Annotation:Get on de Train

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X:1 T:Get on de Train M:C| L:1/8 R:Sand Jig S:Ryan's Mammoth Collection (1883) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companon K:A .A2.G2.A2.E2 | A c2f ecBA | .B2.^A2.B2.F2 | Bg2f edcB | .A2.B2.A2.E2 | Ac2f ecBA | .B2.^A2.B2.F2 | (f2e)z (=F2E)z :| |: (3ccc (c>.f) ecBA | (3ccc c>f ecBA | aa2f a4 | AA2F A4 | (3ccc c>f ecBA | (3ccc c>f ecBA | agae gfed | cedB A2z :| |: .A2.G2.A2.E2 | (3A,CE (3Ace a4 | .B2.^A2.B2.F2 | (3EGB (3egb e'4 | .A2.G2.A2.E2 | .B2.^A2.B2.F2 | dg2f edcB |1 Az (E2_F2E2) :|2 A2a2A2 z2 ||



GET ON DE TRAIN. American, "Sand Jig" (4/4 or cut time). A Major (Cole/Ryan): A Major (Kerr). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBA'A' (Cole): AABBA'A" (Kerr). Ryan's Mammoth Collection credits composition of the melody to Frank Livingston, one of several under his name in the collection. A 'sand jig' was a duple-time syncopated dance tune bearing no relation to the Irish jig. Rather, 'jig' in this context is more in the English (morris) sense, meaning a solo dance. The sand jig was meant to be performed on a stage that had been strewn with sand, to facilitate the movement of the stepping. Musician and historian Vic Gammon states: "The tune...is most interesting because it presages the use of a chord based on the flattened sixth note of the scale, a harmonic effect that Scott Joplin uses in the first part of 'Maple Leaf Rag' (1896)[1].

Additional notes

Source for notated version: -

Printed sources : - Cole (1000 Fiddle Tunes), 1940; p. 81. Kerr (Merry Melodies, vol. 2); No. 420, p. 47. Ryan's Mammoth Collection, 1883; p. 114.

Recorded sources: - Fellside Recordings FECD276, Vic Gammon & Friends - "Early Scottish Ragtime" (2016).



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  1. Vic Gammon, liner notes to Fellside Recordings FECD276, "Early Scottish Ragtime", 2016.