Annotation:Downfall of Water Street (1)
X:1 T:Down Fall of Water Street [1] M:2/4 L:1/8 R:Reel B:Elias Howe – Musician’s Omnibus Nos. 6 & 7 (Boston, 1880-1882, p. 637) B: http://ks4.imslp.net/files/imglnks/usimg/c/c7/IMSLP601433-PMLP562790-ONeill_Rare_Medium_M40_M8_v6.7_text.pdf Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:A (3e/f/g/|a/e/g/e/ f/a/e/g/|(3a/g/f/ (3e/d/c/ B/c/A/c/|d/c/d/e/ f/e/f/g/|a/e/c/A/ B/c/A!fermata!:| E/cc/ c/B/A/z/|c/eA/ B/c/A|E/cc/ c/B/A/z/|a/e/c/A/ c/B/A/z/| E/cc/ c/B/A/z/|c/eA/ B/c/A/c/|d/c/d/e/ f/e/f/g/|a/e/c/A/ B/c/A/z/!D.C.!||
DOWNFALL OF WATER STREET [1]. American, "Straight" Jig (2/4 time). A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. A straight jig is a syncopated duple-time dance tune, derived from banjo playing and meant to accompany dances akin to a soft shoe, clog or step dancing, precursors to tap dancing. There are Water Streets in both New York and Boston, cities in which contributors to the Ryan collection resided. The tune was first published in Elias Howe's Musician's Omnibus Nos. 6 & 7 (1880-1882), and just a year or two later it was printed by William Bradbury Ryan, an employee of the Howe firm, in Ryan's Mammoth Collection (1883). Contrary to some assumptions that Ryan got the majority of his material from the past forty years of the Howe catalogue, the version of "Downfall of Water Street" that Ryan printed is not only not identical to Howe's but likely records the unique arrangement of a skilled fiddler.
