21) Au-delà du reel :To follow the "Short introduction to traditional dance in Quebec and its styles..." by Pierre Chartrand

To follow the "Short introduction to traditional dance in Quebec and its styles...", which was printed in these pages, we now turn to the world of music, since dance and music are inextricably linked in Quebec . The dances of Quebec originate from several European traditions, notably those of the British Isles and of France.

By combining these diverse influences, the tradition has kept several musical styles, which blend quite well together, although they are sometimes confused with one another . The goal here is to answer the questions of musicians, neophytes or old hands, who might wonder about the subleties which distinguish the reel from the step-dance, or the hormpipe from the jig (or clog). Let us begin with the most important dance of Quebec, the reel.

The reel

The reel comes from Scotland, and the name originally was used because of a figure 8 formation . Towards the beginning of the 18th century, the term "reel" became associated with the type of music used for this dance: an air in 2\4 time of a rapid tempo (apprx 120 beats per minute). Although there are reels of several parts, usually the reel has two repeated parts, which gives an AA BB pattern. In Scotland, two types of reels were distinguished according to those having a musical phrase in 8 beats, or on 16 (Scottish measure).

Today, this distinction tends to be disregarded as the term reel now includes the two categories and means 2\4 time, rather than the length of the musical phrase . From Scotland, the reel was soon adopted in Ireland, where it now is very important in the traditional instrumental music repertoire. The Irish reel is also made up of two parts (sometimes more) of 16 beats which are repeated; this is the style which is most frequently found in Quebec.

The gigue

The word gigue is another subject of controversy and has several meanings. The word describes a step dance which comes from the British Isles, known as "step dancing" in English, but for musicians in Quebec, the term can be used for a reel which is step-danced (in 2\4 time) or an Irish jig (in 6\8 time).

In the first case, certain traditional musicians prefer to call this a step-dance reel . However, the two terms gigue and reel gigué pertain to the same reality, a reel of moderate tempo, whose parts are mostly of eight beats (influences of the Scottish rant) and whose caracteristic rhythm reproduces the corresponding pattern to the rhythm of a step-dance widely spread thoughout Quebec (Fig.1). To further confuse matters, the gigue (step-dance) is rarely danced to Irish jigs on 6\8 time. And what of this Irish jig? When the reel first appeared in Scotland, the jig was an authentic product of 16th century Ireland. This musical genre was then exported thoughout the British Isles and eventually to North America. In Ireland, we can distinguish three types of jigs, the single jig, the double jig and the slip jig. As for the reel, the single jig and the double jig are usually made of two musical phrases at 16 beats at a rapid tempo, which are repeated, forming the pattern AA BB. They have both evolved in 6\8 time, the distinction between the two being the type of melody.

The single jig is also more lyric and often uses long notes (fig.2); the double jig is more dynamic and has a pattern of six eighths per beat (fig. 2). The slip jig, sometimes called hop jig, differs from these as it has a 9\8 measure (fig.2) and musical phrases of 12 beats. These airs being sometimes interpreted at an accelerated tempo, the 9\8 measure can give the illusion of a 3\4. In Ireland, this musical style is much less popular than the other two, and in North America this style is very rare.

In Quebec, a melody in 6\8 time can sometimes be designated as a jig, especially in areas where Irish immigration was more dense (Outaouais and Eastern Townships) but most often it will be a "square set", or simply a "6\8". In the Quebec City region, the melody for a "square set" will often be the single jig type, while that which accompanies the first part of a "set" in the Beauce, Richelieu and Eastern Townships will always be of the double jig type.

The galope

The quadrille tradition, still very active in the Quebec region, uses another musical style, the galope . Although we know little of this musical genre, it is likely a cross between the galop and the polka. The galop originated in France with the grand quadrille at the beginning of the 19th century.The two styles are both in 2\4 time, but the polka has a particular rhythmic pattern that we frequently find in our galope in Quebec.

The galop, in a moderate tempo in 2\4 time (approximately 110 beats per minute), is usually made up of two musical phrases of 32 beats which are repeated, the same AA BB pattern as used in the reel and the step dance . In fact, the galop is recognizable by the lyricism of its melody, characteristic of the melodies in the Quebec City region, cradle of the our galop. There is probably is a link with the quadrille of 19th century Europe, often directly drawn from fashionable operas and operettas of the period.

