"Maple Sugar"

No personal notes.

From TFC;

MAPLE SUGAR. Canadian, American; Reel. Canada; Ontario, Maritimes. USA; northern New York, Pa., Missouri. A Major ('A' part) & E Major ('B' {or 'C'} part) {Bain, Beisswenger & McCann, Bohrer, Phillips, Silberberg}: G Major ('A' part) & D Major ('B' part) {Bayard}: D Major {Perlman}. Standard tuning. AA’B (Perlman): ABB' (Bayard): AA'BB' (Bain, Beisswenger & McCann): ABAC (Bohrer/Kibler): AA'BB'CC'BB' (Phillips): AA’BB’AA’CC’ (Silberberg).

Composed by Ontario fiddler Ward Allen, a professional fiddler who won contest after contest in Canada the 1950’s and had a successful career playing on the radio. It is a tune which has varied considerably in the vicissitudes of the ‘fold process’ and has even acquired a set of words. In addition to being a staple of ‘down east’ Canadian fiddling, it has been popular in northern New York and northern New England; as Vic Kibler (Hamilton County, New York) said, "At every fiddle contest they all played it." It was in repertory of Buffalo Valley, Pa., region dance fiddler Harry Daddario. Shetland fiddler Aly Bain's version (which he calls "traditional Canadian") is much superior to that collected by Bayard (which is really one strain which is modulated to another key), who thought it a strain of a song air transformed into a dance tune. Most Canadian fiddlers play the tune in the keys of ‘A’ and ‘E’ (as did Missouri fiddler Lonnie Robertson), though in other parts of North America the tune is rendered throughout in the keys of ‘A’ or ‘D’ Major with no key change in the second part. Lonnie Robertson was a fiddler skilful enough to float a successful career as a performer on the radio and sundry other gigs, and employed “Maple Sugar� as the opening theme for one of his programs, thus popularising it in the Mid-west.

From TS;

In Québec, often played after devil’s dream. I think this was initiated by a group name Le Rêve du diable. The french lyrics from Jean Pierre LaChance tells the story of people making maple syrup, going through the buches on a sleigh pulled by a horse, picking up maple water and boiling it into maple syrup:

  On est allés dans le bois, on a vu une belle cabane,
Y’avait d’la fumée qui sortait de par la cheminée
On a frappé à la porte, on est entré dans la cabane
« Salut bonhomme! dis-nous si on pourrait t’aider! »
« Ah! Si tu veux m’aider, attelle les ch’vaux après l’traîneau
Mets l’tonneau su’l’traîneau, va voir si y a d’l’eau dans les sieaux
Si y a d’l’eau dans les sieaux, varse-la donc dans l’tonneau
Amène-moé ça icitte, on va s’faire un peu de bon sirop »

On est allés dans le bois, on a vu une belle cabane,
Y’avait d’la fumée qui sortait de par la ch’minée
On a mis l’traîneau après les ch’vaux
On a mis l’tonneau su’l’traîneau
On a passé dans l’bois pi on a vidé les sieaux
On a mis du bois dedans l’poêle, on a mis d’l’eau dans l’boiler
On a mangé des bonnes binnes arrosées de bon sirop
On a allumé nos pipes, les filles s’sont mises à placoter
Les violons s’sont mis à jouer et tout l’monde est parti à danser

Finally, a youtube video of Ward Allen playing it; Ward Allen playing Maple Sugar