"Rippling Water Jig"

No personal notes.

From The Session;

There are many different ways with this tune, and it can begin with the A-part given here, or the B-part, and some folks will argue one way or the other. The varieties out there I suppose speak for its history, which includes it finding its way into Old Time competitions. I've (found) a few transcripts floating about and have seen others online. At "The Fiddler's Companion" they have it the other way round.

From the Fiddler's Companion;

RIPPLING WATER('S)( JIG). Canadian, American; Jig or Quadrille.

USA, northern New York, Arkansas, Canada, Prince Edward Island.

G Major ('A' part) & D Major ('B' part){Bayard}: E Major ('A' part) & A Major ('B' part) {Perlman}. Standard tuning. AB (Bayard): AABB’ (Perlman).

Maritime fiddler Don Messer popularized the tune, which is associated with him. The 'B' part is reminiscent of "Portland Fancy." The title appears in a list of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954.

Sources for notated versions: Bradley Grimshaw (fiddler from northern N.Y., 1958) [Bayard]; Leonard MacDonald (b. 1933, Emyvale, Queen's County, Prince Edward Island) [Perlman]. Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 570, pgs. 508-509. Perlman (The Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island), 1996; pg. 145. Rounder CD7014, Leonard McDonald – "Fiddlers of Western Prince Edward Island" (1997).

Sheet Music version of Graham Townsend version (after Don Messer) in pdf form, from the ontariotraditionalmusic.ca website. From the same page, a link to a YouTube video of him playing it. The great feature of YouTube is that you can do a "slow-downer" of it, where, among other things, you can see that his timing is not exactly captured in the sheet music. This is the magic of fiddle vs. violin. You can also see that his bowing is such as to emphasise particular notes, both in volume and sortening of the duration (with added 'rest'). These notes are typically downbeats. And he often palys these downbeat notes just slightly flat intially, sliding up to the proper pitch (I don't knwo what you call that, but it is common in Cape Breton Music, usually subtle, but sometimes not so much!