Dubuque: A Song History

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"Dubuque," often called "Old Dubuque," is a reel in D and part of a large family of related fiddle tunes. The family seems to have been most widespread in the Midwest. Most versions share the same distinctive opening bars, and they go by many other names, among them "Village Hornpipe," "Bob Walker," "Ma Ferguson" and "Duck River."[1] The name is shared with Dubuque, Iowa, a Mississippi River city named after Julien Dubuque, a French-Canadian settler who obtained permission to mine lead in the area. Fiddler and musicologist Paul Tyler found a passage in M.M. Hoffman's history Antique Dubuque: 1793–1833 describing a man named Dubuque who, at a ball in St. Louis, took a violin from one of the musicians and danced to his own playing. Still, the Traditional Tune Archive does not say that the tune was named after him or after the city.[1] The tune's earlier roots are uncertain. Tom Verdot believes it may come from an 1840s minstrel tune, and the earliest printed versions appear as "Village Hornpipe" in a mid-nineteenth-century collection published by Elias Howe.[1]

1889 bird's-eye perspective map of Dubuque, Iowa, with steamboats on the Mississippi River and bluffs behind the city

H. Wellge, Perspective Map of the City of Dubuque, Ia., American Publishing Co., 1889. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division. Free to use and reuse. The tune shares the city’s name; the sources consulted do not say it was named for it.

The melody turned up across the middle of the country. Nebraska fiddler Bob Walters was recorded playing "Old Dubuque" in September 1955, and the recording belongs to the Old Time Fiddler's Repertory collection.[2][3] The notes with it say the tune was known in northwest Missouri and had appeared in a tune book by Dr. W.H. Morris of St. Joseph, dated there to 1925,[2] though the Traditional Tune Archive gives 1927 for Morris's Old Time Violin Melodies and also lists the tune in R.P. Christeson's Old Time Fiddlers Repertory (1973).[1] The earliest known sound recording of the melody came from William B. Houchens, who recorded it as "Bob Walker" for Gennett in February 1923.[1][4] In March 1925 the Texas fiddler Capt. M.J. Bonner recorded a version called "Ma Ferguson" for Victor in Houston, with a title honoring Miriam "Ma" Ferguson, the first woman to serve as governor of Texas.[5]

"Old Dubuque" appeared on Missouri fiddler Charlie Walden's original list of 100 essential Missouri fiddle tunes, first posted in 2002.[6] It has also found a place in the mountain dulcimer world: Stephen Seifert includes it in Join the Jam, a 75-tune book drawn from the repertoire played at dulcimer jams.[7]

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Sources

  1. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation:Dubuque".
  2. Slippery Hill (Milliner-Koken Collection): "Old Dubuque" (Bob Walters, 1955).
  3. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Biography:Bob Walters".
  4. 78discography.com: "Gennett numerical listing 5500-6000".
  5. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation:Ma Ferguson".
  6. Charlie Walden: "100 Essential Missouri Fiddle Tunes".
  7. Stephen Seifert: "Join the Jam DAD Tuning".