Red River Jig
Notation:
Standard Notation
ABC Notation
Mandolin Tablature
Violin Tablature
traditional
PDF Files:
--- choose file type ---
Standard Notation
Mandolin Tablature
Violin Tablature
Tune Sheet
Canadian
Play
MIDI
No audio
available
Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
"Red River Jig", also known as "La Grande Gigue Simple" ("The Great Single Step<br> Dance"), "Gigue Simple", "La Grande Rouge" or "La Jig du Bas-Canada" is a<br> French-Canadian reel in 3/4, or 6/4 and 3/2 time and D Major. The parts are played<br> one part (Carlin), AA'BB' (Hart & Sandell), ABCD (Reiner & Anick) or ABCCD<br> (Remon & Bouchard). It is often played in ADad or ADae fiddle tunings.<br> This triple-time reel is probably the most popular and famous solo step-dance<br> tune for virtuosic stepping in French-Canadian tradition, though it is in<br> actuality not a jig ('gigue') but a reel. It is performed at a variety of tempos,<br> depending on the taste of the fiddler or the step-dancer for whom it is played.<br> Guy Bouchard states that the tune is made up of repetitive phrases, the melodic<br> line is somewhat free-form and each fiddler seems to have his or her own version.<br> Métis fiddlers from Manitoba play it under the title "Red River Jig" and there<br> the tune is perhaps the most popular vehicle for step dancing. Anne Lederman<br> (in her entry on "Fiddling" in the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada, 1992) states<br> that this tune and its cognates were one of two important step-dance tunes in the<br> repertoire of the 18th and 19th century fur-trade in Canada, along with the reel<br> "Drops of Brandy"<br> (unrelated to the Irish slip-jig of the same name).<br> She suggests "La Grande Gigue Simple" (and cognates) may originally have been<br> Scottish hornpipes in 6/4 time (i.e., 'Old' or 'Triple' Hornpipe time).<br> Hart & Sandell (2001) note that fiddler Isidore Soucy recorded the tune on<br> 78 RPM discs five times between 1927 and 1952. The "La Grande Rouge" title seems<br> to be a regional Gaspe title for this tune and perhaps is associated with the<br> Manitoba title through the word 'red' (rouge). <br> The Red River of the North flows through Manitoba and the Métis lands and forms<br> the border between North Dakota and Minnesota. It empties into Lake Winnipeg,<br> whose waters join the Nelson River and ultimately flow into Hudson Bay.<br> It was printed in Phillips' Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 1 (1994),<br> Gibbons' Folk Fiddling in Canada (1981).<br> It was recorded by Don Messer and His Islanders (45 RPM),<br> Chirps Smith on Chirps Smith (2015),<br> Andy De Jarlis on Fiddle Legends (2000),<br> Léon Robert Goulet (1928) (78 RPM),<br> A.J. Boulay (1930) (78 RPM) and<br> Myllie Barron on Riding on a Handcar (2004).<br>
Click
here
for a full page view.