Music and Texts of GARY BACHLUND
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On "The Pigtown Fling" - (2018)
for piano
This Celtic reel as some identify it is known by many names -- The Pigtown Fling, Buck Creek Girls, Goin' Up Caney, Kelton's, Old Dad, Pappy Looney's, Pig Town, Pigtown, The Pilltown, Stoney Point, Warm Stuff, Wild Horses At Stoney Point. Take your pick, as to the antecedents and the many versions for various solos and ensembles which may be found tell of its popularity. This reel and others provide music for the contra dance, a line of couples with patterned movements, which stem from England, Scotland and France, thereafter finding their way to North America. The melody is in repetitive phrases, the first highlighting the tonic and the second the submediant.
For the fun of it, the first phrases of the tune are treated as a fugue, with the answer in the expected dominant accompanied by the second phrases of the tune from the original submediant, Episodic materials gives relief from the tuneful subject as the dance "reels" to its conclusion.
4 pages, circa 4' 00" - an MP3 demo is here:
The score is available as a free PDF download, though any major commercial performance or recording of the work is prohibited without prior arrangement with the composer. Click on the graphic below for this piano score.
