Four Posts of the Bed, The
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
"The Four Posts of the Bed", also known as<br> "Four Corners of St. Malo", "Four Corners Reel", "Four Posts of the Bed", "Les<br> Quatre Coins du Lit", "Les Quatre Coins de St Malo" is an Irish, English, Scottish,<br> Shetlands and Canadian polka, reel or 'Programme Piece' in D Major. The parts are<br> played ABB<br> (Martin, Phillips) or AABB (Martin).<br> Both duple and triple metre versions of this tune exist.<br> The melody is popular in the Shetlands, though probably not of Shetland origin.<br> Acadian fiddlers on Prince Edward Island (who play it as "The Four Corners") describe<br> it as a tune from France, one of the oldest in the French-Canadian repertoire and<br> recall that words were sung to it.<br> On an early recording made for Comhaltas, Donegal fiddler John Doherty relates the<br> story of "The Fours Posts of the Bed" and then plays the tune. His story tells of an<br> itinerant fiddle player who finds refuge for the night in a cottage which lacks a bed<br> for him. Not wanting to be inhospitable, the man of the house fashions a bed and in<br> return the fiddler composes a tune to thank him.<br> A fiddler often dramatizes a 'four-poster' bed in the second strain of the tune by<br> giving four taps with<br> the frog-end of the bow on the each of the four quarters of the belly of the fiddle,<br> interspersed by a right-hand pizzicato. As has been noted by any fiddler who attempts<br> to play this tune in the traditional manner, tapping the metal end of the frog on the<br> belly of the violin often produces nicks and dings in the wood (or worse). To prevent<br> this damage fiddlers in Donegal shout in Gaelic "Aon, do, tri, ceathair"<br> (one, two, three, four) as they tap the four corners of the violin with their bow in<br> the vertical position but with the fleshy part of their middle finger covering the<br> end of the frog.<br> It was printed in Jordan's Whistle and Sing!, vol. 1 (1974),<br> Martin's Ceol na Fidhle, vol. 1 (1991),<br> Martin's Traditional Scottish Fiddling (2002) and<br> Phillips' Fiddle Case Tunebook: British Isles (1989).<br> It was recorded by Dave Swarbrick.<br>
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