MIDI Renditions of Selected Contra Dance Tunes

  One repetition at typical tempo takes 30 to 35 seconds and corresponds
  to once through the set of figures which make up a contra dance.

  You may decide that the sounds do not correspond to the instruments
  claimed.  The capturing of realistic samples for some instruments,
  especially bowed strings (e.g. fiddle), turns out to be hard.

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Recent (May 2009) examples (generally 4 times through):

Connaughtman's Rambles (jig)   midi  

Dundee (hornpipe)  midi  

Durang's Hornpipe  midi  

Kesh Jig  midi  

Lamplighter's Hornpipe midi  

Maggie's Favorite (jig)  midi  

McDonald's Reel midi  

Soldiers Joy (Reel)  midi  

Irish Wash Woman (jig)  midi  

Waves of Tory (reel)  midi  

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Older (2004) examples (in general, not as well done as the more recent examples):

President Garfield's hornpipe (4 times through)  midi  

President Garfield's hornpipe   midi  

  This is almost full contra dance length (10 repetitions) and has
  been used to call a dance for a small group. An extra phrase has been added
  after the tenth repetition for a long partner swing at the end of the dance.

  Played on clarinet (melody) and piano (backup). The variation is
  principally in how the chords are played and to some extent in 
  which chords are chosen. 

Old Zip Coon (reel)   midi 

  A minstrel tune from the 1830's.  Its modern descendant is "Turkey in
  the Straw".  Four repetitions.  Uses clarinet and fiddle for melody,
  piano, dulcimer, and electric bass for chords/backup. Instrument changes
  are used to delineate eight beat phrases. 

  How was this MIDI file generated?  Discussion 

Maggie Brown's Favorite (jig)   midi  

  Three times. Melody is played on different instruments for alternate
  phrases: fiddle on 1,3,5,7 and piano on 2,4,6,8.  Nylon guitar on backup.

Durang's hornpipe   midi  

  Four repetitions, played on fiddle (melody) and piano (backup),
  with a dulcimer playing the accented notes (every other sixteenth
  note: 1, 3 ,5, 7, ... played as eighth notes) in the melody during
  the second and third repetitions.

Hull's Victory hornpipe   midi 

  Four times. Melody instrument changes from fiddle to clarinet, then fiddle
  doubles on the even phrases in repetition 3, both play in last time.
  Backup on piano with some chord changes.

Shenandoah Falls  midi  

  Three repeats. Recorder on melody, guitar on backup for last two
  repeats (unisons only, then boomchuck).

More examples:  demo2,   demo1.

Details of the project to make these MIDI renditions:  VAMP