The Factory Smoke hornpipe

I got this tune from guitarist Tony Cuffe some years ago. First time I’ve seen it in Em -Gm is the more “normal key”, in my experience. I’m sure it’s in one of the “Kerr” books as “When The Tide Comes In”. Martin Hayes has it as “The Brown Coffin”. There’s a major key version called “The Ebb Tide”, which has been recorded by the late John Kelly Snr and also Seamus Egan. This particular posted version looks very similar to that particular version. It’s a great tune in all it’s settings, and one of the few I do try on the flute in Gm. Nice post, jocklet.

Hayes’s version, The Brown Coffin, from his first eponymous cd, “Martin Hayes” is in Gm, a favored key among many Clare and East Galway musicians. It goes as follies the first time round:

T: The Brown Coffin
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K: Gm
dc |: BAGF GABc | d2 GF Gbag | f2 dc BcdB | cBAG F2 dc |
| BAGF GABc | dg (3fga ~g3d | edcB cedc | 1 B2 G2 G2 dc :|
|2 B2 G2 G2 z2||
|: bgdB gdBG | DGBd gbag | afcA fcAF | CFAc fcAc |
|BAGF GABc | dg (3ggf g2 zd | edcB cedc |1 B2 G2 G2 z2 :|
|2 B2 G2 G2 dc ||

I have this tune from a book ,W;C Honeyman’s “Strathspey,Reel And Hornpipe Tutor”,published in 1898.It contains some unusual hornpipes,some in flat keys,that I’ve never heard in sessions or on record.I transposed The Factory Smoke Hornpipe,it’s in Bflat in the book.I can post that version if you like,it gives the tune a whole different character.There’s even an Eflat version of the Trumpet Hornpipe.It’s a fascinating book,,Honeyman distinguishes between three styles of hornpipe bowing,namely,the sailor’s hornpipe style,the newcastle style and the sand dance style.I’ve never met a fiddler who knows these styles or has even heard of them.I certainly haven’t. David Meredith (alias Jocklet)

Good Tune!
being a flute player, I prefer the version in Emin.

A good version in G minor is in Sean McGuire and Josie Keegan`s book from 1975-Irish tunes by the hundred.

This tune is often attributed to James Hill, who was one of the pioneers of the modern4/4 hornpipe and wrote most of his tunes in ‘flat’ keys. He was a resident of Gateshead on the river Tyne (having moved there from Dundee as a child). He was seemingly very prolific and a bit of a local legend in the 1800s - and still is in a way. The Factory Smoke was found in a couple of his manuscripts - which doesn’t necessarily mean he wrote it… Suits his style though. It’s a great tune. Incedentally, Sean Maguire wrote the famous variations for another Hill tune - The Beeswing (Bb!!!)

From the Fiddler’s Companion: “The tune is sometimes attributed to Tyneside fiddler and composer James Hill (it is included in Graham Dixon’s 1987 book of Hill compositions, The Lads Like Beer), but the attribution is conjectural. The Charlton Memorial Tune Book (1956) attributes an E minor version of the tune (called “When the Tide Comes in”) to one Jack Davidson.”

That would be Jack “Kielder Jock” Davidson, presumably.

X: 1
T: The Tide Come In
C: James Hill?
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: hornpipe
S: John Baty Ms. (1840-1860)
K: Gmin
dc|BAG^F GABc|d2G2 G2bg|fedc BcdB|(3cdc (3BAG Fedc|
BAG^F GABc|dg^fa gfgd|edcB ceAc|B2G2 G2:|
|:ga|bgdB gdBG|DGBd gdbg|afcA fcAF|CFAc fcAc|
BAG^F GABc|dg^fa gfgd|edcB ceAc|B2G2 G2:|

X: 1
T: When The Tide Comes In
C: James Hill?
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: hornpipe
S: John Nichol Ms. (1840-1860)
N: This version is identical to the one in the John Baty Ms except for triplet passage
K: Gmin
dc|BAG^F GABc|d2G2 G2bg|fedc BcdB|(3cdB (3ABG Fedc|
BAG^F GABc|dg^fa gfgd|edcB ceAc|B2G2 G2:|
|:ga|bgdB gdBG|DGBd gdbg|afcA fcAF|CFAc fcAc|
BAG^F GABc|dg^fa gfgd|edcB ceAc|B2G2 G2:|

X: 1
T: The Tide Coming In
C: James Hill?
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: hornpipe
S: William Hall Lister Ms. (1840-1860)
K: Gmin
dc|BAG^F GABc|d2G2 G2bg|fedc BcdB|(3cdB (3ABG F2dc|
BAG^F GABc|dg^fa g2g=f|edcB cdAc|B2G2 G2:|
|:ga|bgdB gdBG|DGBd gabg|afcA fcAF|CFAc fcAc|
BAG^F GABc|dg^fa gfgd|edcB cdAc|B2G2 G2:|

This might go well with Jack’s The Lad https://thesession.org/tunes/1097 if you played Jack’s a bit slow and swingy rather than in true sailor’s hornpipe style.

