May Workshop Summary
Sally and Paul Wells
May 10, 2025
Sally and Paul exhibited a scholarly love of the life of a tune. Over the years most every workshop leader has given us hints as to the origin of the music we love to play. It’s not an easy task to research and just like writing or speaking about the history of any event, unless there is actual written proof, it’s the perspective of each historian.
They presented (please fill in the titles if you want to) jigs and reels. Some renditions had whole measures that were identical, in the same key, and name. Sometimes the name was completely different depending on where it had been heard, and how the next musician remembered it or how the next publisher thought it went and notated it as such.
It was fun to play one tune many differing ways and imagine how subtle changes happen as a tune spreads across countries in the hands of thousands of musicians and still maintains its roots. ~ notes from Debby DellOrfano
Notes from Paul
“Whaddya Mean Those are the Same Tune??”
One of the things that distinguishes traditional music from art music is that in traditional music there is no one, single, authoritative, “correct” version of any given melody. In general every player shapes the tunes in his or her own way, through a combination of personal and community factors: taste, skill level, performance context, regional standards, etc. The fact that tunes change across time and space is one of things that make traditional music intriguing and keep those who study it, whether as player, scholar, or simply interested party observer, on their toes.
Additionally, there is considerable latitude in the degree of change, from small differences in the way particular phrases are turned, to consciously worked out variations. In some cases the degree of change is such that it can be difficult to recognize identity. In the academic world this sort of study is known as “tune family theory,” and things can get quite complicated, quite quickly. And it is not by any means an exact science!
Today we’ll keep things fairly simple and look at a couple of tunes that have extensive histories in the documentary record and that might be familiar to folks. One is the 6/8 tune perhaps most often known as “The Campbells are Coming,” with variant forms also known as “The Burnt Old Man,” “Hob or Nob,” “Jackson’s Bottle of Brandy,” and various others. We begin with a version from a Portsmouth, NH tune manuscript from 1826, where it is titled “Potatoe on a Stick.”
Then we move to a reel or hornpipe that again has many variant forms. We begin with a version titled “Portsmouth Hornpipe” – the title may or may not refer to Portsmouth, NH – published in a violin instruction book published in Hallowell, ME, in 1828. In this instance the first strain of the tune has floated around and combined with numerous second strains. Perhaps the most well-known of the other forms is the hornpipe known in Irish tradition as “Off to California.”
Soldier’s Joy – McGlashan, Edinburgh, c. 1781
Miss McLeod’s Reel/Did You Ever See the Devil – Gow, Collection 5, Edinburgh, 1809
McDonald’s Reel/Leather Breeches – Aird 4, Glasgow, 1794
Fairy Dance/Old Molly Hare – Gow, Collection 5, 1809
Fisher’s Hornpipe – J. Fishar, London, c. 1780,
Miller of Drone/Grey Eagle – Aird 1, 1782/Gow Repository 2, 1802
Mason’s Apron/Wake up Susan/Redbird etc – Aird 5, 1797
My Love She’s But a Lassie Yet/Sweet Sixteen – Aird 2, 1782
De’il among the Tailors/Devil’s Dream – Riley’s Flute Melodies, New York, c. 1815
Braes of Auchtertyre/Billy in the Lowground – Aird 2, 1782
Title changes -- Ryan to O’Neil
Smith’s Reel / Kitty’s Wedding
Walker Street / The Traveler
Vinton’s Hornpipe / O’Fenlon’s
The Mountain Ranger / The Mountain Top
Oriental Hornpipe / Boys of the East
Olive Branch / Reconciliation
Bennett’s Reel / Silver Spire
Douglass’ Favorite / Mountains of Kerry
Silver Star / The Twilight Star
Democratic Rage / One of the Boys
Democratic Hornpipe / Galway Bay