Mountaineer Waltz: A Song History
"Mountaineer Waltz" appears in Ellen Pratt's Ensemble Arrangements For The Mountain Dulcimer, Volume 7, a book that is Pratt's own publication and that DulcimerDownloads offers under license as a PDF.[1] The song list on that site gives the waltz four dulcimer parts: three in DAD tuning, with Dulcimer 3 marked for a standard or bass instrument, and Dulcimer 4 for baritone in ADA tuning.[1] A table-of-contents image on the listing marks the waltz as 3/4 time in DAD on pages 75 to 81, yet it counts five parts, a baritone among them, one more than the song list shows.[1]
Auguste-Rosalie Bisson and Louis-Auguste Bisson, Mount Maudit, Savoy, albumen print from wet collodion negative, 1860. An Alpine peak shown for the title; it has no connection to the waltz.
Who composed the waltz goes unrecorded in the sources consulted here: neither the DulcimerDownloads description, which speaks of a mix of traditional, classical and original pieces, nor Pratt's own store page, which likewise lists original arrangements beside traditional ones, attributes it to anyone.[1][2] According to her DulcimerDownloads biography, Pratt started writing her own music in 2004 and took to composing and arranging for ensembles once she had become a member of a dulcimer orchestra in Northeast Connecticut.[3] The sources consulted here tie the title to no particular mountains and to no earlier tune called "Mountaineer Waltz".[1][2][3]
Sources
- Ellen Pratt: "Ensemble Arrangements For The Mountain Dulcimer, Volume 7".
- Ellen S. Pratt: "Ensemble Arrangements for Mountain Dulcimer Volume 7".
- DulcimerDownloads: "Ellen Pratt".
- Image: Auguste-Rosalie Bisson and Louis-Auguste Bisson, Mount Maudit, Savoy, albumen print from wet collodion negative, 1860. The Cleveland Museum of Art.