Québécois (Joseph Allard) Tune Id?

Hi all,

Wondering if anyone can remind me of the name of an incredibly catchy polka-type tune from Joseph Allard (full transcription below). I first heard and learned it when there was a playlist of all or nearly all of Allard’s recordings put out by the YouTube channel "cornhillmedia". Unfortunately, this channel with an extensive catalog of Canadian and American fiddle has since met its demise; I suspect they posted one too many copyrighted recordings or some such thing. I thus cannot check back for the name as I would normally. There no longer seems to be a single, readily-accessible collection of Allard’s recordings online or as an electronic album; the collection on YouTube is now comparatively sparse. I am in possession of Dr. Jean Duval’s excellent collection of transcriptions and commentary on all of Allard’s recorded tunes, available at https://leviolondejos.wiki/images/e/e6/La_musique_de_Joseph_Allard_par_Jean_Duval.pdf. However, as I am blind, I can’t exactly look through the book for the transcription, as they are all copied images. The commentary is very informative, though you do need to be able to read French.

Anyway, after all that, here’s the tune. I’ve transcribed it as a polka, though perhaps you could also transcribe it as a reel with many quarter notes. Note that the last measure of the B-part is missing a beat, so I transcribed the preceding measure as in 3/4:

X:1
T:?
R:polka
M:2/4
L:1/8
K:Gmaj
|:g/a/g/e/ dB|BA A2|f>e ed/d/|dc/c/ cB|
g/a/g/e/ dB|BA A2|f/g/f/e/ d/c/B/A/|1Gg g2:|2Gg gB|
|:dg gf/g/|a>a aB|ca ag/a/|b>b bB|
dg gf/g/|a>a aB|1ca ab/a/|1g>g gB:|2[M:3/4] ca ab/a/ g2|

Thanks in advance,
Daniel

Looks like the Reel des Cinq Demiards, alternative titles Reel des Oignons/Reel St-Félicien.

Thank you for the resource btw! I’ve been listening to a lot of Québécois music recently.

None of the names you give ring a bell, but all the same, you do appear to be right - I found several matches (though not Allard’s recording) on YouTube under the "Oignons" title. Interestingly, the other two did not return anything relevant, which suggests to me that the "Oignons" title, rather than "Reel des cinq demiards", has become standard. Thanks very much for your help!

Btw, Dr. Duval has similar collections for Isidore Soucy, J. O. La Madeleine and a few other musicians from early in the last century. I found the Soucy one first. They are all listed on the same site at https://leviolondejos.wiki/index.php?title=Collections.

If you’re looking for recordings, you can get a custom CD (or possibly a download) of the Folkways LP of Joseph Allard recordings. The custom CD was no more expensive than a regular CD. Available from Smithsonian Folkways, reference F-RBF 110