Appalachian music. [Rochester Schottische] [music transcription]. Note sheet.

Meter: 4/4
Transcribed by Alan Jabbour, from a performance by Henry Reed.
Compass: 12
Strains: 2 (low-high, 4-4)
Key: D/A
Title change: The title appears on the transcription as "Schottische" ["Rochester"]. It is transcribed after "Cabin Creek," near the bottom of the page.
Rendition: 1-2-1-2-1
Phrase Structure: ABAC QRQS (aa'bc aa'de qrss' qrtu)
Handwritten: Played 2 1/2 times thru (ends of course after 1st str.). Triplet rhythm fairly consistent, but sometimes lapses into duplet, (or rather, almost duplet: the 1st note is always a little longer). 1st time recorded.
Composed by W. H. Rulison
Henry Reed gave no name for this schottische, but it is one of the best-known American schottisches, with circulation in both North and South. It was composed by W. H. Rulison and published in the 1850s. Rulison was apparently a music master from upstate New York, for in one sheet music edition he dedicates the piece to his students in Buffalo and Rochester. For other nineteenth-century printed sets, see Winner's Excelsior Collection, p. 23; Winner's Dance Music, p. 52; Howe, Leviathan Collection, p. 108. Modern sets sometimes preserve the title "Rochester Schottische," but just as often they offer new titles; see, for example, Adam, Old Time Fiddlers' Favorite Barn Dance Tunes, #61 "Hi-Lo Schottische"; Bayard, Hill Country Tunes, #39 "What the Devil Ails You"; Ford, Traditional Music of America, p. 160; Ruth, Pioneer Western Folk Tunes, p. 11 "Blue Bird Schottische."Henry Reed's performance is interesting for its regular inclusion of a grace-like thirty-second note figure, and for its use of slurs connecting the second and third and the fourth and first notes in each group of four sixteenths.