Bonaparte Crossing The Rhine hornpipe

I like to ornament this tune with plenty of triplets, especially on the A notes. This gives it almost the feel of of a Strathspey. This is one of those tunes that sounds good with a "Scottish snap".

This is usually played in Edor on the other side of the pond

I’ve actually tried a c# in the second measure of the Bpart. It gives an unexpected surprise. though perhaps many might see it as not belonging, I have seen and heard such inflections used quite often.
has any one tried this on the pipes? I haven’t yet.

Here it is known as a nice driving fiddle/bar tune under the name of "Star of the County Down", played as a waltz. It has a beautiful quality as a waltz and works great on the low-d whistle too.

Here’s my (untested) ABC for it, including guitar chords. This version may be sung too(lyrics below):

EG | "Am" A4 AB | "F" A3 G A2 | "C" c3 d ec | "G" d4 cd | "Am" e3 d c2 |1 "Am" A3 G E2 | "G" G6 | "Em" G4 cB :|2 "G" A4 G2 | "Am" A6-|-A4 e2 | "C" g4 e2 | e3 d c2 | "G" d4 e2 | "Em" d4 cd | "Am" e3 d c2 | A3 G E2 | "Em" G6-|-G2 c2 B2 | "Am" A4 AB | "F" A3 G A2 | "C" c3 d ec | "G" d4 cd | "Am" e3 c d2 | "G" A4 G2 | "Am" A6 | A6

Here are the lyrics:
In Banbridge Town in the County Down
One morning last July,
From a boreen green came a sweet colleen
And she smiled as she passed me by.
She looked so sweet fronn her two bare feet
To the sheen of her nut brown hair.
Such a coaxing elf, sure I shook myself
For to see I was really there.

Chorus:
From Bantry Bay up to Derry Quay and
From Galway to Dublin Town,
No maid I’ve seen like the brown colleen
That I met in the County Down.

As she onward sped, sure I scratched my head,
And I looked with a feelin’ rare,
And I say’s, say’s I, to a passer-by,
Whose the maid with the nut brown hair?
He smiled at me and he says’s, say’s he,
That’s the gem of Ireland’s crown.
It’s Rosie McCann from the banks of the Bann,
She’s the star of the County Down.

Chorus:
From Bantry Bay up to Derry Ouay and
From Galway to Dublin Town,
No maid I’ve seen like the brown colleen
That I met in the County Down.

At the Harvest Fair she’ll be surely there
And I’ll dress in my Sunday clothes,
With my shoes shone bright and my hat cocked
Right for a smile from my nut brown rose.
No pipe I’ll smoke, no horse I’ll yoke
Till my plough turns rust coloured brown.
Till a smiling bride, by my own fireside
Sits the star of the County Down.

Chorus / Repeat

Is this tune really related to "The Star of the County Down"?

I think it really rather has to be, don’t you?

"Star" and this tune do share a passing similarity, owning to the same rythym, mode and some similar melodic outlines, but there’s another song that I think bears a much closer relation to it; " Mick Maquire", The Clancy Brother did it a number of years ago.

The tune for "Star of the County Down"has gotten around and is sung to a number of different sets of lyrics, notably the "Lily of the West" and has even been used a hymn tune by the Catholic church in the U.S. A very similar tune was even used but English composer Ralph Vaughn Williams in a set of variations for strings.

This is much closer to the tune of a song I heard as "The Hot Asphalt", whih is irish, but it is also a close relation to the tune of an english song "The Cuckoo’s Nest".
There is also a suggestion that this tune has become known as "Boneparte Crossing the Rockies", ( I know there is no historical evidence for this event ) , which is further confused by another tune, also known as " Sherman’s March " also being called BCtR ( both versions ).
Confused ?

The Hot Asphalt (sung by the Dubliners I think) is the same tune as the second part of some versions of the hornpipe, The Rights of Man.

It is indeed very similiar to "The Hot Asphalt". The second part of the tune has some slightly different beginning 4 bars but the ending 4 (which repeat the last 4 of part one, not counting the triplet in this version) are the same as the way the lyrics go.

I suspect the two tunes derived from Scottish pipe march "The Battle of Waterloo."

Submitted on July 1st 2006 by davarm.
https://thesession.org/tunes/5915

A2 |
D>D DE DCCD | F>G AF G2 (3ABc | d>c AG AGED | C>C CD C2 (3AGE |
D>D DE DCCD | F>G AF G2 (3ABc | d>c AG AGEC | D4 D2 ||
AB |
d>c AG F>G AB | c>d cA c2 (3ABc | d>c AG AGED | C>C CD C2 (3AGE |
D>D DE DCCD | F>G AF G2 (3ABc | d>c AG AGEC | D4 D2 ||

K: A Dorian or Mixolydian
|: E>G |
A2 A>B A>GE<G | c>d (3edc d2 e>g | a>ge>d (3cBA B>A | G>AG<E G2 c>B |
A2- AB AG (3EFG | c2 e>c (3ddd (3efg | a>ge<d c>AG<E | A2 A>^G A2 :|
|: e<g |
a>g (3eed c>de>f | g>ag<e g2 c’>b | a>ge>d c2 (3cBA | G2- G>E G2 (3EFG |
(3AAA A>B A>G (GGG | c<de>c d2 (3efg | a2 (3ged c2 B<G | (3AAA A<^G A2 :|

