_file id=35]