The Hills Of Glenorchy (jig) on The Session

Also known as Hill’s Of Glenorchy, Hills Of Glen Orchy, The Hills Of Glen Orchy, Hills Of Glenorchie, The Hillside, The Jolly Corkonian, Mrs. Martin’s Favourite, Over The Hills, The Robin’s Nest, There Came A Young Maiden.

Twenty-four comments

Hills of Glenorchy

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.

Over the Hills: the Irish Setting in Ador

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.

The Tap Room Trio Version

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||

Also known as ‘The Wild Hills O’Wannie(s)’

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."

The Hills of Glenorchy (aka. Over the Hills)

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.

P.s.

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.

“The Rigged Ship” ~ duplication

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

“Ellen O’Dwyer’s Slide” ~ a shared beginning, the A-Part

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

Similar to this USA tune I submitted….

https://thesession.org/tunes/5860

Quickstep, not a Jig

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…

“The Hillside” ~ another duplication rescued?

Close Match Here

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

The Hills of Glenorchy

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.

Them there hills

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!

“The Hillside” duplication ~ adding the back slash \

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 :|

“The Wild Hills Of Wannie” ~ this melody as an air

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

See also X: 6 above…

The Hills Of Glenorchy, X:8

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.

The Hills Of Glenorchy, X:9

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

Re: The Hills Of Glenorchy

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.

The Hills Of Glenorchy jig

Nine settings