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carlb - Posted - 02/10/2022: 14:50:32
George Graham's Cotillion, a fiddle tune from Jehile Kirkhuff
Notes from his recording “Autumn Breeze”
George Graham, of Lawton, PA, was a good old time fiddler, one of Jehile's many teachers and a close neighbor. The “cotillion” is an old country dance dating back at least to the 1700's in France and elsewhere in Europe and danced in this country by early settlers.
Jehile can be heard playing this tune, by clicking on the “Audio” on
scoreexchange.com/scores/141724.html
Jehile's background describes his early relatives starting from their arrival in 1740.
jehile.org/background/
Some info about Jehile
reddesertviolin.com/you-should...-fiddler/
Jehile Kirkhuff was an extraordinary old time fiddler from Lawton, Pennsylvania who lived from 1907 to 1981
He was born into a musical family, where his grandfather, father, and uncle were all old-time fiddle players. Jehile began playing at the age of five and won his first fiddle contest when he was 19 years old, and went on to win the World Championship Fiddler’s Contest in Texas in 1954.
During his teenage years he started to lose his eyesight and eventually became blind. He continued to play and live a very active and influential life despite his ailment.
One of Jehile’s biggest contributions to Old Time fiddle music was the vast collection of songs he learned and passed on to others. He had an immense repertoire. Some have claimed that he knew over 1500 songs. He also wrote many of his own songs. Ed & Geraldine Berbaum, friends of Jehile, and fellow musicians, recorded over 400 songs with him for the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress. This work was done through the Jehile Kirkhuff Old-Time Fiddle Music Fund.
Other recorded works featuring Jehile include Jehile Stands Alone, Autumn Breeze, and Winans Family Collection of Fiddle Tunes.
I became acquainted with his music in the late 1970s through the tune “The Chicken Polka” which a number of years later heard, so far, the only other version played by a German wind band. This, and other tunes Jehile played, can be accessed through Ed and Geraldine Berbaum's web site.
scoreexchange.com/profiles/1756
Since 1990, I, and a few friends, have been playing music for the Goschenhoppen Folk Festival.
goschenhoppen.org/goschenhoppe...festival/
This festival is about how things were done in the old days in the old ways. Over the years, we've added many tunes from eastern Pennsylvania. George Graham's Cotillion is one them. Some photos from one of the festivals.
facebook.com/media/set/?set=a....mp;type=3
Here is my banjo setting, aDAde, playing along with Jehile. I always aim for a setting that works with how the fiddler plays the tune. I will play a lot of the fiddle notes, but also might leave out some and add others. Note, the syncopation near the end of the 2nd part is done by a drop thumb to the 1st string, followed by a pull off.
JanetB - Posted - 02/11/2022: 16:37:51
Not many cotillions in my repertoire, and this one is a light-hearted, fun tune to play. That's a neat part of your life to be actively playing at the large folk festival in eastern Pennsylvania, Carl. The site doesn't have the actual 2022 date on the link that I could find yet. It was canceled in 2021, like we had to do here in Smartsville, but this year we're also aiming to have our Pioneer Day this April. Historically themed festivals are interesting and your Goschenhoppen Folk Festival looks to be a very large one. What else do you enjoy there? Probably the dancers, costumes, crafts, and good German food...There must be much more with that size a festival.
I started working out George Graham's Cotillion in double C and then decided to raise the first string up a step to avoid the 7th fret quick hammer-on. Jehile plays it in-between major keys, so your key of D must be where it gets played with a group. If I used my tuning, I'd probably need to capo, or take a chance on re-tuning the first string 2 steps higher than normal.
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