Quebec Tune of the Month for June 2015: Ladies’ Chain

Here is a Ladies’ Chain, from button accordionist Keith Corrigan of St-Gabriel-de-Valcartier, QC. I chose it in honor of the Big Review (a four-week session which begins May 31st where we will scrape off the rust and polish up 24 tunes from the Quebec session classes I’ve been teaching the past four years). Keith (1933-2010) learned this tune from his father, Patrick, who played it on the fiddle. The Ladies’ Chain is the fourth part of the quadrille known in Valcartier as The Set (there are six parts altogether). As was often the case, Keith did not have a specific title for this tune and referred to it by its association with dancing. Like many of the tunes Keith learned from his father, this melody has all the hallmarks of an Irish jig, but I have been unable to find any ancestral sources.

Ladies’s Chain (dance speed, mp3)[wpdm_file id=443]