Annotation:Reel à bouche
X:1 T:Reel-à-bouche M:4/4 L:1/8 N:Mouth music reel S:from the lilting of Benoît Benoît (1957) Z:Sharon Berman K:C D|:G2 GF G2 AG|AGFD EFzF|FFGA G2 AG|FD DG-GA GF| G2 AG AG FD|CD-DA GAGF|D2 DC C4:| |:DCDE F>F G2|DDCD _B,3C-|CCDE F3D-|DDC_B, C3D-| DCDF GAGF|D3 A GAGF|D>CC2 C4:|
REEL Á BOUCHE. French-Canadian, Reel (whole time). A Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB: AABB. The title translates as "mouth music reel." Dance music was sometimes lilted in several cultures, notably in parts of Scotland and Ireland, and, by extension, in Cape Breton, Quebec, and other places in North America. Nonsense syllables sufficed for words, although sometimes mouth music had distinct sets of lyrics. Such tunes are also known as turlute in Quebec. Conjecture has it that such tunes were sung for dancing in the absence of an instrument, or when the musicians were incapacitated by fatigue (or drink!), but it was also employed as a mnemonic to make it easier to commit tunes to memory. For exactly this reason is a common practice today for teachers of traditional tunes to preface teaching the tune on an instrument by lilting it first.
