drjack - Posted - 04/28/2017:  04:58:56

This week’s tune is Rowe’s or Rose Division

As per the “Fiddler’s Almanac” this tune originated in North Carolina possibly as a fife and drum march and possibly named after Robert Rodes who commanded a confederate army division at the battle of Gettysburg.

More info about General Rides is available here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Rodes

Notated versions of the tune are available here mne.psu.edu/lamancusa/tunes.html  as well as in the “Fiddler’s Facebook” Miles Krassen’s “Appalachian Fiddle”  Philips “Traditional American Fiddle Tunes” vol 2. and Alan Jabbour’s  “Fiddle Tunes Illuminated”.

The tune is available on You Tube  with Alan Jabbour and Ken Perlman  here youtube.com/watch?v=xiLM-0ShLaQ

There is also an audio version at Slippery-Hill here slippery-hill.com/recording/rose-division  I assume it is in the Milliner-Koken collection.

The only commercial recordings I could find are  Bertram Levy’s “That Old Gut Feeling”  from which my tab is shamelessly borrowed and “Southern Summits” with Ken Perlman and Alan Jabbour.

Mr Levy plays it in open C tuning, gCGCE as part of a medley with Dominion Reel.

Rose Division

 

Tractor1 - Posted - 04/28/2017:  06:04:29

I do this 3 finger ,was inspired by the Sandy Hofferth version you link to ,a great tune,,Sandy's Version

Edited by - Tractor1 on 04/28/2017 06:11:34

carlb - Posted - 04/28/2017:  06:14:13

It's not in the Millner-Koken collection. On the Hollow Rock String Band album (Rounder Records 0024), Alan writes "...and Rose Division (or is it Rowe's Division?) come from John Lewis of Walnut Cove, North Carolina."

JanetB - Posted - 05/01/2017:  11:24:52

Thanks for pointing us to Alan Jabbour's dedicated lifetime work of collecting fiddle tunes.  I listened to his fiddling on the Hollow Rock String Band's recording.  Interestingly, BHO member Lew Sterns (Brooklynbanjoboy) is writing a biography of their banjo player, Tommy Thompson.  Perhaps Lew will chime in here and tell us more.

I chose the title Rodes' Division because of the link you included about Robert E. Rodes.  He actually had a division in the Confederate army, as reported in the wickipedia article, and his story is interesting.  When Stonewall Jackson was mortally wounded in action it was Rodes who took over and was recommended for promotion to major general by the dying General Jackson.  The tune has an upbeat feel, good for marching soldiers.

VIDEO: Rodes' Division (TOTW)
(click to view)

Rodes' Division (CH) tab