Bear Creek Hop: A Song History

← Back to Browse By Song

"Bear Creek Hop" is a Texas breakdown for fiddle in the key of A, and both of its strains call for plucked (pizzicato) E notes.[1] Fiddle-tune collector R. P. Christeson printed it in the first volume of The Old-Time Fiddler's Repertory (1973), taking his version from fiddler Junior Daugherty; later tune books by Phillips and by Silberberg give settings learned from Dale Potter and Roger Cooper.[1][2]

Etching of a shaded brook between tall trees, with small figures and animals at the water's edge

Charles-François Daubigny, Brook in the Val Mondois, etching, c. 1862. Shown for its wooded creek; it has no connection to the tune.

Christeson's papers at the State Historical Society of Missouri include 78 rpm discs of "Bear Creek Hop" by the Texas Tophands and by Cliff and Ray, and the title turns up again on an audio tape in the collection, in a long run of fiddle tunes.[2] Larry Conger includes it, in DAD tuning, in Hoedowns And Breakdowns, a Fingers Of Steel dulcimer book of danceable tunes that comes with an MP3 recording of each song.[3]

Our book that contains the song "Bear Creek Hop"

Sources

  1. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Bear Creek Hop".
  2. State Historical Society of Missouri: "Robert P. Christeson Collection (C3971)".
  3. Fingers Of Steel: "Larry Conger, Hoedowns And Breakdowns".
  4. Image: Charles-François Daubigny, Brook in the Val Mondois, etching, c. 1862. The Cleveland Museum of Art.

← Back to Browse By Song