A couple of years ago when we were up in Pembroke, Ontario, at the big fiddle festival, my friend Jacquelin Guerette, an excellent fiddler from Quebec, played a beautiful melody he called Blue Waltz (or Valse Bleue in French). Wow, what a great tune! I’m just now getting around to trying to get it under my fingers. So many tunes – too little time, right?
I’d never heard the tune prior to this, but it turns out quite a few people up north there are familiar with it. It was most famously recorded by Andy DeJarlis. Here’s his rendition (thanks to the BPMONKMAN YouTube channel for posting this track from an old LP).
So it turns out, as with many old fiddler waltzes, this piece has it’s origins in popular composed music. The piece was originally a light classic solo for the piano and was composed by Alfred Margis in 1899. Here’s what that turn of the century music looked like. You can get the complete score at https://imslp.org/wiki/Main_Page.
Here’s what it sounds like on the piano.
I took a shot at transcribing a simplified version of what Andy DeJarlis played and you can get it on my free transcription page. http://www.charliewalden.com/Dots.htm. Check back at my YouTube channel in a few days and I’ll see if I can put up my own rendition. https://www.youtube.com/c/CharlieWalden.