The Mouth Of The Tobique reel

Good tune. But, the third part as I know it is a little different.
It’s more of a steady flow of 8th notes with accented string crossings on those B’s and C’s. (what I learned in another lifetime as a "Georgia Shuffle" bowing).
Definitely a fiddle tune! The versionI know comes from the first Celtic Fiddle Festival recording (after the Dionne Reel) ..
ggbggcggbggcggbg

tm

This is one of my favorite tunes played at our local session. Named for the Tobique river in Canada, there is a fiddle gathering there called Fiddles on theTobique - if anyone wants contact information about it, let me know. We play it much faster, and a bit differently than this sheet music and midi. Here is a "field recording" quality sound clip.
Scroll down to the third track on this page:
http://stations.mp3s.com/stations/174/music_from_montana.html

alice flynn

The Dionne Reel! I know it’s named after the Dionne Quintuplets, but have never been able to find the music — anyone have it?

zls

Re Alice Flynn Post of Dec. 11/02 - Mouth of the Tobique.
I went to the link that was posted
http://stations.mp3s.com/stations/174/music_from_montana.html
but can’t find the Music Clip there….has too much time
elapsed?
Could anyone help me on this? Thanks

Hi, Sarah, mp3.com does weird things sometimes with the music files a person posts on their page, shuffling it around when you don’t want it changed. I will see if I an get it to show up again on my station of Music From Montana. It might take a couple of days for mp3.com to update my changes.

Alice Flynn

Finally found another site to host the mp3 of the Mouth of the Tobique. It’s a little rough, pub noise over the music.
http://www.soundsauce.net/themeadowlark

Alice

Is this the same tune as the mouth of the tobique?

At least for the way that the celtic fiddle festival plays this, the syncopated phrases in third part should have this rhythm:

quarter note
dotted quarter note
dotted quarter note
dotted quarter note
dotted quarter note
quarter note

But really what I think they are doing, and what I find very enjoyable to do as well, is to play solid eighth notes through that whole phrase and just play accented eighth notes where the beginning of the notes above would be.

I have a wonderful recording of this tune i just took last night. uh… it’s beautiful. if anyone would like it, just contact me! smiles, Jess

Some years back I transcribed the Sharon Shannon’s set MOT and adapted it for mandolin. You can find it from here, use Tobique as the tune search keyword:

http://www.mandozine.com/music/tabledit_search.php

Risto

X: 1
T: Mouth Of The Tobique, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Gmaj
|: (3DEF|G2 BGcG BG |G2 BGcG BG |FGAB cAFA |GABc d2 (3DEF |
G2 BGcG BG |G2 BGcG BG |FGAB cAFA |1 GBAF G2 (3DEF :|2 GBAF G2 (3def ||
|: g2 gf g2 ag |fdAd f2 gf |ecAG FGAF |GABc d2 ef |
g2 gf g2 ag |fdAd f2 gf |ecAG FGAF |1 GBAF G2 (3def :|2 GBAF G2 (3DEF ||
"variations"
|:G2 B2 c2 z2 |B2 c2 z2 B2 |FGAB cAFA |GABc d2 (3DEF |
G2 B2 c2 z2 |B2 c2 z2 B2|FGAB cAFA |1 GBAF G2 (3DEF :|2 GBAF G2 (3def ||
|:G2 Bc-cB- B |z2 Bc-cB-B |FGAB cAFA |GABc d2 (3DEF |
G2 Bc-cB- B |z2 Bc-cB-B |FGAB cAFA |1 GBAF G2 (3DEF :|2 GBAF G2 (3def ||
|:G2 B _B - _B=B z2|z2 B _B - _B=B z2|FGAB cAFA |GABc d2 (3DEF |
G2 B _B - _B=B z2|z2 B _B - _B=B z2|FGAB cAFA |1 GBAF G2 (3DEF :|2 GBAF G2 (3def ||
|:G2 B _B - _B2 =B _B -| _B2 =B _B - _B2 =B2 |FGAB cAFA |GABc d2 (3DEF |
G2 B _B - _B2 =B _B -| _B2 =B _B - _B2 =B2|FGAB cAFA |1 GBAF G2 (3DEF :|2 GBAF G2 (3def ||
|:G2 g f - fg z2|z2 g f - fg z2|FGAB cAFA |GABc d2 (3DEF |
G2 g f - fg z2|z2 g f - fg z2|FGAB cAFA |1 GBAF G2 (3DEF :|2 GBAF G2 (3def ||
|:G2 g f - f2 g f -| f2 g f - f2 g2 |FGAB cAFA |GABc d2 (3DEF |
G2 g f - f2 g f -| f2 g f - f2 g2 |FGAB cAFA |1 GBAF G2 (3DEF :|2 GBAF G2 (3def ||
|:G2 B2 zc- c2 |B2 zc- c2 B2 |FGAB cAFA |GABc d2 (3DEF |
G2 B2 zc- c2 |B2 zc- c2 B2 |FGAB cAFA |1 GBAF G2 (3DEF :|2 GBAF G2 (3def ||

