Annotation:Four-Hand Reel (2)

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 FOUR-HAND REEL [2]. English, Reel. An irregular country dance tune-the 'A' part has an odd number of bars. Source for this version was Blakeney fiddler and blacksmith Herbert Smith (1892-1961), who played it for BBC collector Peter Kennedy in 1952. Smith described the dance thus: "The Four Hand Reel consisted of four of them and they would compete against each other, make from corner to corner; and they would reverse over from one corner to the other...they'd go round and make a reel of it, you see...They would go round; after the corners they would go round and get into the corners again. Why they call it the reel; well, they reel off, d'you see" (quoted from Chris Holderness, "Herbert Smith: Fiddling blacksmith of Blakeney", Musical Traditions MTI 79).  Source for notated version:  Printed sources:  Recorded sources:

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