Rose Waltz: A Song History
At least two different American fiddle melodies go by the name "Rose Waltz," and the Traditional Tune Archive gives them separate numbered entries.[1][2] Larry Conger's mountain dulcimer setting is billed only as a "traditional American waltz tune," but the opening strain shown on its sample page closely follows the archive's notation of the first of these, "Rose Waltz (1)."[1][3] That two-part waltz is credited by the archive to Bob Walters (1889–1960), a fiddler from Burt County, Nebraska; the archive assigns it to both Nebraska and Missouri and cross-references the title "Country Waltz."[1]
Pierre-Joseph Redouté, Brier Bush Rose or Dog Rose (Rosa Sepium Rosea), watercolor, 1817–24. Shown for the tune's title.
Walters's playing was documented by Robert P. Christeson, a fiddler born in Dixon, Missouri, whose career in agriculture included work as a statistician; he acquired a wire recorder in 1948 and spent years taping fiddlers around Missouri and the Midwest.[4] His collection at the State Historical Society of Missouri holds many recordings of Walters dated from 1949 to 1959, frequently with Christeson accompanying on organ, piano or cello, and several sessions are labelled "The Two Bobs."[4] Christeson printed Walters's "Rose Waltz" in The Old-Time Fiddler's Repertory, a book of 245 traditional tunes that the University of Missouri Press published in 1973.[1][4]
According to the archive, Missouri fiddler Charlie Walden counts it among his 100 essential Missouri fiddle tunes.[1] Larry Conger's solo arrangement for mountain dulcimer is published by Dulcimerican Music.[3]
Sources
- The Traditional Tune Archive: "Rose Waltz (1)".
- The Traditional Tune Archive: "Rose Waltz (2)".
- Larry Conger: "Rose Waltz".
- State Historical Society of Missouri: "Robert P. Christeson Collection (C3971)".
- Image: Pierre-Joseph Redouté, Brier Bush Rose or Dog Rose (Rosa Sepium Rosea), watercolor, 1817–24. The Cleveland Museum of Art.