WILLIAM DEAN WATSON

FOLK DANCE FIDDLE TUNES – “EL GAUCHO TRISTE (THE SAD COWBOY)”

Music: William Dean Watson
Rob Fenton: Dobro
Charles James: Bass
Graham Mansfield: Mandolin
Darryl Poulsen: Guitar
Nate Smith: Fiddle
William Dean Watson: Guitar
Arranged and produced by: William Dean Watson and Rob Fenton
Mixed and mastered by: William Dean Watson

Argentina and Uruguay have given us a cowboy music tradition distinct from its North American counterpart. Tango dance music – tangos and tango valses – emerged from the rugged 19 th century gaucho culture to become a worldwide phenomenon. Two pieces in particular – “La Cumparsita (‘The Little Parade’)”¹ and “El Choclo (‘The Corn Cob’)” ² – are so familiar they instantly evoke the image of a handsome couple dancing a passionate tango. Like American country music, tango integrates European and African influences, and like the folk dance inspired music of canonical European composers Franz Liszt³ and Béla Bartók,⁴ tango has been taken up by ‘serious’ composers, especially Astor Piazolla⁵ and Isaac Albéniz⁶ (I have the impression that Piazzolla’s “Libertango” is the tango composition most frequently performed by classical musicians ⁷ ). True to its classical influences, tango music is characterized by shifts between major and minor keys and variations of tempo. These include accelerandos and ritardandos, as well as the unique ‘arrastres’ where slow slides on the stringed instruments match drag steps performed by the dancers, and startling moments when the whole band stops playing briefly before taking up the beat once more. All these tempo shifts must be accomplished with sufficient rhythmic sensitivity for the dancers improvising their elaborate steps to keep the time.

The standard instrumentation for tango is two fiddles, piano, Spanish guitar, bowed upright bass and, key to the tango sound, one or two bandoneons, a large chromatic button accordion played seated with the instrument resting on the knees. Tango is an especially virtuosic music, the improvisational skills of the best tangueros matching those of the dancers they inspire. I have been especially drawn to bandoneon player and band leader Anibal Troilo and guitarist Roberto Grela, who recorded beautiful ensemble pieces together.⁸

“El Gaucho Triste (The Sad Cowboy)” is a tango-like piece written for American string band: two fiddles, steel string acoustic guitars, plucked upright bass, mandolin and dobro. The fiddle melody and counterpoint patterning used throughout the ‘folk dance fiddle tunes’ in this collection is close to the way the two fiddles function in traditional tango ensembles, so that is a natural fit, although the melodic aspect is often dominated by the bandoneon in tango music. Here, the music keeps to strict time throughout at a tempo somewhere between “La Cumparsita” and “El Choclo.”

(1) Music by Gerardo Matos Rodriguez, 1913, public domain. Anibal Troilo’s iconic 1943 version, as Anibal Troilo (Pichuco) Y Su Orquesta Típica, was released by RCA Victor 60-0271 c1947.
(2) Music by Ángel Villoldo, 1907, public domain. Violinist and band leader Juan D’Arienzo’s version, as Juan D’Arienzo Y Su Orquesta Típica, was released by RCA Victor 1A-0272, n.d.
(3) Especially the Hungarian Rhapsodies for piano; S/G 244.
(4) Especially the Romanian Folk Dances for piano; Sz 56.
(5) Piazzolla composed many tangos and recorded numerous tango-based albums, beginning his career in 1936 and writing, recording and touring until the 1980s.
(6) Albéniz’s famous Tango in D, Opus 165 No.2, for piano has become a performance staple; see, for instance, Daniel Barenboim’s version on Encores, Deutsche Grammophon 486 1936, 2022. Union Musical Ediciones SL / Music Sales America.
(7) For instance on Yo-Yo Ma: Classic Yo-Yo, with Hector Console, Leonardo Marconi & Nestor Marcon, Sony Classical SK 89667, 2001; Alison Balsom: Caprice, EMI Classics 3 53255 2, 2006. S D R M, Curci Edizioni S R L c/o Downtown Dlj Songs LLC, and A. Pagani Edizioni Musicali c/o Downtown Dlj Songs LLC.
(8) Aníbal Troilo Y Su Orquesta Típica: Troilo-Grela: Pa’Que Bailen Los Muchachos, BMG
82876622132, 2004.

