Ostinelli’s Reel – Fiddle Tune a Day – Day 93

This is a great story if I have ever heard one. There is an Italian violinist who is a bit of a snob. So much so that there is a story of him intentionally cutting his strings to avoid playing for a dance. And…his lasting legacy is that a couple of tunes he wrote ended up in a book of fiddle tunes. AWESOME! What goes around comes around. 😉

Ostinelli’s Reel According to Fiddler’s Companion

OSTINELLI’S REEL. AKA – “Austin’s,” “Ostinella Hornpipe/Reel.” American, Reel or Hornpipe. A Major. Standard tuning. AABB. This melody is named for a popular late 19^th century stage violinist named Louis/Lewis Ostinelli, an Italian who arrived in Boston in the year 1818. Michael Broyles references the musician in his book Music of the Highest Class: Elitism and Populism in Antebellum Boston:

***

He was keenly aware of the reputation the violin had as a

vernacular instrument in new England. According to several

anecdotes, he was furious when his violin was referred to as

a fiddle or when he was requested to play dance music. Once

when asked by a lady if he was to play for a dance following

a concert, he deliberately cut his violin strings and said ‘Veree

story, veree story, madam, you see I can no play.’

***

It is thus somewhat ironic that his lasting musicial fame appears to be in this reel and “Souvenier de Venice Hornpipe,” printed in Ryan’s Mammoth Collection/Cole’s 1000, for many years the primary texts for those “venacular” fiddlers in the United States. “Ostinelli’s Reel” has some currency among modern Texas-style players after being included in the repertoire of influential fiddler Benny Thomasson, among others. John Hartford finds that a melodic fragment appears as a part in the tune “Grey Eagle.” Parts of the melody shift into third postition on the violin. As an example of how tune titles can become garbled in oral transmission, it appears on a recording by Timmy Cronin under the title “Austin’s.”