The Portland Collection Contra Dance Music Vol. 1

For this ninth printing of The Portland Collection, we were required to completely recreate the book’s electronic files to make them compatible with today’s computers. While there are no changes to the music in the book (other than correcting a few notation mistakes), this update gave us the opportunity to make some improvements in formatting. We updated 7 titles that had been incorrect in prior printings. Alternate tune settings and chords are now on the same page as the original tune rather than in the “Notes on the Tunes” section in the back of the book. As a result of these two changes, the order of the tunes and pagination is different from earlier printings. In all, we think it looks better and hope that you do too.

This tune book contains jigs and reels from the Portland, Oregon contra dance repertoire. Irish, Scottish, Québécois, Appalachian, and New England genres are represented. The tunes are both traditional and recently composed, from local treasures to national contra dance standards. There is an extensive commentary on every tune including stories about the tunes from their composers. There are chord suggestions, a discography, a bibliography, and more. The tunes and their histories were collected from many local contra dance musicians who generously gave of their time and talent to help create this comprehensive musical resource.