[I'm sending this query to the trad-dance-callers list, to the SharedWeight callers' and musicians' forums, and to a number of individuals. Please send responses directly to me *off-list* (see Note 1 below). I plan to collect responses for about the next two months and will summarize results to the lists and to individual respondents some time in July. Thanks. --Jim] Folks, As some of you may know, I've worked on and off in fits and starts for some time at gathering lists of recommended tunes [see Note 2 below] for (traditional-style) patter squares. [In case you're wondering what I mean by "(traditional-style) patter squares", see Note 6 below.] My idea is to compile lists from a wide variety of sources and to look for tunes mentioned independently by many different recommenders. So far, I've compiled tune lists from a few dozen books and albums, and I'm currently adding lists from a bunch more books, articles, record catalogs, etc. I'm sending this message because I'd like to supplement all these sources with lists from current informants, possibly including you. So ... * If you are a musician who has substantial experience playing for (traditional-stye) patter squares and if you have a list of recommended tunes that you're willing to share--either an existing set list or a list you come up with by sitting down and scratching your head for a while--please send it to me *off-list* [see Note 1] at jim dot saxe at-sign gmail dot com * If you are a musician who mostly plays for other things than patter squares (e.g., contras or New-England-style squares or concert performances) or even if you're not a musician, but if you nonethelessAå have accumulated a list of tunes you particularly like *for patter squares*, I'd also be interested in hearing from you. * I'd also be interested if anyone can supply lists of tunes played *for patter squares* by players skilled in the genre who are no longer living (e.g., Ralph Blizard, Lyman Enloe, Benton Flippen, Bob Holt, Pete McMahan, Lee Stripling, Joe Thompson, or Melvin Wine, to name a few). However, see Note 5. * If you know other people who might be willing and able to contribute lists of recommended tunes, please feel free to pass this request along. (But please try not to put up my email address in places where spammers are likely to harvest it. Also, see Note 1. Thanks.) Below are some notes clarifying what kind of responses I am and am not interested in. ***Please read at least Notes 1-3 before responding.*** Note 1: If you got this query via a mailing list, please send tune lists directly to me and *not* to the entire mailing list. As stated above, I'm trying to see which tunes get mentioned *independently* by many recommenders, so I don't want the lists anyone sends me to be influenced one way or another by whatever suggestions other people have already sent. If you pass my request along to some of your friends, I'd prefer that you each send tune lists just to me rather than discussing tunes among yourselves first and then sending me a combined list (unless you and your friends are in the same regular band and such discussions are how you normally create your set lists). Please look carefully at the "To:" (and "Cc:") line of any reply and make sure that that it doesn't include the address of any mailing list. That would include addresses of the form James Saxe via ... <...> where <...> is a list address. I plan to gather recommendations for the next couple months and to post a summary some time in July. Note 2: Please *don't* explain to me that the suitability of a tune for a particular kind of dance can depend very strongly on how it's played. I'm already quite well aware of that. However, I also think it would be widely agreed that some tunes lend themselves to being played well for dancing more than others. (If you strenuously disagree, I will look forward to your forthcoming album of rip-roaring square dance arrangements of tunes from the Child ballads and _The Sacred Harp_. Meanwhile, please don't respond to my query by attempting to un-ask it.) After I've settled on a list of frequently-recommended tunes, a possible follow-on project would be to try to identify one or more renditions--online and/or on commercial recordings--of each tune played in a danceable style worthy of study by musicians learning to play for patter squares. For such a project, style of playing would of course be a prime concern. But that's not what I'm working on or asking about right now. Note 3: Please *don't* give me lists (or references to lists, albums, tune books, syllabi, etc) where tunes well suited for patter squares are mixed with other sorts of tunes without specific indication of which tunes are which. Note 4: I'm not all that interested in recommendations for just one or a few tunes. If you have substantial experience playing for patter squares, I'd expect that you can come up with at least ten tunes that you think are quite suitable, and perhaps you can come up with many more than that without feeling that you're starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel. (If you send a long list, you might want to distinguish which are your favorites and which are the second-tier or third-tier choices.) Note 5: If you send me a list of tunes from the repertoire of some deceased musician, please tell me something about how you compiled that list. I'm not merely looking for a list of tunes played or recorded by, say, late great fiddler Bestus Bowslinger, but for a list of tunes that Bestus actually played *for patter squares*. And if you happen to have some tapes of Bestus playing at actual dances, and if they include 30 different patter-square tunes, and if you send me the names of the 20 tunes you happen to recognize, then I'd like to be informed that the your sampling of Bestus's repertoire has been filtered by the limitations of what tunes you recognize. Note 6: When I say "(traditional-style) patter squares," I mean to exclude singing squares and squares that are prompted to the phrase of the music in the New England style (or in the style of 19th-century quadrilles) and I mean to include the kinds of squares generally thought of as traditional to the western and/or southern U.S. I specifically would include visiting couple dances in this genre, even when the progression is around a big circle or by a scatter promenade, rather than around a square of four couples. I'd also include most "transitional" (50's era) western squares (other than singing calls) as well as more recent compositions in similar style. I do *not* mean to say that the dances in question must be called in a style that includes a bunch of rhyming doggerel ("do-si high, do-si low, chicken in the bread pan scratchin' out dough") or other extra verbiage. Much of the "hoedown"/"patter" music produced in recent decades for the MWSD market is, IMO, very non-traditional in character and thus not of interest for purposes of my current inquiry. (Hint: If a tune isn't found in any tune books, played at any jam sessions, or recorded on any non-MWSD label, it's not what I'm after.) I'm happy to get recommendations for recently-composed tunes in traditional style, as well as for genuinely traditional (old) tunes. I'm also happy to get recommendations for tunes from "northern" sources that nonetheless have the right feel to work well for traditional southern/western dances. Of course I realize there aren't precisely defined and widely agreed boundaries between different kinds of square dances or different styles of calling (prompted vs. patter vs. singing; phrased vs. unphrased; New-England vs. southern vs. traditional western vs. ...). Ditto regarding precise definitions of musical genres. I also realize that a particular choreographic pattern might be danced to different styles of music and calling, etc. That said, I still hope that the preceding paragraphs will suffice to provide an adequate idea of what I'm looking for. Thanks in advance to any of you who have tune lists to share. Regards, --Jim