Speed the Plow

Traditional reel from the British Isles, played most often in A major but printed also in G and D, and current in English, Irish, Scottish, and North American repertoires. Attributions have circulated to John Moorehead (1799), to James Muirhead in Köhler’s Violin Repository, and to Sir Henry Bishop, but Aloys Fleischmann located printed settings as early as 1785, predating every claimed composition date. American printings run from Edward Riley’s Riley’s Flute Melodies vol. 3 (1820) and Knauff’s Virginia Reels (1839) through Ryan’s Mammoth Collection (1883) and Ford’s Traditional Music in America (1940), and Howe (c. 1867) and Burchenal (1918) both print New England contra dances of the same name set to the tune. Alan Jabbour observed that the melody was standard in the North and Midwest but scarce in the South, which makes Henry Reed’s use of it unusual: the Glen Lyn, Virginia fiddler learned it from sheet music and played it as the third and fourth parts of “Hop Light Ladies,” recorded by Jabbour in 1966. Other recordings include J. Scott Skinner (Topic 12T280, The Strathspey King), the Morris Motors Band’s influential 1933 Columbia 78, and Frank Ferrel on Fiddle Tunes (Voyager 320 S).

Notes: British tune. Not related to John Salyer’s Speed of the Plow. Though the spellings are different, Ford’s Speed the Plow matches Speed the Plough in American Country Dances (1918). Listed as hornpipe in White’s 100.