The Solstice reel

This Canadian reel was written by Jason Little. I use it for playing for Canadian Step for Chequered Flag who are a dance team based in Portsmouth U.K.

thanks a million for posting the tune. not quite the same as the setting i think ive heard. but maybe nicer!! x

Sweet tune - I first heard it on “The Blue Lamp”, which features the fiddle playing of Jonny Hardie (Old Blind Dogs) & Gavin Marwick.

Jason Little is from New Hampshire. He played a bunch (guitar?) with Cape Breton fiddler Harvey Tolman, and published a collection of tunes from Tolman’s repetoire called “Scottish and Cape Breton Fiddle Music in New Hampshire”.

love this tune, heard it on Johnny’s CD but we play it in a different key, not to sure but mabye a minor with some F sharps? but anyways sounds good!

Does anyone know which Solstice is intended here?

The version I know is a tad different; weird offbeats and ties and that sort of goings on. (Your version is more straight forward, but mine is more interesting.) I don’t know how to group it clearly, but here goes:

X: 1
T: Solstice, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Fmaj
A,C|:DdAF DE2D|CE (3EEE FEDC|DdAF DE2D|1CEA,C D2DC,:|2CEA,C D2Ac||
dD (3DDD cD (3DDD|=BG (3GGG AFDF|CF2F2A2A-|AC2f ec=Bc|
dD (3DDD cD (3DDD|=BG (3GGG AFDF|CF2F2F2F|GFEF D2||

is this tune. Which makes it a bit of a shame that it’s hiding under the less popular (in ITM) key of F Major. Here it is in D dorian, with a few minor changes:

X: 1
T: Solstice, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Ddor
A,C |: DdAF DEFD | CE (3EEE FEDC | DdAF DEFD |1 CEA,^C D2A,=C :|2 CEA,^C D^FGA ||
dD (3DDD cD (3DDD | BG (3GGG AFEF | CFA,F G,A,CD | FAcf ec (3Bc^c |
dD (3DDD cD (3DDD | BG (3GGG AFEF | CFA,F G,A,CD | GFEF D2 ||

Also, I think it might be nice to end with a D Major chord.

Gmaj

Appropriate time of year to bring this tune to our attention, though X:4 seems a rather minimalist setting. To match the shortest day?