Annotation:Mutt and Jeff

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MUTT AND JEFF. Old-Time, Breakdown. D Major ('A' part) & A Major ('B' part). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Mutt and Jeff was a cartoon from the early days of film, dating to 1916, and the longest running theatrical animated short series of the silent era, lasting until 1926. It featured two miss-matched characters, one tall and lanky and the other shorter and spunky, from which the phrase "mutt and jeff" was coined to denote miss-matched pairs.

The title was perhaps inspired by the fact that each strain of the tune is in a different key. While this combination is fairly common in many traditions, particularly for quadrilles, it is not common in the Appalachian South.

Owen Chapman

Source for notated version: Owen 'Snake' Chapman (1919-2003, Canada, Pike County, Ky.) [Phillips].

Printed sources: Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 1), 1994; p. 160.

Recorded sources: June Appal JA0061, Owen "Snake Chapman - "Fiddle Ditty."

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