Snake River reel

An old-timey reel.

Regardless of idiom, I just love those tunes that change mode whilst keeping the the same tonal centre. This one begins in D-Maj, then switches to D-Mix in the second part.

The original was composed by musician and dance caller Peter Lippincott (formerly of St. Louis, now living in Arkansas).

My abc transcription (with chords) is loosely based on various interpretations of the tune that I’ve heard - there are many!

A nice rendering here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvUFe3Zrg04

play video

Another nice rendering here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbT1pX4-l9w

play video

See also:
https://thesession.org/discussions/32484

Apparently composed as a Contra Dance tune, here’s the subject of the composition-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_River

(The Shoshone hand sign is hinted at both in the discussion thread and the second part of the tune - I wonder what fish eating snake or snake eating fish would look like in sheet music?)

The composer can be found here-

http://mudpuppymusicandart.wordpress.com/

Thanks for the info, mrkelahan.

I’ve just found the intructions for the contra:

Snake River Reel
By Peter Lippincott

Improper longways

A1
Ladies go forward to the centre for a wave and balance as the ladies fall back the men go in and balance

A2
Men allemande left 3/4 to an ocean wave, all balance allemande right neighbour to a wave with ladies in the centre, all balance

B1
In the direction you face all promenade up/down, turn and come back

B2
Balance and swing original neighbour

“Hold the right hand, back to right, in front of right shoulder at about height of waist and near it, first and second fingers extended, touching, and pointing to front, others and thumb closed; move the hand several inches to front, and, by wrist action, give a wavy, sinuous motion to extended fingers. Frequently only the index finger is extended. I have also seen signs made for Bad Lodge or Brush Lodge to denote these people” (Clark: 1885).