Annotation:Girl I Left Behind Me (3) (The)

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 GIRL I LEFT BEHIND ME [3], THE. Old-Time, Breakdown. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Source Henry Reed (Glen Lynn, Virginia) played several versions of this tune (recorded by Alan Jabbour for the Library of Congress, see and ). Some versions were very close to the well-known strains of the "Girl I Left Behind Me (1) (The), while others were farther afield. Susan Songer's transcription (of one of Reed's versions, via the Fuzzy Mountain String Band) varies primarily in the 'B' part from the usual tune. Other Reed versions introduce melodic material that may or may not be related to a distinct variant in his repertoire. As Jabbour points out, Reed may have been influenced by tunes with related musical material (see "I'm Going Away to Leave You Going to Tennessee" or "I've Got to Leave You"), which the fiddler had played just prior. As Jabbour says: "...examples such as this remind us of the musical flux that underlies tunes in the imagination and the capacity of the artist, either involuntarily or at will, to conflate or creatively reassemble the musical building blocks." The accompaniment to this old-time setting of the melody begins on an E minor chord.  Source for notated version: Henry Reed [Milliner & Koken].  Printed sources: Milliner & Koken (Milliner-Koken Collection of American Fiddle Tunes), 2011; p. 238. Songer (Portland Collection), 1997; p. 84.  Recorded sources: Rounder 0010, "Fuzzy Mountain String Band" (1972. Learned from Glen Lyn, Va., fiddler Henry Reed via Alan Jabbour).

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