About this tune

Acadian Reel is the best known composition of noted Prince County fiddler Edward P Arsenault. It is now widely played throughout the Island, and – through its inclusion in such anthology recordings as Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island: Fiddlers of Western PEI and House Party Acadien – it has begun to enter general North American circulation.

Here's how Marie Gallant Arsenault described the moments immediately following the composition of the tune.

You came out and you asked me, "Is this a new tune?" And that's what you played, The Acadian Reel. I really liked it and I said, "Yes it is, and it is lively!" And you said, "But what are we going to call it?" I said, "That sounds right like Acadian music, so why don't you call it The Acadian Reel. And that's how the name stuck.

Notation for the tune as played by the composer is in Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island.