The Session: Tunes - Maple Sugar (reel)

Maple sugar

I'm surprised that this tune (a march, not a reel) isn't in the database already; it's a Canadian standard, one of those tunes that everyone around these parts seems to know from somewhere, but can't place. There's another version here - http://www.dulcimers.com/tunes/maplesugar.html - but (a slightly swung version of) the one I posted is the one we play at my session.

Long-winded, pointless anecdote about Maple Sugar:

A few Monday nights ago, I returned home from the session to discover that sometime between my fiddle lesson and my arrival back at my apartment, my heavy mute had taken leave of my case. Panic set in, as I was scheduled to leave town the next morning, and I didn't want to subject the other guests at the bed and breakfast to the sorts of noises that a vaguely obsessive neophyte fiddler tends to make. What to do?

I am hardly at my most lucid late at night, so the obvious solution (buy a new mute upon arrival in destination city; search for missing mute upon return) did not occur to me. Instead, I channeled McGuyver, and set about assembling a makeshift mute from various items lying about the house. Half an hour later, my fiddle's bridge sported two metal hair clips attached below the strings, a little orchestral mute on top, and - to top it off - the peephole I'd extracted from my door, fastened with a wire and an elastic band. I tested it out: it muffled the sound just as well as my metal mute. Not bad! Disassembling it, though, was nontrivial, so I left it intact as I put my fiddle back it its case, and then I went to sleep and forgot about the whole thing until I had to haul this entire contraption through airport security at 6:30 the next morning.

Did I mention that I'm visibly of part Middle Eastern extraction?

Airport Security requested permission to open my case, and one does not say no to Airport Security. Pointing at the mess of metal, springs, and wires on my fiddle's bridge, Airport Security asked me, "What is this?"

It was 6:30 in the morning and I'd barely slept, so I replied, "It's a bloody fiddle, what does it look like?"

"No," said Airport Security verrrry slooowly, finger hovering precariously over the bridge, "THIS."

"Oh!" I said, and told Airport Security the first two paragraphs of this story.

"Play it," ordered Airport Security.

I knew that this was the most important performance of my very short, and even more dubious career as a fiddler: one can only imagine that if I flubbed this one, it would be assumed that my fiddle was some variety of weapon of mass destruction, and my fiddle and I would both be denied boarding, or worse. My anxiety was compounded by the fact that I'd left my new, beautiful fiddle at home, and had instead taken the cheap rental fiddle, which goes egregiously out of tune at the slightest provocation. I extracted the instrument and plucked the strings: sure enough, there wasn't a perfect fifth to be heard, and this fiddle takes an age to tune.

I did what anyone with my repertoire would do: I played the first seven bars of Maple Sugar, entirely on the A string.

Airport Security seemed satisfied - I can only imagine what the dozens of passengers watching me were thinking - and my fiddle and I made it onto the plane, and the rest of the trip passed without incident.

None of this, as it turned out, was even remotely necessary. The bed and breakfast where I was staying was in a mansion, with no other guests, and I could have committed a chainsaw massacre in my room without disturbing the other guests. Moreover, at one point, after practicing with my mute, I left my room to find the hosts sitting outside my door, apparently rather enjoying listening to the sorts of noises that a vaguely obsessive neophyte fiddler tends to make. No accounting for taste, I guess.

# Posted on March 11th 2007 by Tall, Dark, and Mysterious

"Maple Sugar" ~ another Ward Allen comp., also played in D & A Major

Nice tale TDM... 8-)

# Posted on March 11th 2007 by ceolachan

Ward Allen ~ Ontario Fiddler, composer of tunes and Radio star

Courtesy of "The Fiddler's Companion" ~ Andrew Kuntz

http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/index.html
http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/MAM_MAP.htm

" ~ Composed by Ontario fiddler Ward Allen, a professional fiddler who won contest after contest in Canada the 1950’s and had a successful career playing on the radio. It is a tune which has varied considerably in the vicissitudes of the ‘fold process’ and has even acquired a set of words. In addition to being a staple of ‘down east’ Canadian fiddling, it has been popular in northern New York and northern New England; as Vic Kibler (Hamilton County, New York) said, "At every fiddle contest they all played it." It was in repertory of Buffalo Valley, Pa., region dance fiddler Harry Daddario. Shetland fiddler Aly Bain's version (which he calls "traditional Canadian") is much superior to that collected by Bayard (which is really one strain which is modulated to another key), who thought it a strain of a song air transformed into a dance tune. Most Canadian fiddlers play the tune in the keys of ‘A’ and ‘E’, though in other parts of North America the tune is rendered throughout in the keys of ‘A’ or ‘D’ Major with no key change in the second part. ~"

# Posted on March 11th 2007 by ceolachan

I think they'd meant 'folk process'...the 'Chinese whispers' of tune sharing, or is that shearing, as for sheep?

