Bonaparte's Retreat

Title

Bonaparte's Retreat

Digital Object

Performer

Stepp, William Hamilton (W.H.)

Date Recorded

1937-10-26

AFS Number

1568A2

AFC Collection

AFC 1937/001

AFC Catalog Record

http://lccn.loc.gov/2008700304

Editor Note

Stepp, who Lomax misidentified in announcements and notes as "W.M. Stepp," was known locally as "Fiddler Bill." He lived in nearby Lakeville.

Genre

fiddle tune

Instrumentation

fiddle

State

Kentucky

County

Magoffin

Town

Salyersville

Is Referenced by

Music of Kentucky: Early American Rural Classics 1927-37. Edited by Guthrie Meade and Richard Nevins. Yazoo 2013 and 2014, 1995. Set of 2 CD's.     
Titon, Jeff Todd. Old-Time Kentucky Fiddle Tunes. University Press of Kentucky, 2001. Book and CD. (Includes general history of fiddling in Kentucky as well as biographies and tune transcriptions of several fiddlers in this collection.)

Wade, Stephen. The Beautiful Music All Around Us: Field Recordings and the American Experience. University of Illinois Press, 2012. (Includes extensive and in-depth chapters on three Kentucky musicians and one of their performances recorded by Alan Lomax: Pete Steele, William Hamilton (W.H.) Stepp, and Luther Strong.)

Review: Olson, Ted. The Old-Time Herald. Vol. 13, No. 11, 2014. p. 40.

Wade, Stephen. "The Route of 'Bonaparte's Retreat': From 'Fiddler Bill' Stepp to Aaron Copland." American Music 18.4 (2000): 343. (A discussion of “Bonaparte's Retreat" as played on fiddle by William Hamilton (W.H.) Stepp.)
Winick, Stephen. “Beef, Belles, Babies and Blues: Musical Arrangements Inspired by AFC Archival Materials.” Folklife Center News. Vol. 33, Nos. 1-2, Winter / Spring 2011. pp. 3-14.     (Includes discussion of two pieces of music from this collection.)
American Fiddle Tunes. by Alan Jabbour. L62, 1972. LP.
American Fiddle Tunes. Edited by Alan Jabbour. Rounder CD 18964-1518-2, 2000. CD.                         
A Treasury of Library of Congress Field Recordings. Edited by Stephen Wade. Rounder Records, CD 1500, 1997.          
Originally:
Lomax, John A., Alan Lomax, and Ruth Crawford Seeger. Our Singing Country: A Second Volume of American Folk Songs and Ballads. The Macmillan Company, 1941.
(Includes transcriptions.)  

Currently as:
Lomax, John A., Alan Lomax, and Ruth Crawford Seeger. Our Singing Country: A Second Volume of American Folk Songs and Ballads. Dover, 2000.

Citation

“Bonaparte's Retreat,” Alan Lomax Kentucky Recordings, accessed September 13, 2024, https://lomaxky.omeka.net/items/show/1114.