Eugene Stratton hornpipe

Right, I know it’s not in Gmin, but I didn’t have the option of B flat Major, so I just gave the easiest relative tonality that was available.
I learned this one from the Chieftains’ album with James Galway.

😉 ~ not forgetting the composer…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Stratton
http://the-music-hall.haisoft.net/smoh/smes.htm
http://www.its-behind-you.com/musichall.html

The Fiddler’s Companion ~ Andrew Kuntz
http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/
http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/EN_EU.htm

Composed by the famous Scots composer and fiddler J. Scott Skinner (1843-1927), recorded by him on a 78 RPM disc in the 1920’s, at the end of his career, as part of “The Celebrated Hornpipes” medley. New York-born Eugene Stratton (1861-1918) came to England with a minstrel troupe and established himself as a solo music hall performer, whose act included blackface routines at which times he was styled as “The Dandy Coon,” or “The Whistling Coon.” His most famous song was “Lily of Laguna.” He was the President of the Grand Order of the Water Rats in 1896. This charitable group began in 1887 with several music hall performers who owned a trotting pony called Magpie which was winning many races around London. The proceeds from such victories were used to help troubled and distressed music hall stars, and to help sustain soup kitchens in London’s east end. The name of the group came about when, during a torrential downpour, the pony was being returned to stabling. A horsedrawn taxi driver, seeing the sodden beast shouted: “Blimey, wot you got ‘ere?” The trainers replied they had a trotting pony. “Trotting pony!,” barked the cabbie, “looks more like a bleedin’ water rat.”
***
Edward Le Roy Rice, in his book Monarchs of Minstrelsy (New York, 1911) gives this brief bio:
***
EUGENE STRATTON (Ruhlman), who is at the present time one of the most pronounced favourites
in England of any man that ever blacked his face, began his stage career about 1878 as one of the
Four Arnold Brothers. On the 21st day of October, that year, he opened at Chicago with Haverly’s
Original Mastodon Minstrels. He was a member of that company when they opened at the Drury
Lane Theatre, London, England, July 31, 1880. Shortly after this event he went to Moore and
Burgess’ Minstrels in the same city, where he remained about ten years. In addition to being a
good song and dance man, he also developed into a fine comedian. Eugene Stratton was born in
Buffalo, N.Y., about 1864. (pg. 320).

It seems may have heavily swung his hornpipes, as his triplets are given as B/B/B instead of the usual 1/3 divisions of a triplet (3BBB, as more akin to how most folk tend to swing hornpipes, if they are going to.

am baile: highland history & culture
http://www.ambaile.org.uk/index.jsp

Postcard with Music for Skinner’s ‘Eugene Stratton’ ~ This hand-written musical extract appears on the back of a postcard sent by Scott Skinner (postmark Aberdeen) to Alexander Grant, Inverness, on 4 January 1905. (duplicate links, slightly different addresses)
http://www.ambaile.org.uk/en/item/item_writtenword.jsp?item_id=42961
http://www.ambaile.co.uk/en/item/item_writtenword.jsp?item_id=43006
http://www.ambaile.co.uk/en/item/photograph_zoom.jsp?item_id=43006&zoom=2
http://www.ambaile.org.uk/en/item/photograph_zoom.jsp?item_id=42961&zoom=2

X: 1
T: Eugene Stratton
C: James Scott Skinner
S: James Scott Skinner, the back of a postcard
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: hornpipe
K: Bb Major
|: F2 |\
B/B/B F>E D>FB>d | =e>fg>f ^cdAB | c/c/c G>F =E>Gc>B | A>cf>=e g>f_e>c |
B/B/B F>E D>FB>d | =e>fg>f _e>dc>B | g>eB>G E>ba>g | f>de>c B2 :|
|: a2 |\
b>BA>B g>BA>B | =e>fg>a b>fd>B | E>GB>e D>FB>d | c>^cd>=e f>^fg>a |
b>BA>B g>BA>B | =e>fg>a b>fd>B | g>eB>G E>ba>g | f>de>c B2 :|

Two great recordings of this tune that are hard to find have been cut by two favourite Canadian fiddlers ~ Jean Carignan of Montreal, Quebec & Winston “Scotty” Fitzgerald of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia…

It has also had circulation amongst U.S. fiddlers, including playing it flat out, without swing…

Irishy version in F Major played by Brendan Bulger, Marty Fahey, and Kathleen Gavin on their recording “Music at the House” https://thesession.org/recordings/839 As noted in other comments, this was written in Bb and is a solidly major tune with just a hint of mixloydian in the A part. It would be great if thesession.org’s key options included all the keys. Bb najor is really not very exotic.

My version