Missisppi Sawyer
Glenn Weiser
I'm wondering if anyone here can tell me what the earliest recording of the
fiddle tune "Mississippi Sawyer" was. I'm doing some research for a Sing
Out! magazine piece and was hoping someone here might know.
Thanks,
Glenn Weiser
celtic...@nycap.rr.com
lofg...@maroon.tc.umn.edu
Sources" (U. of North Carolina, 2002) is by Don Richardson, violin &
piano, May 6, 1916, Columbia A2018. I've not heard it.
The earliest one listed there that was likely aimed at a southern
audience would be Ernest Thompson, harmonica & guitar, rec. 4/25/1924.
Columbia 189-D, released 11/24.
Lyle Lofgren
David Sanderson
I think I recall that the tune is in Cecil Sharpe's collection, which
would put the date of collection in the same range as the Richardson
recording.
--
David Sanderson
East Waterford, Maine
lofg...@maroon.tc.umn.edu
awhile, and you'd think there would be a Scottish or Irish predecessor,
which would obviously have a different title. I don't know much about
the British Isles fiddle tunes, so I don't have anything to
contribute, but someone else on the newsgroup might.
Lyle
hucktunes™
Englander built a lumber mill on the Mississippi river, held a dance to
celebrate the construction and played this tune on his fiddle. It does
sound like a New England tune to my ears. As far as the first recording
goes, I have no idea. But it is a great tune.
David Sanderson
Downfall of Paris is another title; but I never heard any history to go
with it.
David Sanderson
Doesn't sound New England to me, for whatever that's worth. The story
I've read is maybe more plausible (for whatever plausibility is
worth...). Seems a sawyer in the Mississippi is a particular variety of
snag, that is, a piece of a tree lodged on the bottom of the river.
It's a sawyer because the limbs that stick up out of the water are
alternately caught and released by the current, so that they are dragged
downstream, nearly submerged, then spring up again, the way an old
up-and-down sawmill works. So it's a sawyer because it goes up and down
like a saw.
This disappointed me because it eliminated the sawmill connection, which
made a nice introduction to playing it. On the other hand, it opens up
a whole new set of connections over to Mark Twain, who of course knew
all about the river and all the technical terms, as a pilot. And so we
know suddenly how Tom Sawyer got to be Tom Sawyer, though I'm not sure
you can parse the novel in those terms, since especially in Huckleberry
Finn Tom's problem is his tendency to abandon himself to fantasy at the
expense of common sense.
The "sawyer" flavor comes from the melody of the tune, higher notes,
then lower notes, as the saw going up and down.
Disclaimer: It is possible, and perhaps even advisable, to play the tune
without knowing any of this. I have found that it sounds remarkably
similar whether one is proficient in Mississippi River jargon or not,
and even if one chooses to call it The Downfall of Paris and ignore the
Mississippi entirely.
lofg...@maroon.tc.umn.edu
alternate, which might or might not be closer to the source of the
title:
I happen to have a copy of John Russel Bartlett's "Dictionary of
Americanisms" (4th ed. 1889) that I bought at a used book store long
ago. It was falling apart then, and it's much worse now, so let me pull
out the loose leaf that covers what Bartlett thought, and quote it:
"This may be truly called an American word; for no country without a
Mississippi and Missouri could produce a sawyer.
Sawyers are formed by trees, which, growing on the banks of the river,
become undermined by the current, and fall into the stream. They are
swept along with the branches partly above water, rising and falling
with the waves; whence their name. They are extremely dangerous to
steamboats, which sometimes run foul of them, and are either disabled
or sunk.
'A little above our location, thar war a bend in the stream, which kind
a turned the drift t'other eend up, and planted them about the spot
between our cabins, -- snags and sawyers just thar wur dredful plenty.'
--(A Night on the Missouri.)
'Thar I war, said Dan, perched upon a sawyer, bobbin' up and down in
the water.' -- (The American at Home)"
Of course, "sawyer" is also a sawmill operator, but at least as of the
2nd International Edition (the latest one I have), Webster's listed a
definition something like the above, and identified it as an
Americanism.
Of course, there's another possible source: "Who was that lady I sawyer
with last night ..."
Lyle
godsco...@hotmail.com
Tree".
Chip
hucktunes™
lofg...@maroon.tc.umn.edu wrote:
> Of course, there's another possible source: "Who was that lady I sawyer
> with last night ..."
>
> Lyle
Fiddle tune names are so much fun. I wonder if that's were the Beatles
got 'Til I Sawyer Standing There'.
Bill Rogers
settlements along the Mississippi were French, not English. "Downfall
of Paris" might work into that too.
Bill
hucktunes™
john allen
>
> I'm wondering if anyone here can tell me what the earliest recording of
> the
> fiddle tune "Mississippi Sawyer" was. I'm doing some research for a Sing
> Out! magazine piece and was hoping someone here might know.
the "Downfall of Paris" supposedly was played early in the 19th century when
the allies entered Paris after the battle of Waterloo, but the melody
predates even that. well before the Mississippi Sawyer title.
in their journals,,,Lewis and Clark mentioned the dangerous "sawyers" on the
Missouri River, as they headed west. i know i have their description here
somewhere...
Peter Feldmann
wrote:
>It is kinda an inverted Joys Of Quebec.
And if you play the same notes in a different order, you wind up
with "Soldier's Joy".
--
Peter Feldmann
http://www.bluegrasswest.com
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