FOLK DANCE FIDDLE TUNES – “Two Steps Backwards”

Music: William Dean Watson
Spoken introduction: “Welcome, one and all! Please take your partners for the Texas
Two-Step!”
Rob Fenton: dobro
Charles James: upright bass
Graham Mansfield: mandolin
Darryl Poulsen: guitar
Nate Smith: fiddle
William Dean Watson: guitar, vocal
Arranged and produced by: William Dean Watson and Rob Fenton
Mixed and mastered by: William Dean Watson

“Two Steps Backwards” – a terrible pun for an unashamedly nostalgic Texas Two-Step – is the signature piece for my Folk Dance Fiddle Tunes collection. Two-steps feature prominently in the history of American music, from John Philip Souza’s famous “Washington Post March”¹ to Bob Wills’ delightful “New Spanish Two-Step”².

There are two direct sources of inspiration for the Folk Dance Fiddle Tunes. There are, most obviously, the wonderful Transatlantic Sessions³ in which the finest American and British traditional musicians combine to explore their common musical heritage. More fundamentally, I have been inspired by scenes in the films of John Ford in which an ostensibly small band plays dance tunes in quasi-formal military gatherings in the rugged Old West (I think especially of dance scenes in “Fort Apache”⁴ and “She Wore A Yellow Ribbon”⁵ ). The Texas Two-Step, a classic promenade partner dance, is exactly the kind of dance form Ford highlighted in these scenes.

Both the Transatlantic Sessions and the Ford dance scenes are musical situations in which downhome musicians ‘get serious.’ I have articulated this seriousness, in part, by all the Folk Dance Fiddle Tunes being constructed as fiddle melodies with fiddle counterpoint, composed formal counterpoint being a celebrated element of the European classical musical lineage. In “Two Steps Backwards”, the counterpoint is only introduced in the last chorus, easing the listener into the form, but in the remaining Folk Dance Fiddle Tunes the counterpoint plays a more prominent role throughout.

(1) Sousa’s Band: Victor 17302, 1918. Music: John Philip Souza. Many different co-composers and music publishers are credited for the many numerous recordings of the piece.
(2) C/w Roly- Poly: Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys, Columbia 36966, 1946. Music: Tommy Duncan and James Robert Wills, Red River Songs Inc. / BMI Music.
(3) Whirlie Records: Volume 1: WHIRLIECD 15, 2009; Volume 2: WHIRIECD 16, 2009; Volume 3: WHIRLIECD 17, 2009: Volume 4: WHIRLIECD 21, 2010; Volume 5: WHIRLIECD 25, 2011; Volume 6: WHIRLIECD 35, 2013.
(4) RKO Radio Pictures, 1948; director: John Ford.
(5) RKO Radio Pictures, 1949; director: John Ford.

FOLK DANCE FIDDLE TUNES – “SHAPE NOTE POLKA“

Music: William Dean Watson
Rob Fenton: dobro
Adrian Gross: mandolin
Charles James: upright bass
Darryl Poulsen: guitar
Nate Smith: fiddle
Sari Teitelbaum: cello
William Dean Watson: tenor guitar
Arranged and produced by: William Dean Watson and Rob Fenton
Mixed and mastered by: William Dean Watson

“Shape Note Polka” brings together two folk styles without any historical justification! They have nothing in common except their harmonic simplicity and that, in their different ways, they exemplify the power of musical joy. Neither initially evolved for string band performance and only one is a folkdance music.

Shape-note music evolved as an early form of American music education, typically for religious songs, using a set of geometric shapes to substitute for the oval note heads of formal music notation, with the shapes corresponding to the sol-fa syllables. This facilitated simple, slow harmony singing, with the harmonies emphasizing parallel fifths, giving a dignified equilibrium¹. Polka music relies on triplets to generate its sense of energetic movement. It is not typically performed with American string band instrumentation, having emerged as a quasi- orchestral music in Europe before becoming strongly associated with the accordion in the United States. Earl Scruggs’ “Polka On A Banjo” is the novelty exception that proves the rule².