This air is also used as an alternate air, among other songs, for "The Little Beggarman" / "My Old Rigadoo" ~

"The Auld Rigadoo" / "The Red Haired Boy" / etc…
Key signature: A Mixolydian
Submitted on February 25th 2002 by muddflat.
https://thesession.org/tunes/566

The Little Beggarman / Little Beggar Man / Old Rigadoo

I am a little beggarman a beggin’ I have been
For three score or more in this little Isle of Green
I’m known from the Liffey, down to Segue
I’m known by the name of old Johnny Dhu

Of all the trades that’s goin sure beggin’ is the best
For when a man is tired he can sit down and rest
He can beg for his supper for there’s nothin’ else to do
Only cut around the corner with his old rigadoo

~ etc…

Listen to Jim "Texas Shorty" Chancellor’s "Bonaparte Crossing the Rockies." It’s the same tune as "Star of the County Down" only speeded up. It’s made the rounds in the US under that name, and is in the Fiddler”s Fakebook as "Bonaparte Crossing the Rocky Mountains." I think the main difference between "Rockies" and "Star" is that the former has a goofy little switch from minor to major for two measures in the B section.

The version of "County Down" I’m most familiar with is on the Van Morrison and the Chieftains recording. It’s got the lyrics cited here but it isn’t played as a waltz.

The Edor version of this is here https://thesession.org/tunes/1464. I’ve heard both in sessions.

"Bonaparte Crossing The Rhine" - hornpipe
Submitted on May 17th 2001 by Jeremy.
https://thesession.org/tunes/7

"From Galway To Dublin" - hornpipe
Submitted on February 24th 2003 by gian marco.
https://thesession.org/tunes/1464

"Bonaparte Crossing The Alps"
Submitted on May 22nd 2004 by slainte.
https://thesession.org/tunes/3056

"The Battle Of Waterloo" - march
Submitted on March 6th 2011 by Joe CSS.
https://thesession.org/tunes/11103

http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/

"The Listowel Hornpipe" (Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine ~ #7, rather than the march
http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/LIAM_LITE.htm#LISTOWEL_HORNPIPE

"From Galway to Dublin" / "The First Light of Day" ~ #1464
http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/FROG_FY.htm#FROM_GALWAY_TO_DUBLIN_%28TOWN%29
http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/FIN_FIR.htm#FIRST_LIGHT_OF_DAY

You’ll find more links to follow and history there…

X: 5
T: Bonaparte’s March
S: "The Roche Collection of Irish Tradtional Music", 1927, Volume II, page 17, tune #231
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: march
K: ADor
|: E>G |\
A2 A>B A>GE>D | c>de>c d2 e>g | a>ge>d c>AG>E | G>Ec>E G2 E>G |
A2 A>B A>GE>D | c>de>c d2 e>g | a>ge>d c>AG>E | A2 A>A A2 :|
|: eg |\
a>ge>d c>de>f | g>ea>f g2 e>g | a>ge>d c>AG>E | G>Ec>E G2 E>G |
c>AB>G A>GE>D | c>de>c d2 e>g | a>ge>d c>AG>E | A2 A2 A2 :|

http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/index.html

http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/BOH_BONIN.htm#BONAPARTE_CROSSING_THE_ALPS

Here’s my version, played on solo guitar (the second tune of the medley)……..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lChb2i79CsU

play video

—Wm. Brown

Forest, Virginia, USA

hard to beat the Tony McMahon John Keogh version on youtube from about 1985 of Napoleon Crossing the Rhine. Both players give it all on box and keyboards.

We play this setting in Kentucky and Tennessee usually at more moderate march tempo (although some like to play it fast.) Certain parts of the tune sound like of a speeded up version of "Fields of Athenry" to me.

Hi Roads to Home,
Looks like your setting here (X: 5) is a probably a version of this march of the same name :
https://thesession.org/tunes/10620

Also can you take a look and edit the rhythm on bars 2,3,5 & 6 of the B part… Something doesn’t quite add up there 🙂

Cheers.

Thanks Steve,
In the second bar of the X:5 B part this expression "[GB]>A" doesn’t seem to convert the same way it does in Easy ABC or Mandolintab.net converter. I intended this to be two dotted 1/8th notes played as a double stop followed by a 1/16 note. That’s how it comes out in other converters but here it comes out as two dotted 1/8ths followed by a half-note… I don’t have an answer for that but it sure messes the timing up. Does anyone have an answer as to why this works this way for just this converter? Jeremy?

You can get the proper timing by pasting the ABC from X:5 into Easy ABC or the converter on mandolin.net.

Yes. It certainly seems like a problem with the converter. I’ve also pasted your abc into http://www.mandolintab.net/abcconverter.php and it does display correctly there.

The tune this sounds like is "Grace" not "Fields", sorry.

In my céilí band, we play this tune as a march. Lovely tune, so energetic and melodic <3 🙂

A version of this tune is played as the "Caledonian March" in Orkney (and presumably other places). I’ll add it when I get the time.

Amazing the variation in this tune…This version makes me insane…in a good way…love it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxTRdAmVp_s

play video