Archie Menzie’s reel

Here two recordings of the tune on Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPxV8LIBeJU second tune

play video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M8bnuf9KK0 third tune

play video

Thanks to Fiddle4 (Jim) for providing this…

X: 1
T: Archie Menzies
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Fmaj
FE | ~F2 CF AFEF | Acde fcA^F | G2 DG BGDG | (3Bcd ef gdBG |
~F2 CF AFCF | Acde fcAF | BdGB AcFA | GECE F2 :|
fe | ffcf afef | cfag fed^f | g2 dg bg^fg | dgba gfed |
f2 cf afef | cfag fedc | BdGB AcFA |GECE F2 :|

A very slightly different take (cobbled together from several different players):

X: 1
T: Archie Menzies
C: John Lowe
M: C|
L: 1/8
Q: 1/2=112
K: F
FE|F2CF AFCF|Acde fcAF|G2DG BGDG|Bdef gecA|
F2CF AFCF|Acde fcAc|B/c/dGB A/B/cFA|GECE F2:|
fe|f2cf afef|cfag fed^f|g2dg bgfg|dgba gfeg|
f2cf afef|cfag fedc|B/c/dGB A/B/cFA|GECE F2:|

Note in particular the end of the fourth bar.
I’ve also heard the fourth bar played |gfed cBAG| on the repeat.

Oops! Forgot to sharpen the F# in the third bar of the B part:

fe|f2cf afef|cfag fed^f|g2dg bg^fg|dgba gfeg|.

Popularised in Cape Breton by Winston Fitzgerald, I would presume. It’s been recorded there well over a dozen times.

On the Natalie MacMaster clip, she follows Archie Menzies with Reichswall Forest. Elmer Briand did the same and in Sandy MacIntyre’s book Reichswall Forest is immediately after Archie Menzies.
However, a more common F tune to follow is Fisher’s.

As played by the late Mike MacDougall on his "Tape for Father Hector." It’s the last tune in an Fmaj set of two clogs and a reel – beginning with Minnie Foster’s Clog ( https://thesession.org/tunes/8116 ) and going into Fred Wilson’s Clog ( https://thesession.org/tunes/412 ) before picking up the tempo and closing with this tune.

As in his renditions of the preceding clogs, MacDougall has packed plenty of modal jocularity into this reel setting. Pay close attention in the recording to the difference between the third and fourth bars of the A part as he chooses to highlight Gmaj triadically with B-naturals in the third bar before briefly adopting a Lydian modality in the first few notes of the fourth bar.

There are quite a number of recordings of this tune by Cape Breton artists, some of whom like to follow it with Fisher’s hornpipe ( https://thesession.org/tunes/872 ). Some of these artists are:
— Joe Cormier, on "The Dances Down Home" ( https://thesession.org/recordings/1605 )
— Winston Fitzgerald, on "Canada’s Outstanding Scottish Fiddler" ( https://thesession.org/recordings/4217 ) and "Classic Cuts" ( https://thesession.org/recordings/1597 )
— Howie MacDonald, on "Live at West Mabou Hall" ( https://thesession.org/recordings/2301 )
— Troy MacGillivray, on "When Here Meets There" ( https://thesession.org/recordings/3172 )
— Natalie MacMaster, on "Fit As A Fiddle" ( https://thesession.org/recordings/427 )
— Brenda Stubbert, on "In Jig Time!" ( https://thesession.org/recordings/1804 )

From the Traditional Tune Archive:
http://www.tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Archie_Menzies

From Alan Snyder’s Cape Breton Fiddle Recording Index:
http://www.cbfiddle.com/rx/tune/t1597.html

Composed by Joseph Law.

Connor, I think you mean Joseph Lowe.

Donald, I think you mean John Lowe.

Aye, Nigel. I should have looked at my comment from a few years back.