The Hills Of Glenorchy jig

This is a fine traditional Scottish jig and popular especially among fiddlers. I’m not sure if it’s already been introduced to Irish musicians, but it seems equally appealing to them.

I’ve just found this tune is being played in Ireland as "Over the Hills." I heard it in Galway just a few weeks ago and just before now noticed it is on Tap Room Trio album. I’m just listening to the sample through the web page of Claddagh Records but will get the CD soon. Really sounds great.

It seems the fiddlers in Scotland and Cape Breton often play this jig in A dor.

I’ve just learned the Irish version of this great Scottish jig off the recording of the Tap Room Trio. Here it is:

X: 1
T: Over the Hills
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Ador
efe ABA|ede g2e|ded G2G|BGB d2g|
efe ABA|ede g2b|age dBG|A3 A3:|
a3 a3|agb age|g3 g3|gef gfe|
a3 a3|agb age|gfg dBG|1. ABA efg:|2. ABA g2f||
"Variation"
efe ~A3|ede gfe|ded ~G3|BGB dgf|
efe ~A3|ede gab|age dBG|1. ~A3 ABd:|2. ~A3 A2g||
~a3 age|agb age|~g3 ged|gfg bag|
~a3 age|agb age|~g3 dBG|1. ~A3 A2g:|2. ~A3 ABd||

Harry Bradley informs us that the tune "Over the Hills" comes from the playing of Donegal fiddler Cornelius Boyle and is a variation on the song air "The Rollicking Boys of Tanderagee."

The variation below is my own, somewhat influenced by the original Scottish setting. (The Edor version posted here is also my own, though.) The Edor version is a little melancholic, but the Ador one is cheerful and more fun to play, especially Harry Bradley’s version. Well, we can choose. Maybe it’s nice to play both settings in one and the same set with Gmaj or Dmaj tune in between.

Here is the more accurate transcription of the Trio’s playing of the tune. More accurate, I mean it may not be exactly the same.

K: Ador
efe ABA | ede g2 e | ded GAG | BGB d2 g |
efe ABA | ede g2 b | age dBG | A3 A3:|
a3 a2 b | agb age | g3 g2 a | gef gfe |
a3 a2 b | agb age | gfg dBG |1 ABA efg:|2 ABA g2 f||

This tune appears as "The Wild Hills O’Wannie" on the CD "NOrthumbrian Small Pipes", and as "The Wild Hills O’Wannies" on Bob Ballantine’s whistle CD "Northumbria Down Under".
Bob, now residing in Victoria, Australia notes in his CD liner notes:
"My father (Billy Ballantine 1891-1971) made this tune popular in the 1940s-50s on "Wot Cheor Geordie"… and "Barndance",… regular radio shows in Northumbria in the 1940s and 50s. The Wannies are a group of hills in central Northumberland, and words were written to this tune by a homesick Northumbrian living in Canada. My father possessed these words, lent them to a group of Serenaders, and never saw them again."

According to Harry Bradley, this tune is related to the melody of the song "The Rolling Boys of Tanderagee": https://thesession.org/tunes/1392 I suspect "The Apples in Winter" is a variant of it and found an interesting setting of the well-known tune in this site: https://thesession.org/tunes/1395

There are numerous versions of the tune even in Scotland. It seems pipers usually play simpler settings in Ador. The Donegal version Harry Bradley recently recorded with Jesse Smith is very similar to the Cape Breton version recorded by Ashley MacIsaac and Buddy MacMaster.

As said above, the setting posted here is my own, but it’s mostly based on the Shetland group Filka’s playing.

Kane Sisters recently recorded the tune as "The Jolly Corkonian." You can listen to them playing it: http://www.rte.ie/radio1/thelatesession/rams/17october.ram The set starts around 31:00.

I learnt this from a Scotswoman in a pub so I thought it was Scottish - but according to the Fiddlers Companion it’s an English jig.

I have been trying to play The Rigged Ship / Haste to the Wedding / Smash the Windows on mandolin - but this is a set of such remorseless jolliness that I can never bring myself to play it to the bitter end.

This is Hills of Glenorchy: https://thesession.org/tunes/842

I learnt it as The Rigged Ship. Later I found it in Mike Raven’s "1,000 English Country Dance Tunes" (p 126). This book is full of Scottish and Irish tunes and I see that the only reference given in The Fiddler’s Companion is Mike Raven again.

I conclude we have a duplicate tune here with an alternative title and it should be treated as such.

There’re some Irish jigs related to The Hills of Glenorchy.

Cornelius Curtin’s Big Balloon: https://thesession.org/tunes/821
Pat Burke’s (The Boys of Tanderagee): https://thesession.org/tunes/1392

Key signature: e minor
Submitted on June 9th 2005 by Gallopede.
https://thesession.org/tunes/4580

Key signature: A Dorian
Submitted on November 7th 2005 by Ceolachan.
https://thesession.org/tunes/5164

https://thesession.org/tunes/5860

Sounds just like a version of the Hills Of Glenorchy to me https://thesession.org/tunes/842

Don’t know where it is from or, if anyone plays it but it’s a nice little tune I think it’s Irish. In the second part I thinks its got a dotted rhythm but I don’t know where. Hope you like it

According to the Fiddler’s Companion, it’s in Mike Raven’s book of English dance tunes.

Whats the Fiddler’s companion?

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

This is the Scottish tune ‘Hills of Glenorchy’. Never heard it called The Hillside before.

