This another early cake walk and for any bluegrass or melodic players, this is well worth a listen and play. It has a very Celtic/Old Time feel to it and I would guess that the composer has written variations around one of those old time tunes. Most of the arrangement uses just single notes and includes the whole of the fret board from fret 21 on the first string down to the open fourth. My suggested fingering combines classic and melodic styles to which it is well suited.  This is not the same tune of a similar name that was recorded by Vess Osman. The score and midi are in the library.....Steve.

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Yup, this is the phrasing and structure of a very old tune —plus a bit of another — with most of the notes changed but not enough to hide the plagiarism. The originals are known in Ireland, Scotland, Canada, and the USA. The main source of plunder has many names, including Pigtown, Pigtown Fling, Stony Point, Wild Horse, Wild Horse At Stony, Point, Kelton's Reel, and Buck Creek Gals. That's about half of the names. Sometimes it has as many as 4 parts. One phrase was purloined without disguise from Miss McLeod's Reel aka Hop High Ladies, aka Mrs.MacLeod of Raasay (etc)

The very end seems odd. Was it like that in Brainard's collection?

Hi Jody, Many thanks for your informative comments, I guessed that that was the case. The ending is as written on the piano arrangement albeit that on piano it's shared between bass and treble clefs.....Steve.
Jody Stecher said:

Yup, this is the phrasing and structure of a very old tune —plus a bit of another — with most of the notes changed but not enough to hide the plagiarism. The originals are known in Ireland, Scotland, Canada, and the USA. The main source of plunder has many names, including Pigtown, Pigtown Fling, Stony Point, Wild Horse, Wild Horse At Stony, Point, Kelton's Reel, and Buck Creek Gals. That's about half of the names. Sometimes it has as many as 4 parts. One phrase was purloined without disguise from Miss McLeod's Reel aka Hop High Ladies, aka Mrs.MacLeod of Raasay (etc)

The very end seems odd. Was it like that in Brainard's collection?

Hi Jody, I've had another think about this and would guess that the clue to this lies with the title. What Phelps was probably trying to achieve is to paint a musical picture of a parade, coming into view, arriving and then passing away into the distance which is indicated in the closing bars. It's pure speculation of course but maybe not that far from the mark....Steve.


Steve Harrison said:Hi Jody, Many thanks for your informative comments, I guessed that that was the case. The ending is as written on the piano arrangement albeit that on piano it's shared between bass and treble clefs.....Steve.

Jody Stecher said:

Yup, this is the phrasing and structure of a very old tune —plus a bit of another — with most of the notes changed but not enough to hide the plagiarism. The originals are known in Ireland, Scotland, Canada, and the USA. The main source of plunder has many names, including Pigtown, Pigtown Fling, Stony Point, Wild Horse, Wild Horse At Stony, Point, Kelton's Reel, and Buck Creek Gals. That's about half of the names. Sometimes it has as many as 4 parts. One phrase was purloined without disguise from Miss McLeod's Reel aka Hop High Ladies, aka Mrs.MacLeod of Raasay (etc)

The very end seems odd. Was it like that in Brainard's collection?

Good idea. It certainly could be played that way. Hard for midi to reproduce.

Steve Harrison said:

Hi Jody, I've had another think about this and would guess that the clue to this lies with the title. What Phelps was probably trying to achieve is to paint a musical picture of a parade, coming into view, arriving and then passing away into the distance which is indicated in the closing bars. It's pure speculation of course but maybe not that far from the mark....Steve.


Steve Harrison said:Hi Jody, Many thanks for your informative comments, I guessed that that was the case. The ending is as written on the piano arrangement albeit that on piano it's shared between bass and treble clefs.....Steve.

Jody Stecher said:

Yup, this is the phrasing and structure of a very old tune —plus a bit of another — with most of the notes changed but not enough to hide the plagiarism. The originals are known in Ireland, Scotland, Canada, and the USA. The main source of plunder has many names, including Pigtown, Pigtown Fling, Stony Point, Wild Horse, Wild Horse At Stony, Point, Kelton's Reel, and Buck Creek Gals. That's about half of the names. Sometimes it has as many as 4 parts. One phrase was purloined without disguise from Miss McLeod's Reel aka Hop High Ladies, aka Mrs.MacLeod of Raasay (etc)

The very end seems odd. Was it like that in Brainard's collection?

"Plagiarism" is a tad strong, don't you think? Plagiarism implies the source is known and there is intent to steal.

Phelps isn't stealing, he's using ideas to build within a form ("patrol"). So he's used bits and pieces of familiar traditional tunes, truncated just enough to be almost recognizable. He gets the feel, if not the exact tunes. There's an undercurrent of racism in this as well; the title, obviously. These things played off the "Darky" theme, that is, a 'shuck 'n' jive' version of well known traditional forms; misinterpretations, odd endings, syncopations, wildness. Oddly, composers may have felt they had a good deal of freedom when they went the "Darky" route. They could explore and blame it on comedy. The juxtaposition of Irish and Black themes wasn't new to audiences, it was a well-worked mine.

