Ducks On The Pond: A Song History
"Ducks on the Pond" is an old-time breakdown in A that Henry Reed of Glen Lyn, Giles County, Virginia, played for Alan and Karen Jabbour at his home on June 18, 1966, under the name "Ducks in the Pond."[1] Jabbour heard it as a form of "Lady of the Lake," a title also used for a dance, and noted the echo between the lake and pond of the two names.[1] "Lady of the Lake" was printed in George P. Knauff's Virginia Reels (Baltimore, 1839), and Winston Wilkinson took down a version before 1936 from J. H. Chisholm of Greenwood, Virginia.[1][2] Both of those older settings open with the low strain. Reed's version puts the high strain first, which Jabbour saw as typical of how many southern mountain fiddlers liked to order their tunes.[1] A 1981 study by Bayard placed it in the "Paddy on the Turnpike" tune family, and the Traditional Tune Archive suggests a link with the Patrick County, Virginia, "Grey Eagle" and Owen "Snake" Chapman's "Rock Andy."[2]
Russell Lee, “Ducks on the pond, Washington County, Utah,” photograph, October 1940. Library of Congress. No known restrictions.
Reed's playing spread the tune. West Virginia fiddler Oscar Wright learned it from him; his rendition was less brisk, and the second part began a little differently.[1][2] The Red Clay Ramblers of Durham, North Carolina, got it from Reed by way of Jabbour and recorded it on their 1974 Folkways album; Jabbour's own version is on Sandy's Fancy, and Oscar and Eugene Wright included it on Old-Time Fiddle for Rounder.[2] Sources differ on the mode: some describe it as A Dorian, others as A major in the first part and A Mixolydian in the second.[2] It is a different tune from "Ducks on the Millpond," and Stephen Seifert's mountain dulcimer book Join the Jam II contains both.[2][3]
Find books with Ducks On The Pond for sale →