I think the earliest source is James S Kerr, who may even have wrote it. Anyway, the important point is it’s listed as a quickstep, not a jig. Does anyone know how traditional quicksteps used to be danced, and whether faster/slower, jerkier, or whatever?

3’s ~ basically ~ you could do a tune search here on site, just enter ‘quickstep’ and then you could compare the results… As the quickstep came into favour a lot of jigs were put the the business, but frankly, Mr. Kerr aside, who I doubt had anything to do with this tune aside from putting it in his collection, ain’t a great quickstep. It makes a much better jig… ‘Quickstep’ refers to the steps and the dancing, and jigs weren’t the only thing put to the purpose of accompanying this form…

X: 4
T: Hillside, The
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: E Dorian
|: d |
B2 E EFE | BAB d2 B | AFD DED | AFA d2 d |
B2 E EFE | BAB d2 e | dBd AFD | EFE E2 :|
|: d |
efe edB | efg gfe | ded dAB | def fed |
gbg faf | ege BdB | dBd AFD | EFE E2 :|

The Hillside ~ Don’t know where it is from or if anyone plays it but it’s a nice little tune. I think it’s Irish. In the second part I thinks its got a dotted rhythm but I don’t know where. Hope you like it.

# Posted on September 23rd 2007 by Nicky.B

According to the Fiddler’s Companion it’s in Mike Raven’s book of English dance tunes (by this title).

# Posted on September 23rd 2007 by Dow

This is very similar to "The peeler’s away with my daughter"

That tune is in A minor

Here it is:

https://thesession.org/tunes/6541

Have just listened to a great rendition of this tune on a CD my mum just sent me for Xmas from Scotland: Best of Scottish Fiddle, by Arc Music. Fiddlers Gavin Marwick (The Iron Horse band) and Jonny Hardie (Old Blind Dogs band). The tune is played as an air but is usually a jig.

The hills of Glenorchy is usually played as a 6/8 march round these here parts.

Bobby MacLeod plays it as the middle tune on his "After the Games" set, right before the classic John Morrison of Assent House. So get your gramaphones wound up and give it a spin in good old 78 stylie. As Tommy would say; "thats jest solidmahog" .

Anyone know the names of the two jigs Ashley MacIsaac follows this one with on his album? My fanboy fiddle student wants to know!

X:1
T:The Jolly Corkonian
M:6/8
L:1/8
R:jig
K:Ddor
|:c/2B/2|AFD DED|AGA cBA|GEC CDC|EDC EFG|
AFD DED|AGA cde|dcA GEC|DED D2:|
|:A|ded dcA|dcd fed|cdc cBA|GAB cGE|
ded dcA|def fed|cBA GEC|DED D2:|

X: 4
T: Hillside, The
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: EDor
|: d |\
B2 E EFE | BAB d2 B | AFD DED | AFA d2 d |
B2 E EFE | BAB d2 e | dBd AFD | EFE E2 :|
|: d |\
efe edB | efg gfe | ded dAB | def fed |
gbg faf | ege BdB | dBd AFD | EFE E2 :|

# Posted on September 23rd 2007 by Nicky.B

X: 1
T: the hills of glenorchy
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: march
K: Edor
d |: c | B2E E>FE | BAB d2B | ABA D>DD | FDF Adc |
B2E E>FE | B>AB e3 | dcd AFD | E3 E2 :|
||: B | efe edB | efg gfe | ded d>BA | def fed |
efe edB | efg gfe | dcd AFD | E3 E2 :|

# Added by ceolachan - August 22nd, 2014
https://thesession.org/tunes/13800

See also X: 6 above…

This version appears in P.W. Joyce’s Old Irish Music and Songs (1909), vol. 1, p. 117, No. 241, as Mrs. Martin’s Favourite.

This version of "The Hills of Glenorchy" is from a live recording of a Thursday-night Glencoe Mills dance played by Buddy MacMaster and Joey Beaton.

From the liner notes to the excellent compilation "The Heart of Cape Breton" (the liner notes themselves can be downloaded at the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings web site at http://www.folkways.si.edu/the-heart-of-cape-breton/celtic-old-time-world/music/album/smithsonian ):

"The stage is so small, the hall typically so crowded, that we were unable to put a microphone on a stand to record Buddy’s fiddle. As a result, this track is recorded directly from Buddy’s contact mic, held to the fiddle by a rubber band.

Buddy and Joey play a group of jigs…for a first figure. Buddy has a very distinctive, very powerful approach to playing jigs, and Joey’s strong piano provides excellent backing. … The fourth jig, "The Hills of Glenorchy," is an old Scottish tune, one of Buddy’s trademarks… Buddy played the dance, which began at 10pm and ran until 1am, after having played for about three hours in a bandstand in a park in Inverness."

Even though I haven’t notated Buddy’s articulative choices in this transcription, the entire set of jigs (including this tune) is an excellent and transparently expressed (Mac)master class in how to articulate jigs in Cape Breton style. The alternation between cuts and taps in the B part is especially exciting!

According to Alan Snyder’s Cape Breton Fiddle Recording Index, this seems to be a pretty popular jig on Cape Breton recordings — recorded most frequently in its Ador setting, with occasional occurrences of the Edor setting:
http://www.cbfiddle.com/rx/tune/t262.html

I note the various comments re being a jig or a dotted 6/8 march, but sounds brilliant and very wistful/atmospheric if played as a slow air. You could play it slowly first time, then up it to a slow 6/8 march second time through.