Tune of the Week


A new tune each Wednesday (more or less) chosen arbitrarily by your Webmaster, a mixture of traditional and new (but traditional in style) tunes.  Site visitors are encouraged to nominate tunes for this page via the Suggestion Form.


This week’s tune:

Le Canal en Octobre, another tune from France, this one more contemporary by Frédéric Paris.  It’s a gentle schottische featuring two slightly different interpretations by David Kaynor and Peter Macfarlane.

Last week’s tune:

Fille du Boucher, a beautiful traditional waltz from France.  The title translates as “The Butcher’s daughter”.


Recent Tunes of the Week:

  • Moneymusk, originally a pipe tune or pipe-inspired tune. It takes it’s name from an Aberdeenshire, Scotland, baronial estate called Monymusk House. See the Notes section for the tune’s origin and history.
  • Forty and Counting.  My good friends Susan Reid and Pam Bockes composed this beautiful waltz for my wife and my 40th anniversary.  We recently passed our 55th, and Susan came up with a slightly revised version as a Valentine’s Day gift.  Hear both versions played here.
  • Morag’s Waltz, a beautuful waltz by the legendary Shetland Islander, Tom Anderson, quite different from many of his compositions, it is a favorite in Cape Breton.
  • June Apple. This simple reel has a characteristically Appalachian sound.  Check out the YouTube video.
  • Possum Up a Gum Stump, a G reel, probably southern US in origin, popular with contradancers.  Check out the cool YouTube rendition by ContraDiction.
  • Lorena, A Civil War love song popular with Confederate troops, so much so that, according to legend, one general forbade it to be sung in camp lest it cause soldiers to desert.  Check out the lyrics in the Notes section; also, don’t miss the wonderful YouTube by the incomparable John Hartford.
  • Remembering Marie MacLellan, likely one of the last compositions Jerry Holland wrote, (and composed in Vermont; see the Notes), this is a haunting march.
  • Dancing Bear.  This reel by Bob McQuillan may seem simple and repetative but add the chords, especially the C chord at the beginning of the fourth line, and it becomes wonderful. Also, we like to play it three or four times, starting slowly and increasing the tempo with each repetition. The story goes that Bob wrote this tune for a rather clumsy dancer. (In the YouTube, fiddler Katy Adelson, playing at warp speed, adds some very impressive improvisation.)
  • da Auld Resting Chair, a slow air by the legendary Tom Anderson of Shetland, written about the chair his fiddle teacher rested in when Tom was first learning to play.
  • Calum’s Road.This strathspey by Donald Shaw of Capercaillie was composed to honor a crofter on the Island of Raasay, Outer Hebrides, Scotland who, frustrated by the local authorities’ refusal to build a road to the north end of Raasay where he lived as Local Assistant Keeper of Rona Lighthouse and part-time postman for the area, decided to build the road himself.  See the Notes section.

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  • Background: I started this site about eleven years ago largely for my own convenience, but it quickly grew to be useful for a number of other musicians in my area.  Since then it has grown far beyond my original vision, with over 1,100 tunes posted and around 4,500 user sessions per month from more than 30 countries.  Until now I have built and maintained the site out of my own pocket but its increasing size and complexity is requiring more outside resources and costs; hence this appeal. So if this site is helpful to you, please consider a small contribution.