The Quilty hornpipe

I got this hornpipe from local San Francisco box/concertina player Bruce Sherman. Bruce told me he learned the tune from a local band that was around in the 1980s called "The All-Oakland Ceili Band." The only recording I was able to fine with the Quilty Hornpipe on it is an nautical album titled "Billy Bones and other Ditties" by another local Bay Area musician, Skip Henderson. Skip learned the tune from Bruce Sherman too.

This looks a lot like a setting of "The Mountain Top" taken up a whole step.

Nice tune, either way!

—James

This is well-known in New England as "The Mountain Ranger Hornpipe," where it is played in the key of Bb for contra dances (without the dotted hornpipe rhythm, of course).

Printed in "New England Fiddler’s Repertoire."

K: Bb Major
|: F |
D2 F>B d2 c>d | e>dc>B (3GAG F>E | D2 F>B d>BF>B | (3cdc (3BAG (3FGF (3 EDC |
D2 F>B d2 (3Bcd | e2 c>A F2 F>E | D>FB>d c>BA>c | B2 F2 B,3 :|
|: c |
d>BA>B G>BF>B | D>BF>B d>BA>B | g>Bf>B e>d (3dcB | G>c (3c=Bc G>c (3cde |
d>BA>B G2 F>B | D>BF>B d2 A>B | g2 f>B e>Bd>B | c>AF>A B3 :|

"The Mountain Top" / "The Mountain Ranger" ~ as a ‘reel’ in Bb…
Submitted on September 10th 2003 by fiel.
https://thesession.org/tunes/1966

& it wouldn’t surprise me to find it in the Southern Hemisphere too… This appears in "Kerr’s Merry Melodies, Volume 2", and I know a load of those editions made their way southwards, as well as being in Roche’s, Cole’s, Ryan’s, etc… It has been and can be played swung as is it’s earliest notations and sources, or straight for New England style hornpipes…

Originally the notation submitted went into the Bb Major version, which was the reason for the second ending:

|2 e>c (3ABc d3 ||

I had also hoped the repeats would repeat the whole of the 64 bars with variations given before the change into Bb Major, but instead it repeats only the last 8 bars. I have removed the second ending and repeats in the ABC’s, as well as making a correction that slipped for bar-3 of the 2nd repeat of the B-part of the tune, a run of triplets:

| (3bc’b (3agf (3gag (3fed |

Also, with ‘repeats’ within any 8 measures of the melody, the A-part or B-part, as is classic, measures 1 & 2 (& 3) are basically the same as measures 5 & 6 (& 7). Because of this I have given possible variations in bars 5 & 6 (& 7), as is true for the repeats of both parts. These are choices, classic hornpipe dénouement variations slipped in here include descending runs of triplets:

K: D Major
| (3bc’b (3agf (3gag (3fed |
| (3bc’b (3aba (3gag (3fgf |

& something similar in the Bb version, part-A, measure 4:
| (3cdc (3BAG (3FGF (3 EDC |

These can continue in numerous ways into the eighth measure, leading to the close/hold on the tonic, D or d for D Major…

The first way with this 32 bar hornpipe and its repeat with added variations are now given separately in the ABC’s in what I hope is a clearer and less confusing way.

https://thesession.org/members/692

The first mention this as a hornpipe in ‘D Major’ is in the comnents for another hornpipe suggested as a good choice for a pairing:

"The Harp and the Shamrock Hornpipe"
Key signature: G Major
Submitted on July 6th 2003 by gian marco.
https://thesession.org/tunes/1802/comments

https://thesession.org/recordings/319
Track 8 ~ Hornpipes:
"The Mountain Ranger" / "The Harp & Shamrock"

"Boomerang"
Troy MacGillivray ~ piano, fiddle and stepdancer
Trolley Records-02
https://thesession.org/recordings/702

Track 5 ~
Hornpipes: Mountain Ranger / White Fish in the Rapids / Chandler’s

Mountain Ranger ~ The Mountain Ranger ~ The Mountain Ranger Hornpipe ~

not ‘Ranter’… 😉

I know, slap my hand, I should have waited. I was just working on this tune when my wife hauled me out for a long contryside walk. As she was pulling me out of this chair I went ahead and hit the Enter key, quickly submitted the ABC’s I’d just roughed out from my playing before they were really ready. Note the belated ‘comments’… As a ‘certified’ ‘dyslexic’ I should know better than to rush anything. I was just playing this lovely melody this morning, with several names for it and memories, having tripped across it in several places and times. I wasn’t sure whether to submit it or not, since there was already the reel form on site, but it is significanly different aside from just the key and the swing, and Jeremy has deigned to let it remain. I have now patched and bandaged and joined up some of the dots in the comments, including re-submitted the exorcised Bb take on it. As mentioned earlier, originally the two keys were joined up, D Major twice through and leading into the Bb Major version, the later having been removed with the notes (N: ~) explaining the variations, repeats and key change… I play this very relaxed and unhurried this way, even down as low as around 105 - 110 bpm…

‘c’, it seems you are now back to "work."

Work?! ~ Slainte, with this one I was actually thinking of you. I even checked out the Bb version on winds with you in mind ~ replacing the low drops to C and B to c and b ~ and hey, it lies nicely on a D whistle or flute, honest ~ heh, heh, heh! No, really, I was thinking of you and was going to email you and say it would be a good one for you to practice half holing and cross fingering on ~ Bb, Eb and F natural. Take it slowly if you’re as daft as me to try it… I’ve been enjoying it there it there and on other instruments… 😉

Damn, "it there it there", I need some need some beauty sleep…

It is almost 7:00am here. I am going to bed to bed now.

I have always liked this tune very much, since I first heard it played by Skip on "Billy Bones." Unfortunately, Bruce Sherman is no longer with us, and I have just come from his memorial service. So I have determined to learn this tune as a way to remember him, and came here to find the written music to aid my ear playing. Thanks for posting it.

Before I list this as an alternate name, I just want to make sure. The Quilty (https://thesession.org/tunes/2166) is the same tune as this right? I learned this tune off the Fourmilehouse CD and knew it as the Mountain Ranger, but recently have heard a few recordings with what I’m certain is the same tune, but it’s called the Quilty. Second opinion?

# Added by radriano - November 17th, 2003
https://thesession.org/tunes/2166

~ A & B parts basically just a step up from Bb to C, or down from D to C… 😉

# Added by ceolachan - April 23rd, 2006
https://thesession.org/tunes/5699

This transcription is following the original closely, with minor changes to at few bars in the first half of the B-part and the addition of also notating the swing.

& raised from C to D Major… 😉

Bruce Sherman’s original first setting, transposed to D, as he would have played it on his A/D melodeon, versus on Anglo concertina.

Note that Bruce Sherman played, as does as Skip Henderson who recorded it, G/C Anglo concertina mostly in the instruments’ diatonic keys, which explains why setting one is in C.

This is Alan Kelly’s version of the tune from the album ‘Fourmilehouse’ made with his brother John. He calls it ‘The Mountain Ranger’.

Learnt from the playing of Liam O’Sullivan