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Yhyf1XqkhUA&feature=related

play video

Sharon & the gang play it straight on this video a couple of times, before they funk it up a bit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUvzdUe3dXQ

play video

http://www.archive.org/details/MouthOfTheTobique
This is the first version I remember hearing of this tune.
It’s from an unknown fiddler on this album:
https://thesession.org/discussions/25995#comment548620

The version of the tune on JACKB’s video from Sharon Shannon actually misses out the first part of the tune for some reason. They mess around with the third part a great deal but don’t seem to play the 1st part at all

I think timmy! is right about the syncopated phrases, after listening to some recordings I came up with this version.

Learnt this in a session at Chippenham, and it seemed different enough from the other settings to add a new one.

Thank you, Rowan Folk, that was *exactly* the one I was looking for! The fiddlers can hit the accents on the C part, but whistle players at least need to include that driving rhythm with all eighth notes in repetition, as described by tMack in these comments some 15 years ago. It is indeed a rhythm you see in softshoe and tap: DA da da DA da da DA da da DA da da, da da…. gives the tune "bounce"!

My attempt at a setting that’s slightly closer to the Kevin Burke version.

The Sharon Shannon version misses the first part out? i think it is mostly played as a 3 part tune when i’ve played/heard it, sometimes played just A/B/C and sometimes A/B/C/B as in Boots MacAllen’s link above

Yes, Pete and Naill are right, most recordings of Sharon Shannon miss out the first part. Here is a recording where she plays the first part:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJzTh4ColFw&feature=youtu.be

play video

my setting is:
X:1
T: The Mouth Of The Tobique
C:Sharon Shannon version
R: reel
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K: Gmaj
P:Part A
(3DEF|:G3A Bded | BdBG DGBG | ABAG FDEF | GABc d2 (3DEF |
G3A Bded | BdBG DGBG | ABAG FDEF |1 GBAF G2 (3DEF :|2 GBAF G2 (3def ||
P:Part B
|: g2 gf g2 ag |fdAd f2 gf |ecAG FGAF |GABc d2 ef |
g2 gf g2 ag |fdAd f2 gf |ecAG FGAF |1 GBAF G2 (3def :|2 GBAF G2 (3DEF ||
P:Part C
|:G2 BGcG BG |G2 BGcG BG |FGAB cAFA |GABc d2 (3DEF |
G2 BGcG BG |G2 BGcG BG |FGAB cAFA |1 GBAF G2 (3DEF :|2 GBAF G2 (3def ||
P:Part B
|: g2 gf g2 ag |fdAd f2 gf |ecAG FGAF |GABc d2 ef |
g2 gf g2 ag |fdAd f2 gf |ecAG FGAF |1 GBAF G2 (3def :|2 GBAF G2 (3DEF ||
P:Variations to Part C
|:G2 B2 c2 z2 |B2 c2 z2 B2 |FGAB cAFA |GABc d2 (3DEF |
G2 B2 c2 z2 |B2 c2 z2 B2|FGAB cAFA |1 GBAF G2 (3DEF :|2 GBAF G2 (3def ||
|:G2 Bc-cB- B |z2 Bc-cB-B |FGAB cAFA |GABc d2 (3DEF |
G2 Bc-cB- B |z2 Bc-cB-B |FGAB cAFA |1 GBAF G2 (3DEF :|2 GBAF G2 (3def ||
|:G2 B _B - _B=B z2|z2 B _B - _B=B z2|FGAB cAFA |GABc d2 (3DEF |
G2 B _B - _B=B z2|z2 B _B - _B=B z2|FGAB cAFA |1 GBAF G2 (3DEF :|2 GBAF G2 (3def ||

I’m adding a variation which has this in 4 parts, with the 2nd and 4th part identical. It’s easier to just show it that way on sheet music rather than to explain to people to play AA BB CC BB , then AA BB CC BB and finish. Now this is just outlining it as AA BB CC DD and saying to repeat once.

From other online research, and watching videos of the locals playing it, that seems to be the pattern to go by. The Riviere Tobique is pronounced "Toe" + "Bick" rather than what I’ve sometimes heard non-natives pronouncing it by (such as "Toe" + "Beak").

Alternate titles that were even older than this title are "Grumbling Old Woman, Growling Old Man"; as well as "French Mary," with the latest being the title according to native Canadian Francis Sowish. Peter Rolland guessed that this was composed between 1910 and 1030 (at the latest). Because of that age, it should satisfy the 95+ year-old tune age [sometime between 2005 and 2025] for being considered copyright-free and traditional (although there is no copyright listed for this tune to worry about).

It was composed by Francis Sowish.