Sorry, typo in the 3rd transcription:

X: 1
T: The Tide Coming In
C: James Hill?
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: hornpipe
S: William Hall Lister Ms. (1840-1860)
K: Gmin
dc|BAG^F GABc|d2G2 G2bg|fedc BcdB|(3cdB (3ABG F2dc|
BAG^F GABc|dg^fa g2g=f|edcB cdAc|B2G2 G2:|
|:ga|bgdB gdBG|DGBd gabg|afcA fcAF|CFAc fcAc|
BAG^F GABc|dg^fa g2g=f|edcB cdAc|B2G2 G2:|

In Randy Miller’s tunebook, The Fiddler’s Throne, this tune appears in Dm, and lays very well on the fiddle in that key. He titles it “The Tide Comes In”, and attributes James Hill as the composer. I like to follow it up with The Golden Eagle at a slightly brisker tempo - they make a nice pair.

just listening to this one for the first time now… a lovely tune. I just wish it weren’t syncopated on the sheet music already.

Here it is in Em without the irritating dottedness. Fairly close to how Frankie Gavin and Máirtín O‘Connor play it on ’The Speed of Sound.’

Learnt from the recording from Jonny Hardie & Gavin Marwick - The Blue Lamp, a while ago… A nice tune for to get accustomed to Gm in the fiddle and not too difficult either…

From the playing of Freeland Barbour & Iain Fraser.

First tune on their “Pride Of The North” set.

“irritating dottedness”
I have the utmost respect for non-reading ear players. As Dizzy Gillespe taught ’if you can’t
sing it you can’t play it’. I can sing a song from radio or recording if I listen to it long enough but I read too.
Recently the hornpipes of James Hill are what I’m learning and playing.The recordings of many are elusive so I read from Pete Loud’s and Graham Dixon’s books to learn them.Loud’s book has a James Hill Strathspey entitled Free Trade which I have learned and this pushed me to get Mara Shea’s book of strathspeys titled Airs and Dances.
Anyway strathspeys are rhythmically more advanced than hornpipes in that they have ‘snaps’ a dotted sixteenth tied to an eighth note as well as the more prevalent eighth note tied to a dotted sixteenth.
So reading helps in delineating these two configurations.Of course the ear is capable of same.However reading a rendering of a strathspey in straight eighth notes wouldn’t work.
PS I learn with a chromatic harmonica then switch to a paddy richter or other half valved diatonic configuration for dance punch.

A setting in Bm suitable for the one-row D melodeon. It goes down to the low F# a half step below the
low G on the fiddle -- but we have that note on the 10-key melodeon!
We don’t have a low E, so that one gets “folded”, but it is remarkable that such a complex sounding
tune can be played on ten buttons (and sounds very cool!).

From Angelina Carberry’s playing, transcribed to Em for the penny whistle
The youtube title is wrong, it should be The Brown Coffin and Paddy Lynn’s Delight
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGAlIeexfSs

play video

I’ve found this in Em and Gm under the title ‘When the tide comes in’, and a setting in G of one called ‘The ebb tide’ which I think is different enough to be considered a separate tune. I recently heard a version of ‘Factory Smoke’ - attributed to James Hill - played in Gm by Ruth Morris on a tenor nyckelharpa (yes, there are a few). Clearly an interesting family of related tunes.

Setting suitable for tin whistle and without having to do any change of octave. Therefore this would be in my opinion the best key to play in a session.

Very similar to setting X:6, I only transposed it to Am and added another triplet. With this triplet, the only g# is between two a. With that is easier to do the half hole in g# because the change between the notes is done with one finger. The triplet sounds very well in my opinion.

The “best key to play in in a session” is the key everyone else is playing in.

Sorry about this, I’ve just realised about my mistake: I didn’t consider the F naturals. I regret having said that about “the best key in my opinion” because it is not, just because those F’s naturals.

Sorry Kenny, I cannot edit that comment.

I don’t regret having posted this setting though. I play it with a mobile app that simulates a reduced version of the English system concertina. With 27 buttons it has the exactly same range as the tin whistle. I played tin whistle for about 12 years as well but I don’t play it much now.

Again, sorry about the comment, I hope the setting will be ok, I absolutely love this tune since I first listened to it in an Angelina Carberry album.

No problem, Fernando, - we’re good.