Cielito Lindo

“Cielito Lindo,” a ballad in 3/4 time composed by Mexico’s Quirino Mendoza y Cortés in 1882, is based on the old Spanish rustic-song carol (villancico) and has become one of the best known Spanish-language songs in the world. The words “cielito lindo,” interpreted literally, mean “pretty little sky,” or “lovely sky.” However, in the context of this song, they are used as an affectionate term for a beautiful young girl. The style of this Mexican music is Mariachi: a cross-pollination of the area’s influx of Spanish culture including violins and guitars, and that of the indigenous Mexican Indian and “Mestizo” cultures featuring hand-built instruments with unique shapes resembling their European counterparts.

The use of the “Sierra Morena” lyric in the opening verse describes where the beautiful young girl is from. The line “two dark eyes like robbers” describes her as a “gypsy thief” from Sierre Morena, Andalucia Spain, a notorious area that became a center for deported Romani/Gypsies hundreds
of years earlier. Because Roma endured ongoing persecution, they often had little choice but to come down from the mountain occasionally to steal food to survive. In writing this song, Cortés either could have visited Spain, or simply remembered stories told through old Andalucian folk songs dealing with these topics. Only this time, the young girl comes down from the chestnut mountain to steal the man’s heart.

From Book II of the O'Connor Method.

www.oconnormethod.com

Over The Hills and Far Away

“Over the Hills and Far Away” is a traditional English song, dating back to the early 1700s. There is reason to believe it could be related to even earlier Scottish airs - “Jockey’s Lamentation” and “The Wind Has Blawn My Plaid Away.” Some of the lyrics associated with the tune involve romance as in Thomas D’Urfey’s adaptation and in John Gay’s “The Beggar’s Opera.” Army recruitment is the subject in a version used in George Farquhar’s play “The Recruiting Officer” from 1706. This version became a very popular song for British troops to sing while leaving their encampments and going into battle with Spain and France initially in Europe and then in colonial America.

Between the years of 1754 and 1763, Britain and France were at war on American soil. Each nation wanted supremacy over the American colonies. The French and the British recruited American Indians to join their ranks, although a greater number allied with France relishing the chance to fight against the British colonists. This conflict became known as the French and Indian War. Among the young colonial officers fighting on behalf of the British effort was George Washington, a Lieutenant Colonel of the Virginia militia. In command of 200 troops in 1755, Washington, at age 23, was not just a fiddler and a lover of fiddle music, but was the most experienced military officer in Virginia.

As Washington’s militia of citizen troops joined with the British regular army, they began to march to the song “Over the Hills and Far Away.” A lyric from this version reads: “Over the rocks and over the steep, over the waters, wide and deep. We’ll drive the French without delay, over the hills and far away.”

Washington helped win the American colonies for the British with this rally cry. However, in a most unusual and ironic twist of fate, just a few years later would find Washington fighting for American independence against the greatest army in the world and his former British comrades with the French now at his side. As the British army fell to the American rebels commanded by Washington and laid down their arms at Saratoga, they saw for the first time the face of their conquerors. Row upon row of plainly dressed citizen soldiers. Old men and young boys. People of all colors. Ordinary Americans. A British officer would write that he felt he was “looking at a new race of men.” “Over the Hills and Far Away” was played and sung as a victory song in early American life everywhere.

Purchase this tune and more from Mark O'Connor's album, Liberty!

From Book II of the O'Connor Method.
www.oconnormethod.com

Off She Goes

“Off She Goes” is one of the most recorded jigs in history.
The author is unknown but the tune could date from more than 250 years ago in the British Isles. Although the Jig dance most likely originated in England-Ireland-Scotland, the word ‘jig’ is derived from the French word ‘giguer’ which means ‘to dance.’ The 1600s found dances known as Gigues becoming popular in France and faster-tempo Gigas being played in Italy.

The association of this dance form with the violin was established at the very beginning. Johann Sebastian Bach composed many pieces, usually Suite movements, for solo violin, solo cello and string orchestra in the form of the Gigue. When “Off She Goes” found its way to Canada, it became very popular and both the French and English-speaking parts of Canada knew the tune and fiddled it often. Canada, like the United States, has fiddling traditions going back at least 400 years. By the 19th century, many distinct regional styles had developed in the Eastern parts of Canada. The French- Canadian style, from Quebec and Acadia, reflects the French influence and can be found in many of the Eastern Atlantic areas of Canada and down the coast into Maine. Cape Breton fiddling and the related styles from Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island have closer ties to the Scottish tradition.

Métis fiddling, which is a mixture of native Plains Ojibwa, French and Scottish traditions, can be heard in the Northern areas of Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba. ‘Down East’ fiddling is common in the English Maritime region, New Brunswick and the Ottowa Valley of Ontario, as well as in the Prairies - Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

From Book II of the O'Connor Method.
www.oconnormethod.com

Peek-A-Boo Waltz

Developed from a French folk dance, the Minuet originated in France in the 17th century. In Austria and Bavaria, the Minuet evolved into the Waltz, a dance also in 3/4-time with a heavy accent on the 1st beat. As this new dance spread through Europe, it faced strong disapproval by the older generation because of how close the dancers would hold each other throughout the form.

