Comment by Joel Hooks on May 11, 2016 at 0:50

The Carl Fischer book in the "tudor" section of this website is filled with what could be called "fiddle tunes."  In fact most of the "tudors" published before 1895 are filled with this sort of thing.  There are a few Ellis books that are collections of this sort of stuff to.

One book that I have yet to find a copy of but would really like is "The Banjo Player's Favorite" by Z. M. Bickford.  In C notation, it has all kinds of great short pieces.  It was sold in the US and England so if anyone has a copy I'd love a scan.  Or if you don't want to scan it, lend it to me and I will.  I'll even provide a shipping label that all you have to do is print and tape to a free box or envelope you get at the post office (US only).

Comment by Jody Stecher on May 11, 2016 at 2:31

Joel, I have a few photocopies of a few pages from 2  of Bickford's mandolin tutors (tudors? windsors? stuarts?) .  It's unusual, intelligent, insightful stuff. But I haven't seen his banjo books.  I guess you must have seen a table of contents of "The Banjo Player's Favorite". If I ever see a copy I'll let you know.

The Fisher book has a number of hornpipes and reels, if that's what you mean. The thing about fiddle tunes that makes them Fiddle Tunes is the range and structure. They're made on and for the violin. There will always be at least two parts. The high part makes use of the highest fiddle string but rarely goes beyond B in first position. The low part, depending on the key rarely goes higher than the open first string, is mostly found on the two middle strings, but can often descend to the lowest string.  A surefire way of discerning whether a melody was originally a pipe tune, a fiddle tune or a banjo tune is by the range and shape. An Irish pipe tune won't/ can't descend below D. A Scottish highland pipe tune has a narrower range and can be play almost entirely on the two highest fiddle strings. Tunes of banjo origin almost have characteristic banjo rhythms and there are often hints in the structure that point to banjo tuning(s). All of this used to be such common knowledge that it was in the category of "obvious" , but is mostly ignored these days.

Comment by Jody Stecher on May 11, 2016 at 2:48

Typo alert : somehow I lost the word "always" in the sentence about banjo rhythms. I meant to say "almost always", not "almost".

Comment by Joel Hooks on May 11, 2016 at 3:22

My typos and grammar are so bad one might think I am illiterate.
Eli has published a lot of Bickford's stuff in the Five Stringer over the years. He took fingerlings to the next level. Interesting but sometimes overthought. The aforementioned book is a collection of short pieces with some novelties thrown in like playing two melodies at once. I've seen scraps from it. Eventually I'll get a copy then everyone will have it.

I guess I don't know what a "fiddle tune" is. I was going by the fact the many of the pieces in the Ryan Fiddle book show up in tutors. And many of those resurface during the "old time fiddle contest" era of the 1900s and again in the 1920s (after the Henry Ford endorsement of values music) with silly titles. So are pieces like "Virginia Reel" "Arkansas Traveler" "Flop Ear Mule" etc. fiddle tunes? How about everything in Ossman and Van Eps "Dixie Medley?"

Comment by Joel Hooks on May 11, 2016 at 3:23

Fingerings to fingerlings, thanks auto correct!

Comment by Jody Stecher on May 11, 2016 at 5:57

Fingerlings are potatoes. My auto correct spell checker frequently "improves" my writing from what I meant to something absurd within the context. 

 I'll have a look at some 5 Stringer back issues and see if I find some Bickford stuff.  Thanks for the tip.

 Arkansas Traveler's origins seems to be as part of a skit in a minstrel show. As such it may be suspected to originally be a banjo tune, but on the fiddle each of its two parts fits the finger(l)ing in  the key of D on the fiddle as if born there.  Virginia Reel is a dance figure. Various tunes have been given that title. Flop Eared Mule is a fiddle tune, probably of  North Central European origin. The key change in the second part suggests this.

Now speaking of fiddles and potatoes, last year I wrote an article on the origin of the term "potatoes" to indicate a formulaic rhythmic beginning to a fiddle tune. The article was published in Fiddler Magazine. I was sure it was going to elicit  some objections because I show that the term, thought to be old, fiddle-related, traditional,  and southern, actually  originated in the late 1960s in the bluegrass banjo subculture of new york city. But "The Truth About Potatoes" barely raised an eyebrow. 

Comment by Trapdoor2 on May 11, 2016 at 19:51

Arkansas Traveler: earliest MS (1852) comes from W.S. Mount (painter of that famous banjo painting). It is understood that the tune was simply noted by Mount on that day and that it was already a well-known tune. Mount's MS is in D...and for the fiddle.

I have always enjoyed playing Converse's banjo arrangement out of his "Little Yellow Book". It lays on the banjo really well.

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