Fireman’s reel

This reel comes from an old collection of New England fiddler’s tunes. It resembles the hornpipe “Off to California”, and I wonder if one tune could have been derived from the other, or both from a common source.
It’s a technically easy tune for the fiddle player, and being lively and somewhat repetitive would make a good tune for a beginner to learn and gain confidence.

Do I detect a subtle pun in the title - The Fireman’s Reel?

This tune certainly bears more than a passing resemblance to Off to California. Since much of the New England fiddle repertoire of English, Irish and Scots origin, it is probably fair to say that The Fireman’s Reel is a version of Off To california, transposed up a tone, simplified slightly, played in a slighly different rhythm, and given a different name. It is also worth remembering that, in some musical traditions the distinction between a hornpipe and a reel is not quite as clear as it is in Ireland.

hornpipe / reel
Key signature: G Major
Submitted on May 21st 2001 by Jeremy.
https://thesession.org/tunes/30

~ as ‘spoon’ said ~ the tendency is to play hornpipes straight and as if they were reels…amongst some practices in the Western world…

by Randy Miller and Jack Perron, first published in 1983.

https://www.fiddlecasebooks.com/store/c2/Books.html

Page 81: “Fireman’s Reel”

Also in Robbins Collection #162, in Gmaj, slightly different setting, further away from California. I’ll post it one of these days.

The setting from Robbins Collection #162. I quite like it! oops bar missing

corrected!

Here’s the setting from O’Neill’s 1001 under the title “Whiskey You’re the Devil.” So close to Off to California, but the start of the B part being soundly major gives it a really different feel.

Edited: what am I doing, this is almost identical to setting #1, sorry.

In Elias Howe’s Musician’s Omnibus No.1 (c1862), the is called “Gipsy Hornpipe”.