A Sussex version of The Boys of Blue Hill. Frequently played in an English session I go to in Bristol and also occasionally in Irish sessions by players who also go to English sessions.
The composer is unknown. There is a very similar version on http://members.aol.com/lewesarmsfolk/LFTunes.html
It’s very similiar to the Boys of Bluehill alright.
Boys of Blue Hill
But sufficiently different to enjoy its own slot.
Where did this version come from ? The second part is very similar to the Boys of Blue hill & the name almost identical. Could it be that somebody picked both the name and the first part up incorrectly at a noisy session ???!!!
Or is this the original English version of the tune?
Boys of School Hill
Slainte, I’ll put your question to one of my English folk music friends who is far more knowledgeable on the subject than I am, but I don’t expect to see him until next week.
Boys of School Hill
I’ve been digging around in Andrew Kuntz’s “the Fiddler’s Companion” website http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/index.html, and there is quite a history of The Boys of Bluehill on page http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/BOY_BOZ.htm.
In summary, it looks like the latter tune had North American antecedents dating back to the early 19c before it appeared in the British Isles. I could find no reference to The Boys of School Hill, though.
BTW, The Fiddler’s Companion website is well worth bookmarking on your browser.
Boys of School Hill
My sources tell me that the name “Boys of School Hill” is somewhat spurious, as is the alleged Sussex origin of the tune. What appears to be nearer the truth is that someone who played the tune at a big session in Sussex got it from an Irish fiddler, but didn’t know the name.
Further investigations are afoot …
Dish Buoys of Schuykill hernpipe goesh reeely well wif anudder toon called Kilty’s Welding…I herd it once that way, played over in Ballygonefishin by a man maimed…named…Peter O…O‘Rower, nah, Peter O’Roar, um, Peter O’Roark…urp, ROARK, ooo, sorry bout that. Seltzer gets the stains out, but not much you ken do for the shtink of it….
Anyway, the maim, um, *name* comes from the Schuykill Ribber near Necrophilia, no, Phillipdelleria, er, Philadelphia over in the States. Dey put buoys in the river to keep the bargers from banging into oil tanks, tanked--I’m tanked--tankers, so this french horn piping two nnnn is about the Schuykill buoys, an no relayshun atall to the other Boys of Blew Mill song….
Or maybe this is the Guardian setting….
Boys of School Hill
Heh, heh, Will. Wonder what Slainte is going to make of that 🙂
Unfortunately I don’t have much wit….
Another version
The “Irish” version has one (important) note different in the 3rd and 7th measures of each section.
faaf egfe
Fluters can put a cut or glottal stop between the two “a” notes, whistler can tongue or cut.