The Cat In The Fiddle Case barndance

written by me

Like it! and the title as well.
Trevor

Goes well with the Eddie Duffy barndances.
Trevor

Thte is a wrong note in the 3rd bar of the second part.
The correct bar is : eGdG cABG.

Actually, I thought the dG was a nice little twist.

The title reminds me of an incident this summer. I had been to a session at Dolan’s in Limerick. All the players were invited back to a house afterwards for some more tunes. Among the residents of the house was a manic, black kitten. One learning that I was a mandolin player, one of the people present told me that he had an old neapolitan mandolin that I might like to see. He went back to his flat to pick it up and returned with it shortly after. I took the mandolin out, and no sooner had I put the case down at my feet, than Rois

mmmmmh…actually the dG is not so bad…

I had a very similar experience to David’s some time ago. We were playing string quartets in the house of one of the members, and she had three cats. Remarkably, these animals were quite unphazed by our playing (one cat was completely white so was presumably stone deaf anyway) but were irresistably attracted to open violin, viola and cello cases, and had to be shooed out of them regularly otherwise the linings would have been matted with cat hairs!
Trevor

Here is an Amaj version for the fiddle

K:Amaj
ed|c2cB ABcA|BcBA F2EF|A2AB cdeA|cBBA B2ed|
cdec ABcA|BcBA F2EF|A2AB cfec|BABc A2:||:ce|
affe fgaf|efed c2de|faec dBcA|BcBA B2ed|
cdec ABcA|FGAF E2EF|A2AB cfec|BABc A2:||

Trevor

Awww, gee, shucks. I play a round-backed guitar and used to have a fat little blob of a white earless cat (skin cancer victim) that would curl up in the bowl case at any opportunity. He was an ornery little sort that no one else really liked but he and I understood each other pretty well. I had to put him down about two years ago (the rest of the cancer that wasn’t fastened to his ears got out of hand) but I can never bring myself to clean the remaining white fur out of the case - it’s still there to this day.

(sniffle)

Thanks for the Amaj version, Trevor. It works well on the flute too,
and I think the fiddler of my band will like it.

Marco, I played the tune (the Amaj version) for the first time tonight in a session at The Plume of Feathers, Rickford. It was well received.
Trevor

🙂)

Nice tune - stuck in my head all day - well done

The Audio clip is in the Doug Tipple web space.
I recorded it using my Doug Tipple 3-piece, 6-hole gray low D flute with the Tipple-Fajardo wedge.

http://home.earthlink.net/~dougsflutes1/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/the_cat_in_the_fiddle_case2.mp3

I contacted Gian with some observations re this tune and I have added them here at his request.

You’ll note that the last four bars in each part are identical with the exception of Bar 6 in each part.
i.e
Part one ABAG E2 DE
Part two EFGE D2 DE

I wasn’t sure at first if this was an error or not but both work very well and could be interchangeable. I think the bar in Part Two does seem to "resolve" the tune better at that stage. However, I think it might be a nice idea when playing Part Two to play ABAG E2 DE the first time and then EFGE D2 DE as it is repeated. This seems to finish it off better.

Gian actually agrees that it would be nice played this way , although he’s already recorded it as written. Just a thought.

http://tinwhistletunes.com/clipssnip/Audio/11-06/TheCatintheFiddleCase.mp3

I do tend to take some bits slightly different from the notation given or the lovely MP3 provided. Here’s some of what I mean by that:

X: 2
T: Cat In The Fiddle Case, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: barndance
K: Gmaj
|: d>c |\
B2 B>A G>A (3BAG | A>BA>G (3EFE D>E | G2 G>A B<dd>G | B2 A2 A2 d>c |
B>cd>B G>AB>G | (3ABA G2 E2 (3DEF | G2 G>A B<dd>B | A2 G2 G2 :|
|: (3Bcd |\
g2 e>^d e>f (3gfe | d>ed>c B>^A (3Bcd | e>Gd>G c>GB>G | (3BcB A>^G A2 (3edc |
B>cd>B G2 (3BAG | E2 ^D2 =D2 (3DEF | G2 G>A B<dd>B | A2 G2 G2 :|

I also like to ghost this one a bit on the endings and lead-in, like so:

|: >e d>c | ~ | A2 G2 G> :|
|: >F (3Bcd | ~ | A2 G2 G> :|

GM ~ I had your mp3 on a loop and love it returning to just the flute for the finish, once through…ending as it starts, lovely…

C: Gian Marco ~ I would forget some bit in the processing… 😉

There is a remarkably similar tune to this recorded by Carlos Nuñez as "Camiño De Santiago", from his live album Carlos Nunez En Concert.

It’s so similar I came across this (also very nice) tune via Folktunefinder when trying to find the former!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hcqfFx2hX4

play video

Does anyone have chords for this? I’m terrible at coming up with them myself.

The chords in the Gian Marco clip?
Something like this:
|:G G|Am C|G Em|F D|
G G|Am C|G Em|D G:|
|:Em Em|D Bm|C Am|F D|
G Em|Am D|G Em|F D:|

(I’d never use such a busy progression, and definitely no Em→F→D.)

Have had the "cat in the fiddle case" experience at a friend’s house: the fiddle owner was a bit allergic to cats and couldn’t stop sneezing when he went back to his case. On another occasion, same house, same cat, that big ginger moggy was found looking very comfortable inside my accordion case! So guess we have to learn that tune now!

Thanks, Jeff!

Ever since a little kitten, my dear orange lovebug Beatrice has curled up in my case while I play my fiddle. She’s there right as I type! I was looking up The Cat in the Kitchen and saw this title—knew I had to learn this. Thank you for the fun tune with sweet connections.

Re CAT IN THE FIDDLE (not case) Emily - my ginger feral Scottish cat Jenny attacked my fiddle ripping up the strings and bridge. Caused by trauma, one eye probably ripped up by a rat bigger than this kitten. She went for re-adoption and was rehomed in the country, she’d already destroyed umpteen household things. Extra intelligent, had huge strong wild cat shoulders! £46 paid for her surgery not refunded.

Yikes! Now that sounds like a really crazy cat! ;) Thankfully my kitty just sleeps in there—though when she was very little she would go crazy and tear around the house if I played Reel Beatrice…I wonder if she knew it was her song?
Is the fiddle okay? And glad Jenny got a more suitable home.

Emily, fiddle was ok. Colin Rendall (Orkney man) put it right fast and no charge. NB A wonderful fiddle tradition in the N. Isles of Scot - Orkney (Jenny’s home and mine) and Shetland the island group closer to Norway - Aly Bain a brilliant Shetland fiddler. I learnt in Kirkwall, Ork. Try to visit the Northern Isles if you can. (Feral cats v. common in Ork, unrelated to Scottish Wild Cat that never got that far north).

Oh, someday I want to go all over the UK and Ireland and EVERYWHERE in that area. 🙂 I live in the US—New England. When my ship comes in, I’ll travel the world…