Annotation:Keel Row (The): Difference between revisions

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The melody is contained in the music copybook [https://buttreymilitarysocialtunes1800.wordpress.com/melodies/] of John Buttery (1784-1854), a fifer with British army's 37th (North Hampshire) Regiment of Foot (so designated in the army reorganization of 1782), who served from 1797-1814. Later in life Buttery emigrated to Canada, where he died.  Buttery's manuscript collection has also been identified as belonging to John Fife <ref>Early American Secular Music and Its European Sources, https://www.cdss.org/elibrary/Easmes/Index.htm</ref>, with a suggested date of 1780. Fife was a family name, like Buttery, identified with the manuscript.  Buttery included a number of popular and traditional melodies to be played over drum rolls signalling retreat, assembly, troop, and other military functions, and it may be that "Keel Row" was also employed as a march. In the Norfolk area of southern England, the “Keel Row” was paired with two other schottisches, [[Washing Day]] and [[Old Mrs. Huddledee]]; concertina player Scan Tester (1887-1972) and fiddler Walter Bulwer (1888-c. 1972) both independently knew the medley. In addition to morris and English country dancing the tune is often associated with the broomstick dance in southern England, a dance which is still occasionally performed in pubs at Yuletide. The Scots usually play the tune as a schottische, while in Ireland it is found as a barn dance or a fling, and sometimes as a reel (see "[[Rising Sun (6)]],"  

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Anne Lederman, in her article on “Fiddling” in the '''Encyclopedia of Music in Canada''' (1992), remarks that the “Keel Row” was the vehicle for the Broom Dance, popular in the 18th and 19th century Canadian fur-trade.  There are several derivations of "Keel Row" in the music of Quebec. See, for example, "[[Galope du Lac St-Jean]]," "[[Reel à quatre (3)]], "[[Reel Blanchette]]," "[[Reel du quêteux Tremblay de Aimé Gagnon]]," "[[Rêve du quêteux Tremblay de Aimé Gagnon (2)]].