“Shape Note Polka” begins with a simple four part harmony played by two fiddles and two cellos, substituting for the unadorned shape-note voices. It quickly shifts into a polka, based around a fiddle melody and counterpoint.

(1) Beautiful renditions can be found on Southern Traditional Singers: The Social Harp: Early American Shape-note Songs, Rounder Records 0094, 1978.
(2) Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs & The Foggy Mountain Boys: Columbia 4-41786, 1960. Music: G. Daniel Leon Luallen Richard Tillman and George N. Williams, BMI Music / Sure Fire Music Company Inc.

FOLK DANCE FIDDLE TUNES – “Winter Winds (Will Blow Us Home)”

Music: William Dean Watson
Rob Fenton: Dobro
Adrian Gross: Mandolin
Charles James: Bass
Darryl Poulsen: Guitar
Nate Smith: Fiddle
William Dean Watson: Guitar

Winter Winds (Will Blow Us Home) is a celebration dance for the winter holidays. The melody is simple, joyful and comforting, evoking the pleasure of time shared with old friends around a familiar hearth. The dance tempo of Winter Winds is for a ‘schottische’; originally a European partner dance which, like the polka, has become engrained in the folk dance traditions of many countries around the world, especially in
Europe and the Americas. This is a Christmas song, rather than a Christmas carol, although traditional folk carols like Awake, Arise Good Christians 1 can have a similarly danceable rhythm.

(1) Kate Rusby has a determinedly merry version on her Christmas album Sweet Bells, Pure Records PRCD33, 2008. Words and music Kate Anna Rusby, Sentric Music Publishing Limited / Sentric Music Songs BMI.

FOLK DANCE FIDDLE TUNES – “OLD FORTINGALL“

Words and Music: William Dean Watson
Rob Fenton: dobro
Charles James: upright bass
Graham Mansfield: mandolin
Darryl Poulsen: guitar
Nate Smith: fiddle
William Dean Watson: guitar
Arranged and produced by: William Dean Watson and Rob Fenton
Mixed and mastered by: William Dean Watson

An ancient yew tree reputed to be 5,000 years old graces the tiny churchyard in the tiny village of Fortingall, on the southern edge of the Scottish highlands. “Old Fortingall” adapts the traditional Scottish lament form – a slow melancholy waltz (close to American Standard Waltz tempo) led by simple fiddle melody – to celebrate the famous old tree. This stately waltz is supported by an equally spare fiddle counterpoint.

The traditional Scottish lament achieved its most iconic form in the wonderful Neil Gow’s “Lament For The Death Of His Second Wife”. Gow (1727 – 1807) is remembered as the greatest Scottish fiddler to ever put bow to gut. Shetland fiddle ace Jenna Reid gives a profound performance of the great tune¹. The Scottish tradition has deeply influenced American acoustic music; compare Scottish fiddler Aly Bain’s and American
guitarist Bryan Sutton’s versions of “Margaret’s Waltz”, for instance². Jay Ungar’s mysterious “Ashokan Farewell” more completely Americanizes the form³.

The arrangement of “Old Fortingall”, with dobro, mandolin and flat-picked guitar solos, maintains this Americanization, yet it equally echoes the ensemble feel of Bjarte Eike and Barokksolistene’s delightfully eccentric but securely European version of Neil Gow’s “Lament”⁴.

(1) On Laughing Girl, Foot Stompin’ Records CDFSR1738, 2008.
(2) On Aly Bain: Best Of Aly Bain, Whirlie WHIRLIECD 14, 2008; Bryan Sutton: Bluegrass Guitar, Sugar Hill Records (2) SHCD 3975, 2003. Music: Pat Shuldham-Shaw, Green Linnet Music / ASCAP / GEMA.
(3) On, for instance, Jay Ungar & Molly Mason: Live At Gettysburg College, Fiddle & Dance Records FDCD 102, 1994. Music: Jay A. Ungar, Swing Door Music / BMI Music.
(4) On Bjarte Eike, Barokksolistene, Berit Norbakken Solset & Milos Valent: The Image Of Melancholy, BIS BIS-2057 SACD, 2014.