I have come across this tune being used for New England contra dancing, in several 32 bar versions, as is the transcription given here...

# Posted on March 11th 2007 by ceolachan

Thanks, ceolachan, for the additional information!

("Most Canadian fiddlers play the tune in the keys of ‘A’ and ‘E’"? Dear God, why?)

[Coda to previous long-winded anecdote: I got my mute back; it was in the pub, and they'd held onto it for me, the dolls.]

# Posted on March 11th 2007 by Tall, Dark, and Mysterious

Good, I was stop worrying about that conglomeration of mutable paraphernalia you'd put on your fiddle, and get some sleep. When you closed the case I was wincing... :-/

# Posted on March 11th 2007 by ceolachan

"I was"? ~ it is late, I meant to say ~ "Now I can stop worrying."

Please, get yourself a spare mute or two, or hand your fiddle and mute over to someone more responsible for safe keeping during periods of hibernation, or when you are worse for wear...

# Posted on March 11th 2007 by ceolachan

But I have a spare mute! It consists of two metal hair clips, an orchestral mute, a peephole, an elastic band, and some wires. Weren't you paying attention? ;)

# Posted on March 11th 2007 by Tall, Dark, and Mysterious

AAAAA!!! (Yes!) ;-)

# Posted on March 11th 2007 by ceolachan

Maple Sugar

Blue Ribbon Fiddle by Al Cherny (RCA Victor LP, CAL/CAS-989)

# Posted on March 12th 2007 by oldstrings

Maple sugar

In Québec, often played after devil's dream. I think this was initiated by a group name Le Rêve du diable. The french lyrics from Jean Pierre LaChance tells the story of people making maple syrup, going through the buches on a sleigh pulled by a horse, picking up maple water and boiling it into maple syrup:

On est allés dans le bois, on a vu une belle cabane,
Y'avait d'la fumée qui sortait de par la cheminée
On a frappé à la porte, on est entré dans la cabane
« Salut bonhomme! dis-nous si on pourrait t'aider! »
« Ah! Si tu veux m'aider, attelle les ch'vaux après l'traîneau
Mets l'tonneau su'l'traîneau, va voir si y a d'l'eau dans les sieaux
Si y a d'l'eau dans les sieaux, varse-la donc dans l'tonneau
Amène-moé ça icitte, on va s'faire un peu de bon sirop »

On est allés dans le bois, on a vu une belle cabane,
Y'avait d'la fumée qui sortait de par la ch'minée
On a mis l'traîneau après les ch'vaux
On a mis l'tonneau su'l'traîneau
On a passé dans l'bois pi on a vidé les sieaux
On a mis du bois dedans l'poêle, on a mis d'l'eau dans l'boiler
On a mangé des bonnes binnes arrosées de bon sirop
On a allumé nos pipes, les filles s'sont mises à placoter
Les violons s'sont mis à jouer et tout l'monde est parti à danser

You can hear it under the following link...

http://www.revedudiable.com/piece.phtml?p=lerevedudiablelesiropderable

# Posted on March 12th 2007 by Carabus

Variation on Maple Sugar

Recently I've been playing around with the B part of this tune, playing it like this the first time around:

For whatever reason, this tune reminds me of circus rides, and this variation is appropriately playful; I also like (if I do say so myself) how this version lives in an ambiguous key, between the Gmaj and Dmaj parts, as though the tune is taking its time deciding to switch into D major. Unfortunately, it's hell to play on certain instruments, (there's a reason you don't see A#'s very often in ITM), but it's a nice fiddle exercise...

# Posted on June 22nd 2007 by Tall, Dark, and Mysterious

Maple Sugar in A and E

Tall Dark and Mysterious wonders "dear God, why" do most Canadian fiddlers play Maple Sugar in A and E? The best explanation is to listen to the Canadian composer Ward Allen, who played it in these keys, on his recording back in the 1950s. It's posted on Youtube at <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIYRYZHZYJc>;.

# Posted on April 24th 2008 by greybeardloon

Ward Allen plays Maple Sugar

When I tried tested that link for Ward Allen in my previous comment, it didn't work -- something wrong in the address. But you can get there by simply googling "Ward Allen plays Maple Sugar". It's really worth a listen.

# Posted on April 24th 2008 by greybeardloon

Thanks for the link to Ward Allen. Great playing. I only knew the tune before from Aly Bain& Graeme Townsend's version, and oddly, Don Messer on a recording with Australian country singer Slim Dusty

# Posted on June 10th 2008 by Bren