Lady of the Lake

Comment by Al Smitley on January 16, 2022 at 7:05am

I long thought "Santa Anna's Retreat from Cerro Gordo" merely tacked the title on to an existing tune.  Does it seem to be from the same "tune family" as "Lady of the Lake"?  Are there any earlier Scottish or Irish tunes from that "tune family"? 

Comment by Paul Draper on January 16, 2022 at 10:33am

Sure sounds like it, at least in part. Guess it’s not surprising to take an already familiar melody and put a new title to it. If you listen to Henry Reed’s Ducks on the Pond, you’ll hear Lady of the Lake.

Comment by Paul Draper on January 16, 2022 at 10:37am

Also, in the Old-time Fiddle canon there are other “Lady of the Lake”s which sound nothing like this…

Comment by Al Smitley on January 16, 2022 at 3:17pm

Hmm.  I thought I responded but perhaps I forgot to "Add Comment".  Yes, although "Lady of the Lake" is a prominent fiddle tune title, I never was able to get it in my head, probably because the tune always seemed to be different.  I've always thought that sheet music, with its' short window of time for sales, likely had publishers taking advantage of current events to peak people's interest and deprive them of a bit of their money, thus slapping a new title with a current event reference onto an existing tune and marketing it as though an original.

Comment by Trapdoor2 on January 25, 2022 at 6:36pm

LOL, first thing I thought was "Ducks on the Pond"...

Good tune, nicely played!

Comment by Paul Draper on January 25, 2022 at 10:41pm

Thanks, Marc. Hope to see you at the ABF rally in May?

Comment by Trapdoor2 on January 26, 2022 at 1:09am

I dunno. Even though I'm retired, Spring is still not a good time for me to be away from home. I tend to do most of my travelling in the Fall. I'm not sure why that is...but it kept me from AEBG when they moved it back from Sept. to June/July.

I stayed at the new venue last fall after that Rally's failure. I thought it was comfortable and provided a good base of operations for side trips to area museums. 

Comment by Trapdoor2 on January 30, 2022 at 2:57pm

LOL, I seem to have it backwards. I should go North in the spring...

Comment