Then, of course, re-interpretation of folk/trad. tunes is a tradition into itself. Copeland (for example) used many folk tunes (far more directly than Phelps does) in his works. The whole folk process itself is one of interpretation and re-interpretation, re-naming, adding or subtracting parts, sections, etc. We don't call folk musicians plagiarizers, we say that it is 'so-and-so's version' of tune x...and we leave it up to the folk detectives to 'name that tune' for its genesis. 

Read Hank Bradley's  "Counterfeiting, Stealing, and Cultural Plundering:  A Manual For Applied Ethnomusicologists"  for an unusual and entertaining view of all of this.  In this case I think "plagiarism" might be the correct word. I'm not condemning with the term, just describing. Usually when basing a new work on a pre-existing model, be it trad or not, a composer usually  makes some attempt to alter the phrasing at least somewhat so that, as you say, it's almost unrecognizable. In the case of Darkies Patrol the source is instantly recognizable because the unique phrasing has been hardly changed here and not at all changed there.  I should know about this because I use old themes in my new tunes all the time. Now it's *my* tune because in the immortal words of Hank Bradley "I stole it fair and square".  Sometimes I've used whole phrases from other tunes in the middle of an improvised solo in concert or in the recording studio, just to see if anyone is paying attention. It's an attempt at comedy. No one ever notices though.

Trapdoor2 said:

"Plagiarism" is a tad strong, don't you think? Plagiarism implies the source is known and there is intent to steal.

Phelps isn't stealing, he's using ideas to build within a form ("patrol"). So he's used bits and pieces of familiar traditional tunes, truncated just enough to be almost recognizable. He gets the feel, if not the exact tunes. There's an undercurrent of racism in this as well; the title, obviously. These things played off the "Darky" theme, that is, a 'shuck 'n' jive' version of well known traditional forms; misinterpretations, odd endings, syncopations, wildness. Oddly, composers may have felt they had a good deal of freedom when they went the "Darky" route. They could explore and blame it on comedy. The juxtaposition of Irish and Black themes wasn't new to audiences, it was a well-worked mine.

Then, of course, re-interpretation of folk/trad. tunes is a tradition into itself. Copeland (for example) used many folk tunes (far more directly than Phelps does) in his works. The whole folk process itself is one of interpretation and re-interpretation, re-naming, adding or subtracting parts, sections, etc. We don't call folk musicians plagiarizers, we say that it is 'so-and-so's version' of tune x...and we leave it up to the folk detectives to 'name that tune' for its genesis. 

I suppose I could quote Tom Lehrer from his tune "Lobachevski": "...plagiarize! Only, please to call it, 'research'." ;-)

I think there is a difference between quoting a tune (or a bit of one) and incorporating some direct component of said tune. With rhythms and phrasing, it doesn't take much at all...add just a note or two and your brain connects the dots (Name That Tune!). I am terrible at NTT, btw. That said, I don't think Phelps is quoting directly. Yes, the phrasing is there but he's hidden the tune well (my opinion, of course). I think he's doing it in small enough doses to 'get away with it'.

Maybe he's a 'sampling' precursor... ;-)

All of this folktastic thievery makes me crazy anyway. I don't know how many times I've been asked to call a tune and when I did...it is just a different name for the tune we just played. Embarrassing.

1) I agree

2) all this reminds me of what happened to a friend of mine at a fiddle jam session. They had worked up a good head of steam playing a particular tune, I forget which one.  My friend yelled out the name of another tune, got friendly nods from the other fiddlers and they all dug in and played :  the same tune they had been playing. He yelled louder. They smiled and played the same tune again. He became confused bordering on indignant.  It turns out that he had misremembered the title of the tune he wanted them all to play and was calling out the name of what they were already playing. 

Trapdoor2 said:

I suppose I could quote Tom Lehrer from his tune "Lobachevski": "...plagiarize! Only, please to call it, 'research'." ;-)

I think there is a difference between quoting a tune (or a bit of one) and incorporating some direct component of said tune. With rhythms and phrasing, it doesn't take much at all...add just a note or two and your brain connects the dots (Name That Tune!). I am terrible at NTT, btw. That said, I don't think Phelps is quoting directly. Yes, the phrasing is there but he's hidden the tune well (my opinion, of course). I think he's doing it in small enough doses to 'get away with it'.

Maybe he's a 'sampling' precursor... ;-)

All of this folktastic thievery makes me crazy anyway. I don't know how many times I've been asked to call a tune and when I did...it is just a different name for the tune we just played. Embarrassing.

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