Arkansas Traveler (#238), The

X: 39
T:Arkansas Traveler (#238), The
M:4/4
L:1/8
S:Capt. F. O'Neill
R:Reel
O:%%
K:G
d2|GBAG E2 GE|D2 DD E2 G2|ABAG "tr"B2 BG|ABAG "tr"E2 D2|
GBAG E2 GE|D2 DD G2 Bd|gfgd (3efg dc|BGAF G2||
Bc|dcBd cBAc|BAGB AFDF|GEGB AFAc|BAGB A2 Bc|
dcBd cBAc|BAGB AFDF|gfgd (3efg dc|BGAF G2||
%
% Vying in popularity with "Turkey in the Straw", another American
% favorite claims our affection. Famous in song and story its origin
% has baffled investigation. An exhaustive research conducted by
% Dr. H.C. Mercer, an official of Buck's County Historical Society
% (Doylestown, Pa) relating to its history and antecedants failed of
% its purpose. All lines of inquiry extending to Kentucky, Arkansas,
% and Louisiana, ended in contradiction, and uncertainty. Furthermore,
% the quaint dialogue between the "Traveler" and the backwoods
% fiddler was based on nothing more substantial than a fertile
% imagination. The opening paragraph of Dr. Mercer's essay published
% in the Century Magazine -On the track of the Arkansas Traveler- is
% well worth quoting:
%        "Sometime about the year 1850 the American musical myth
%          known as "The Arkansas Traveler" came into vogue among
%          fiddlers. It is a quick reel tune with a backwoods story
%          talked to it while played, that caught the ear at sideshows
%         and circuses, and sounded over the trodden turf of fair
%         grounds. Bands and foreign-bred musicians were above
%         noticing it, but the people loved it, and kept time to it,
%         while tramps and sailors carried it across the seas to vie
%         merrily in Irish cabins with "The Wind that Shakes the Barley"
%         and"The Soldier's Joy".
% Though classed as a reel, the tune as printed with Dr. Mercer's clever
% essay and elsewhere, is scored as a Buckdance, and in a key much
% too low for certain instruments. The editor who is responsible for the
% setting above presented ventures to suggest that like "Old Zip Coon"
% or "Turkey in the Straw", "The Arkansas Traveler" had been evolved
% from a venerable Irish strain by some backwoods fiddler whose identity
% is lost in the oblivion which engulfed the composers of the multitude
%of Irish melodies that have survived many influences inimical to their
% preservation.
% Among the probable sources from which the tune in question may have
% been derived are the following examples:
%       [SEE TUNES # 238A - 238B - 238C]

Alternative sources for this tune:

• trillian.mit.edu/~jc/music/book/ONeills/waifs/X/0238/0000
• trillian.mit.edu/~jc/music/book/ONeills/waifs/waif-6/0038
• trillian.mit.edu/~jc/music/book/ONeills/was/Arkansas_Traveler_238-WaS---/0000

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