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Appalachian music. Round Town Gals [music transcription]. Note sheet.

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Appalachian music. Round Town Gals [music transcription]. Note sheet.

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Summary

Meter: 4/4
Transcribed by Alan Jabbour, from a performance by Henry Reed.
Compass: 12
Key: G
Stylistic features: Slurs predominate in bowing.
Title change: The title appears on the transcription as "Round Town Gals, or Buffalo Gals."
Strains: 2 (low-high?, 4-4)
Rendition: 2-1-2r-1r-2r-1 (but may have started on high strain)
Phrase Structure: ABAC QBQC (abcb abcd qbcb qbcd)
This well-known tune is usually called "Buffalo Gals," though in parts of southwestern Virginia and West Virginia the oldtimers prefer the title Henry Reed gave, "Round Town Gals." It is associated with verses to the effect "Buffalo gals won't you come out tonight and dance by the light of the moon." The title invites localization, and a number of other towns are commemorated in various sets of the song and tune. "Alabama Gals" appeared on an early hillbilly record, influencing its subsequent naming and circulation among some fiddlers. The notes to "Buffalo Girls" in American Fiddle Tunes (Library of Congress, AFS L62) contain additional notes and citations.Accounts of the history of American popular song often cite the composer of the song and tune as a minstrel performer, Cool White, whose song "Lubly Fan" was published in 1843. But a set in Knauff's Virginia Reels (1839), vol. 4, #8, bearing the title "Midnight Serenade: Varied," suggests that it was already in circulation, with similar verses, before it found its way onto the minstrel stage. Indeed, it may be international in origin, for similar tunes have turned up in central Europe (see Bayard, Hill Country Tunes, #1a and 1b).

date_range

Date

01/01/1966
person

Contributors

Jabbour, Alan (Transcriber)
create

Source

Library of Congress
copyright

Copyright info

Public Domain

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