Annotation:Old Man Old Woman and Children

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OLD MAN, OLD WOMAN, AND CHILDREN. American, Reel. USA, southwestern Pa. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). ABC. There are contour and structural similarities (if not melodic ones) to the reel "Growling Old Man and Grumbling Old Woman (The)," which Bayard believes is a derivative of the Irish "Eagle's Whistle (1) (The)" (and the American "Bonaparte's Retreat (1)"). While the "Growling" or "Disputant" tunes are generally associated with Canadian fiddling, they were collected in the United States as well, and the programmatic-like juxtaposition of high and low parts, and the picking up of speed during the performance (to indicate increasingly heated tempers) is characteristic, applied to different melodic strains, but with pattern consistency. Source Steffy's tune differs only in the addition of a third programmatic part (the 'Children').

Source for notated version: Steffy (Pa., 1949) [Bayard].

Printed sources: Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 240, p. 201 (appears as "The Old Man and Old Woman A-Quarrelin'" [2]).

Recorded sources:

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