Although this link is not that obvious in the Quebec repertoire, it no less remains that this style of music is reminiscent of that which was listened to drawing-rooms of all large cities in the western world during the 19th century. It is interesting to note the presence of hybrid airs developed by musicians in the Quebec region. For example, we can find a very dynamic 16 beat phrase juxtaposed to a very lyric 32 beat phrase (galop style). The galop, it can be seen, although little played outside the Quebec region, is still alive and is capable to adapt to new realities.

The hornpipe

The hornpipe is English. According to several manuscript sources, it existed in the 16th century and was played in 3\2 time. By mid 18th century, it was being played in 2\4 time, as it is today. It also has a binary structure in which the two phrases are repeated in an AA BB pattern. Equally popular in Scotland and Ireland, the hornpipe now is played in different ways. In England and Scotland, the hornpipe can be rapid and lively, as in the style of the reel (the preferred style in "country dances") or it can be measured (appx 80 beats per minute) if it is meant to accompany clog dancing, from whence the term clog being given to a hornpipe . In this last case, it is played with a very sharp rhythm. In Ireland this second practice has not been maintained, while in North America the hornpipe becomes an ordinary reel, although the clog was quite favoured in Quebec at the beginning of the 20th century.

The Grande Gigue Simple and the Brandy

It is impossible to say if the 3\2 time of the early hornpipe can be at the origin of a similar category in Quebec, but there are melodies in this measure. The Grande Gigue Simple and the Brandy are by far the more reknown airs of this type . The Grande gigue simple, which some call La Grondeuse (The Grumbler) because of the way the fiddle is tuned, was long considered as the tune to which to step-dance, at least this was the case in Quebec . Any self-respecting fiddler had to include it in his repertoire so as to be able to satisfy his public. It is no surprise that this tune travelled to Western Canada, where the Metis from the Red River Settlement adopted it and renamed it the Red River Jig.

The case of the brandy is a bit different. This name designates a dance which is widespread throughout the province. In several regions of Quebec, the dance is done to an ordinary reel, although some musicians still use an archaic melody in ternary scale, a melody which is only used to accompany this dance. In the Saguenay - Lac St.-Jean region, where this dance is still popular, the ordering of this dance is done with complex step-dances, from which the name of brandy frotté, as it is known there. Sources lead us to believe that our brandy is derived from a popular tune in the British Isles known as Drops of Brandy, whose melody is also in 9\8 time, or ternary scale. Although the melody of origin and the Quebec version show few similarities to this tune, it might be the case of a structural transformation, and the question remains...

These are the musical styles whcih encompass the greater part of our instrumental musical heritage. Other more recent styles have grafted themselves to this towards the end of the 19th century, namely the march, the waltz and the polka.

The march

Although the march is not associated to any of more important folk dances, this musical style has infiltrated the repertoire of several traditional musicians living in urban areas. This is not surprising as during the 19th century brass and wind bands were wildly popular, a trend which continued well into the 20th century.

As traditional musicians were constantly hearing these ensembles, they came to imitate their styles, particularly that of the military march. By definition the military march can be constructed either in 2\4 ot 6\8 time, and traditional musicians will take up these rhythms, which can be distinguished from the reel or the step-dance in that they are less dynamic than these dances, with a slower tempo and with a very strong base line.

The waltz

Two other musical styles originating in bourgeois drawing-rooms came into our repertoire at he beginning of the 20th century: the waltz and the polka. The waltz became widespread throughout Quebec, and musicians accepted it wholeheartedly then. Again, if this dance does not figure in the spectrum of popular traditional music, this is because it remained an urban dance, and in rural areas musicians continued to provide the popular music. Social mobility, aided by the growing use of records and of the radio, opened new musical horizons to traditional musicians who began playing waltzes, which were then being danced to in urban areas by members of high society in the grand hotels of Montreal and Quebec City, and the dance was introduced into the folklore. However, certain regions remained impermeable to this dance.

The waltz was developed in the Austrian Empire towards the end of the 18th century, and originated from the Ländler, , a peasant dance in ternary time (3\4). The growing popularity of the waltz was such that in the 19th century it had become the dance of honour in the bourgeois salons, in Europe, as well as in North America. It must be specified that in Quebec, as well as the current waltz style characterized by its rhythmic patter, (Fig.3) we also find a waltz step-dance called valse-clog, very popular at the beginning of the 20th century. The clog-waltz, of British origin, can be identified by the following rhythmic patterns ( Fig. 1: valse-clog 1 et 2). Here the rhythmic side of the melody is more pronounced than its lyric aspect, contrary to the ordinary waltz.

