Back in 1990, Kevin Lohse, Dann Neubauer and I (see picture below) were invited to play incidental music at the Goschenhoppen Folk Festival <http://www.goschenhoppen.org/> (some videos of the festival are on YouTube). A few years later, we received Xerox copies of a handwritten manuscript book titled “James E. Frill’s Musick Book” found in a store in Niantic, PA. James Frill was born in 1813. There are two dates written on the on the cover of the book, one in ink 1830 and one pencil 1799. In going through the tunes, I found a 6/8 tune called "Greegs Favourite” in which the first part closely resembled “La Bastringue”. With some research, I discovered that a 6/8 tune called “Voulez Vous Danser” (Villy Vous Danser) was in James Nuttal’s manuscript from 1830 was essentially the same is "Greegs Favourite".

So began my search for when the 6/8 tune went to 4/4. There is a 1930 recording of “La Bastringue" made by Madame Ballduc < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NOfs_0TUrk>.

 So I contacted Lisa Ornstein, a person highly knowledgeable in French Canadian Music <https://www.lisaornstein.com/bio/>. ""La Bastringue" has a fascinating history: it is an 18th century French song melody which was very popular by the end of the 18th century, showing up as the melody of a popular Parisian theatrical in the 1790s and as well as other songs of the day, including the "Mademoiselle voulez-vous danser" verse”. Another friend, Clare Maher, informed about a tune in the book "William Litten's Fiddle Tunes, 1800 – 1802" there is a tune, in the book, in 4/4, that has a first part with an uncanny resemblance to the 2nd part of “La Bastringue". It's "Miss Manns Reel", which if one moved over one string on the fiddle to D, then it would be in the right key for "La Bastringue” <https://williamlitten.gonze.com/tune/miss-manns-reel.html>.

https://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/BARN_BB.htm

BASTRINGUE, LA. Canadian (originally), American; Air and Reel. Canada; Quebec, Prince Edward Island. USA, New England. D Major ('A' part) & D Mixolydian ('B' part). Standard tuning. AABB (Miller & Perron, Perlman, Sweet): AABB' (Brody). “La Bastringue” has its origins in an old French tune from the 17th or 18th century. It appears set in 6/8 time in a number of English collections in the 19th century, such as Wilson’s Companion to the Ballroom, under the title “Voulez-vous danser, Mademoiselle.”

There are plenty of recordings of “La Bastringue" on Slipper-Hill and YouTube that can be easily found by a simple search.

Below is my solo banjo version of “La Bastringue” and a fiddle version of “Greegs Favourite”. I don’t do tabs anymore, however, I will do an audio description of the phrases I play if it’s requested (similar to the one I did on my last TOTW).

PS  I apologize for the imperfections in my banjo playing. My thumb arthritis has, in the last year, driven me to change from playing with a claw thumb to a straight thumb. I know many of you play beautifully with a straight thumb.

La Bastringue (solo banjo)

Greegs Favorite (solo fiddle)

Carl Dann Kevin at the Goschenhoppen Folk Festival