The Jubilee hornpipe

Some grist for your mill! I think this is a shetland tune. I was listening to Jim McKillop and two friends exchanging tunes at the fleadh one year, and this guy from Donegal (unfortunately I forgot his name, he was awesome) played this one. I’m not sure if he, or anyone else, has recorded it. Maybe someone will be able to tell me the name and where it’s from and all.

Acrobatics are nice but after a while I yearn for melody.

this tune has a nice melody, although unlike many tunes (which are nonethess good) it requires more than two fingers to play it. Did you actually play it, or just wimp out when you looked at it? Maybe I’ll submit some two-finger scale-tunes for you to play, and then you’ll think I’m a great fella.

I don’t think I can play this…not without laughing at myself anyway. This may be one instance where the MIDI file actually does the tune justice….

Boy!

What a bunch of cry-babies. There are God knows how many two finger tunes in this collection. I think of one tune that’s not in here, maybe it’s pretty rare (only heard it once)and it’s a nice little jaunty thing. I figure, it makes a nice atypical addition.

But everyone’s gotta bust my chops, cause it’s just tooooo complicated for you. It’s too hard! I can’t play it! Then don’t! There are thousands and thousands of simple little melodies, and I like playing those too. But once in a while, I like something different, bold, expansive, in-your-face, whatever. The mathematician, the contradiction, the wonder hornpipe, all great tunes in their proper dosage. But no, the Handicapper General has to come, and nail my fingers together, so I can only grope around the fingerboard with my bloody, mangled flesh!

Second, I have no way of checking on the midi, my computer’s messed up. The way it was played was quite different from the sheet music; the quarter notes were run up to, paused after, held for varying duration, similarly for some notes in some triples. There’s ornamentation, dynamics, expression; all that has to be added in. But it’s not for the meek. Here is some abc notation of a tune I will include in this message just for you guys:

4/4 DD AA BB A2 GG FF EE D2

Now maybe you see the point in my transcribing this for you. I don’t. If you couldn’t figure it out on your own, you should give up. Well, have fun practicing that one. And let me know when you get it down; I’ll show you how to play "the surprize symphony" or "we three kings" next!

We Three Kings now there’s a great tune. It’s not Irish though is it?

Don’t worry m_gavin, Irish musicians will always moan and whinge about hornpipes with lots of triplets in and say that they’re too hard when actually they’re *really* easy. It’s just that they don’t know how to play them properly.

Don’t worry about Will. He’ll get the hang of it soon enough. He just needs a couple more year’s practice and he’ll be able to cope with the big boys’ tunes *snigger*…

BTW I see you started to transcribe an interesting 4/4 tune here in the comments section. It looks to be unfinished. I’d like to know how it ends. Would you be able to post the full version in the tunes section? Cheers.

Lol, it’s not the tune’s "difficulty" that turns me off, but it’s insistence on passing that difficulty off as musicality. It’s a show piece, designed to impress, which for me it doesn’t do because it’s just leaping around. Besides, I’m not interested in impressing anyone when I play, just enjoying some tunes. And I happen to prefer tunes with an imaginative melody line—not one composed while jumping on a trampoline. The parts of this hornpipe are predictable because they sound like mathematically derived permutations of the same motif. I dislike Atholl Highlanders (easy enough to play, even for a retired meat cutter) for the same reason.

And no one’s trying to censor you. Post away. We’re just following Jeremy’s invitation to "talk about how much [we] like or dislike this hornpipe…." It’s not often we get a tune at once so histrionic and dull.

I could also suggest there are good reasons it’s rare and you’ve heard it only once….

in good company, i’ve heard many tunes, never to have the pleasure again.

It’s okay m_gavin. Will’s problem is simply that he hasn’t been exposed to enough bad tunes. I will personally see to it that he has that exposure over the coming months. I’ll show him tunes that’ll make him realise just what a great tune the Atholl Highlanders is. I promise you he’ll be begging for more tunes like this hornpipe 😀

One last observation. He found it very disconcerting that the tune made him "laugh" at [himself]" when he went to play it. It was the FIRST thing he said when explaining why he didn’t like the tune. Hmmmmmmm…

This tune makes me laugh at myself when I play it.
However, I, myself, am surely no laughing matter.
Therefore, there must be somthing inappropriate about this tune.

Sounds like a very tarted up version of the College (Sailors) HP to me

On a trip to Chicago, I met one of the people I first heard playing this tune a few years ago. It is a Shetland tune called "The Jubilee". It was written by G. Stove, and was recorded by Willie Hunter.

Now I can rest easier.

The copy our group plays from lists Mike Hoban as the composer.

Just removing the rhythm inherent in the Tune Type for readability.

Composed by G. Stove. Who was G. Stove?