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Fiddle Tunes of the Old Frontier: The Henry Reed Collection
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Item Title
[West Virginia Gals]
Alternate Title(s)
West Virginia Girls
If You Want to Go A-Courting
Author/Creator
Collector: Jabbour, Alan
Performer: Reed, Henry; fiddle
Created/Published
November 26, 1966
Reed family home, Glen Lyn, Virginia (Giles County)
Notes
The tune appears to be an instrumental version of a song known in older Appalachian tradition (see Sharp, "English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians", vol. 2, 6, #75-A, "If You Want to Go A-Courting") and recorded on early hillbilly records. Though Henry Reed gave the tune no title, the Hollow Rock String Band recorded it as "West Virginia Gals" (Rounder 0024), the title which is adopted here. The song typically repeats the final phrase, making a five-phrase tune. The high strain of the fiddle tune corresponds to the song, though it eliminates the repeated fourth phrase, and the low strain is a kind of arpeggiated filler.
Title change: The title appeared in the fieldnotes as "Unnamed."
Key: A
Meter: 4/4
Strains: 2 (high-low, 4-4)
Rendition: 2-1r-2
Phrase Structure: AAAB QRQ'B' (abab abcd qrst qr'c'd')
Compass: 15
Spoken: ALAN JABBOUR: That's a good tune. You did play that for me once--the first time I was here. I, and I really like that tune./HENRY REED: Yeah./ALAN JABBOUR: What's the name of it?
Recording chronology: 078
Duration: 41 seconds
Subject
Breakdowns
Reels
Fiddle tunes
Instrumentals--fiddle
Ethnography
Music
United States--Virginia--Giles County--Glen Lyn
Object Type
Medium
sound recording
Language
English
Call Number
AFC LWO 5031 reel 7A, AFS 13037A:08
Digital ID
afcreed 13037a08
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/afcreed.13037a08
Related Audio
[West Virginia Gals] [AFS 13034b29]
[West Virginia Gals] [transcription] [Transcribed]