Downfall of Water Street
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Standard Notation
ABC Notation
Mandolin Tablature
Violin Tablature
traditional
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
"Downfall of Water Street" is an American "Straight" Jig in 2/4 time and A Major. The parts<br> are played AB.<br> A straight jig is a syncopated duple-time dance tune, derived from banjo playing and meant to<br> accompany dances akin to a soft shoe, clog or step dancing, precursors to tap dancing. This<br> dance type is also known as a "sand" jig (because it was performed on a sanded stage floor).<br> There are Water Streets in both New York and Boston, cities in which contributors to the Ryan<br> collection resided.<br> The tune was first published in Elias Howe's Musician's Omnibus Nos. 6 & 7 (1880-1882), and<br> just a year or two later it was printed by William Bradbury Ryan, an employee of the Howe<br> firm, in Ryan's Mammoth Collection (1883). Contrary to some assumptions that Ryan got the<br> majority of his material from the previous forty years of the Howe catalogue, the version of<br> "Downfall of Water Street" that Ryan printed is not only not identical to Howe's but likely<br> records the unique arrangement of a skilled fiddler. Ryan's version uses 1/16 and 1/32 notes.<br> I have presented it using 1/8 and 1/16 notes to make the melody easier to follow. <br> It was printed in Cole's 1000 Fiddle Tunes (1940),<br> Elias Howe's Musician’s Omnibus Nos. 6 & 7 (1880-1882) and<br> Ryan's Mammoth Collection (1883).<br>
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