Folk Fiddling in Canada: A Sampling

Edith Fowke is a professor emeritus at York University and author of the
recently published Canadian Folklore: Perspectives on Canadian Culture.

This publication falls into two parts. The first consists of the music for 32 fiddle tunes that Roy W. Gibbons collected in western Canada in 1978 and 1979. These are grouped under the headings: waltzes, jigs, reels and hornpipes, traditional Métis dance music, and novelty tunes. Following the music are brief notes on the performers and on the tunes, along with a list of references and of old-time fiddle books.

Part Two is a comparative study of two regional styles of a fiddle tune known in Quebec as “la grande gigue simple” and in western Canada as the Red River Jig. Mr. Gibbons analyzes ten versions of each, comparing metre, phrase structure, transition patterns, and opening and closing formulae for each of the twenty versions, and then giving their full tunes.

As Mr. Gibbons notes, there have been few studies of traditional fiddling in Canada, and any contribution to this neglected field is welcome. However, I found this publication somewhat irritating because of its typographical errors and excessive repetitions. An introductory note says that the Mercury Series books are “designed to permit the rapid dissemination of information” and asks indulgence on that account, but as the collection dates from 1979 and the publication appeared in 1981, this hardly indicates particularly “rapid dissemination.” While occasional typographical errors are excusable, there seem to be rather too many. A quick reading noted verions for versions (p. ii), grange for grande (vii), incidated for indicated (viii), principle for principal (2), poeple for people (62), form for from (69), McLead for McLeod (80), Hudsons’s and preceeding (82), in for is (85).

As for repetition: every time a book or record is cited, and the same items are cited ad infinitum, the full bibliographic information is given. Surely some abbreviation would serve when they are all repeated in the list of references. Exactly the same sentence appears in the notes for tunes 14, 15, and 16; another sentence is repeated for tunes 20, 21, and 22; and similar repetitions appear in other notes. In the Discography every single record is described as “One 12” disc.” “Canadian Centre for Folk Culture Studies, National Museum of Man, Ottawa” written out in that full form appears literally scores of times. Precision may be a virtue, but perhaps it can be carried too far.