Falls Of Richmond: A Song History
“Falls of Richmond” is an old-time reel that, according to the Traditional Tune Archive, seems at first to have been known only within the Hammons family of West Virginia, whose members are said to trace it back to “Old Uncle Pete” Hammons, born in 1845.[1] On 23 August 1947 the folklorist Louis Watson Chappell recorded Edden Hammons of Mill Point, Pocahontas County, playing it on unaccompanied fiddle, and that recording is held in West Virginia University’s Chappell Collection.[2][3] Edden Hammons’s fiddling of the tune is also heard on the first volume of The Edden Hammons Collection, issued as an LP in 1984 and later reissued on CD by West Virginia University Press.[3]
John Hill, Rapids Above Hadley's Falls (No. 4 of The Hudson River Portfolio), aquatint printed in color with hand-coloring, 1822–23. A Hudson River scene, shown for its rapids; it has no connection to the tune.
Sources differ on what the title refers to.[1][3] The Traditional Tune Archive takes it to mean the rapids of the James River at Richmond, Virginia, rather than the city’s capture in 1865.[1] Reviewing the Hammons recordings, Mike Yates weighed three possibilities, the river, the British invasion of 1781 and the Union attack of 1865, and doubted the question can ever be settled.[3]
The tune has found a following among old-time revival musicians, and the Archive notes that the Fuzzy Mountain String Band, who learned it from Burl Hammons of Marlinton, recorded it for Rounder in 1973.[1] The Archive places it in A, with the first two parts in A Aeolian or Dorian and the later parts in A major, and lists the fiddle tunings AEae and ADae.[1] Phyllis Gaskins includes it among the A tunes in Galax Dulcimer: A Job Of Journey Work, a book of Galax-style tunes, photographs and history, arranged with all strings tuned to D and with instructions for DAD tuning, published by Fingers Of Steel.[4]
Sources
- Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation:Falls of Richmond".
- West Virginia University Libraries, West Virginia Folk Music: "Falls Of Richmond" (Edden Hammons, Louis Watson Chappell Collection).
- Musical Traditions (Mike Yates): "The Edden Hammons Collection, Volume 1".
- Fingers Of Steel: "Phyllis Gaskins, Galax Dulcimer: A Job Of Journey Work".
- Image: John Hill, Rapids Above Hadley's Falls (No. 4 of The Hudson River Portfolio), aquatint printed in color with hand-coloring, 1822–23. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.