Puncheon Floor
Notation:
Standard Notation
ABC Notation
Banjo Tablature
Mandolin Tablature
Violin Tablature
traditional
PDF Files:
--- choose file type ---
Standard Notation
Banjo Tablature
Mandolin Tablature
Violin Tablature
Tune Sheet
American
Play
MIDI
No audio
available
Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
"Puncheon Floor" is an old-time breakdown known in Arkansas and Tennessee in G Major or<br> G Major / D Major.<br> The parts are played AA'BB or AABBAA. Several melodies called “Puncheon Floor”, some related<br> and some quite distinct from one-another, exist in American traditional music.<br> Ira Ford (1940), who collected at least some of his material in the Ozarks region, remarked:<br> "'Puncheon Floor' has been handed down as one of the favorite old dance tunes of America.<br> More than any other of the traditional tunes of the olden days it seems to carry the spirit<br> of sociability of the folks 'back yonder', where the people of a community were then<br> closely banded together in a social order based upon the greatest good of the greatest<br> number. The homes were built of logs and shingled with clap-boards. The floors were made of<br> puncheons, split logs laid with the round side down. After the puncheons were edged with<br> the broadaxe and joined together, the floor was surfaced and smoothed off with an adz until<br> it was as smooth as a modern dance floor. It was thus that this old tune had its genesis.”<br> "Puncheon Floor" is mentioned as having been played in a newspaper account of a 1931<br> LaFollette, northeast Tenn., fiddlers' contest. The title also appears in a list of<br> traditional Ozarks Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance<br> Randolph, published in 1954; which "Puncheon Floor" melody he listed is unknown.<br> The banjo tablature by John Letscher follows the version that we heard played at Midwest Banjo<br> Camp by Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer. They said the chain of traditon was <br> Crawley Hamlin to Esker Hutchins of Dobson N.C. to Oscar Jenkins and Benton Flippen.<br> The fiddle version follows John Lamancusa's web site<br> "www.mne.psu.edu/lamancusa/tunes/PuncheonFloor.pdf".<br> It was printed in Ford's Traditional Music in America (1940).<br>
Click
here
for a full page view.