The Leake County Revelers’ Birds in the Brook is unusual in two significant ways:

  • It has an unusually long and complex form
  • It has a short minor-key segment (at rehearsal mark ‘C’), played in unison

The tonal relationships between the strains, starting in C major, and moving up to the subdominant F, is typical of marches, and, later, ragtime. It is not, however, typically found in old-time fiddle tunes — old-time fiddle tunes that change keys almost invariably modulate to the dominant.

The Leake County Revelers recorded Birds in the Brook at a December 13th, 1928 session in New Orleans. It was paired with Magnolia Waltz, and released as Columbia 15625-D.

Birds in the Brook

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