The waltz craze made its way to the Americas by the 1830s. In the mid-1800s, Austrian composers Lanner and Strauss created a Waltz sensation in European classical music, while at the same time, the folk-fiddlers of the Americas had already started what would become and remain a tradition in American music. The American Waltz had already become popular in Boston, the Spanish Waltz was growing in California and the new Canadian Waltzes were becoming a hallmark. “Peek-a-Boo Waltz” (composer unknown) was published in 1881 by William J. Scanlon, a vaudeville singer. The tune became a staple in the repertories of many Canadian fiddlers during the last century.

Download this tune and more, at Mark O'Connor's Digital Audio Store.

From Book II of the O'Connor Method.
www.oconnormethod.com

Arkansas Traveler

“Arkansas Traveler” was created by American fiddlers in the early 1800s and quickly became one of the most popular fiddle tunes in history. One of the popular fiddlers of that time was Davy Crockett, an American folk hero, widely known as “the King of the Wild Frontier.” He was a skilled fiddler and buck dancer and in the late 1700s he became well known as a music star and politician in Fort Nashborough. In 1784, the name of the town was changed to Nashville - with the French “ville” replacing the British “borough” - probably as a gesture of thanks to the French for their help in winning the Revolutionary War just a few years earlier.

In 1836, Crockett traveled through the Arkansas Territory to San Antonio to join a few hundred Texan forces garrisoned at the Alamo Mission. Legend has it that Davy Crockett and John McGregor (a bagpiper) jammed and played hoedowns to keep up the spirit of the defenders during the Mexican army’s 13-day siege of the small mission. Knowingly facing almost certain death, the musicians played upbeat tunes like “Arkansas Traveler” even on the tops of the mission walls in a bold exhibition of the American never-give-up spirit. Crockett and most of the other new Americans perished when the Alamo fell to Santa Anna’s army on March 6th, 1836. Davy Crockett’s fiddle was recovered and is pictured here.

For "Arkansas Traveler" and more tunes, listen to Mark O'Connor's Championship Years album.

From Book II of the O'Connor Method.
www.oconnormethod.com

Fiddler's Dream

“Fiddler’s Dream,” derived from an old fiddle tune originally from Scotland and Ireland, began to be played in America as early as the 1700s. Early titles from Scotland include: “The De’il Among the Tailors,” “Devil’s Tailor” and “Devil’s Dream.”



In America, Devil’s Dream was known primarily as a Northern tune although it became popular throughout the country.

Early fiddlers in America could name among their ranks the primary author of the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, learned to write down his favorite fiddle tunes as a part of his early musical education and regularly practiced his violin three hours a day! Jefferson continued to collect American music, both folk songs and works of emerging composers, throughout his life. In his journal, Jefferson wrote that one of his favorite fiddle tunes to play was “Devil’s Dream.”

Before their historic feud, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson often played violin duets together. According to Jefferson’s farmservant, Isaac, the “Old Master…kept three fiddles; played in the afternoons and sometimes after supper.” Jefferson’s brother Randolph also took violin lessons as a youth and played his fiddle at Jefferson’s Monticello Plantation – reportedly both brothers and servants at times playing and dancing half the night!

Purchase this piece performed by Mark O'Connor, titled "Devil's Dream" off of his album, Liberty!

From Book II of the O'Connor Method.
www.oconnormethod.com

Red Wing

“Red Wing” is a popular American song written in 1907 by Kerry Mills and lyricist Thurland Chattaway. The “A” part is adapted from Robert A. Schumann’s “The Happy Farmer.” Because of the success of “Hiawatha” five years earlier in 1902, Native American, or Indian-themed, compositions became fashionable with American audiences during the early 1900s. “Red Wing” achieved a folk song-like popularity, was embraced by Native American fiddlers as well as most fiddlers in all regions and was performed widely throughout the continent.

A 24-year-old girl from the Winnebago Reservation who, in the very same year “Red Wing” was written, became the first Native American film star, was probably the inspiration for the Indian maiden portrayed in the lyrics. Her name was Princess Redwing (1883-1974) aka Lillian St. Cyr. By 1915, Miss St. Cyr became Hollywood’s first critically acclaimed feature film actress. She sang “Red Wing” herself as early as 1914 in New York, and performed it as late as 1964 during an inter-tribal powwow held at Wyalusing Rocks, Pennsylvania.

There is also the town of Red Wing, Minnesota, named for its Mdewakanton Dakota Chief Red Wing which could have influenced the spelling Red Wing as two separate words.

From Book II of the O'Connor Method.
www.oconnormethod.com