The polka

This dance in 2\4 time is energetic and lively, and took European drawing-rooms by storm in the middle of the 19th century and then spread wildly across the globe. In spite of this, it is only at the beginning of the 20th century, in Quebec, that the polka was incorporated into the repertoire of folk musicians of urban areas. Rural musicians soon began playing polkas as well, but it seems to have remained more of a music to listen to than to dance. It is possible that certain polkas may have been transformed and assimilated to other styles such as the reel or the galop, being thus incorporated into the musical tradition of Quebec.

Conclusion

These are the basic musical styles of our instrumental heritage. Some of the theorical definitions are do not concern most traditional musicians and the questionings on the origins of the reel are a problem best left to musicologists, and in the same way is not surprising to occasionally note irregularities in the nomenclature that is used by traditional musicians . Now armed with all this knowledge you will be be prepared to figure out the most complicated of problems.

by Jean-Pierre Joyal

Notes :

1. Bulletin Mnémo, vol. 1, n°4 et 5, printemps et été 1997.

Typical the word rigodon, which is bantered about a great deal, is a generic term which to most of Quebec's traditional musicians can mean any instrumental dance tune. See Pierre Chartrand's article concerning Jean-Michel Guilcher's "Le domaine du rigodon : une province originale de la danse", in Mneno, vol 1, n°4, printemps, 1997, p. 2.

3. See Pierre Chartrand, "Du set au cotillon...(suite et fin), Mneno, vol. 2, n°1, été 1997, p. 3.

4. There is a slight problem concerning the meter of the reel. Although there is a tradition of notation of musical airs in England, Scotland and Ireland dating back at least two centuries, no standard was ever established concerning the meter by the publishers, and this has resulted in a great number of variations. Although the intrinsic caracter of the reel suggests 2\4 time, a measure in alla breve (2\2 or C) was popularized during the 18th century. In the 2\4 mesure there are two beats per mesure, each time being represented by a quarter note, while in the 2\2 time each of the two times are represented by a half-note. The advantage of this method is that the sixteenths notes are eliminated, the partition being transcribed two times slower it really is.

In other terms, the musician must read his partition twice as fast, for example in 2\4 time, the quarter note at 120 beats of the metronome or in 2\2, the half-note at 120 beats of the metronome. The alla breve mesure eliminates the half-notes, and dilletant musicians find it easier read their partitions. The problem is that the mesure at 2\2 has two half notes per mesure and strangely ressemble the 4\4 (or C) which contains four quarter notes per measure. In the two cases, we have four beats per mesure, contrary to that in 4\4. However some editors have continued to use this method, in the process confusing 2\2 and 4\4. Since there is no concensus, it is not unusual to see the three styles (2\4, 2\2 and 4\4) within the same collection of tunes.

5. The term reel gigué was introduced by the accordionist Philippe Bruneau during the sixties.

6. It is sometimes spelled galoppe. Rare mentions of this term on 78 rpm recordings from the turn of the 20th century use the spelling galop. It is possible that this transformation of the spelling style is due to the fact that this dance was very popular in anglophone bourgeois salons during the 19th century. Pierre Chartrand's research shows that galope is another 19th century French regional variation of the word; novelist Georges Sand used the latter term and it is found in dictionnaries of the period.

7. Like other traditional musicians, I thought that the galop should be transcribed in 4\4 time, which corresponds quite well to the long 32 beat phrases which this musical genre often has. However, after much reflexion, I feel that 2\4 time is more accurate, as it is used for the galop and the polka, predecessors of the galop found in Quebec.

8. The name comes from the fact that is danced to while wearing clogs.

9. These melodies are generally transcribed in 3\2 time, presenting 3 beats per measure. I think that 3\4 time would be more pratical, but on the condition that the speed per minute be specified. In this way, with the quarter notes at 120 beats per minute, the reel would gain two beats per mesure (2\4) and the Grande gigue simple three beats per mesure.

10. This technique of tuning the fiddle so as to obtain a drone effect is known as the scordatura and was widely used by European violonists of the 17th century. In Quebec, it is not rare to call tunes which use this technique Grondeuses. Usually the G and D strings are tuned to drone.

11. To better illustrate this there is the classic example of fiddler Joseph Bouchard who called an air in his repertoire the Galope de la Malbaie, although it was a reel; another tune he called Reel Antoinette was in fact a galop.