The Tourist hornpipe

Scottish hornpipe. Dots sourced from the Perth (Western Australia) Highland Pipe Band website (link below), masterfully ABC’d by Donough.

http://www.perthhighland.com/repertoire.htm

I dont even like the tune. Also not sure that it really feels like a hornpipe though I don’t suppose it is quite a typical reel either. The way I heard it played by a Scottish fiddler was very straight.

I’ll get you into Scottish music again, even if it kills one of us… ; )

This is one of the worst tunes I’ve ever heard. But at least its traditional. At the very least…

Don’t think so , Paddy. I’m sure I have a recording of this from BBC Scotland’s piping programme, if it’s the same tune I’m thinking of. I’ve a feeling it was composed by Robert Mathieson, but could be wrong about that. He’s not a man known for writing crap tunes - quite the opposite, in fact. I’ll look it up.

This does look like a modern pipe tune of the type that’s popular and works well with pipe bands. Not so strong a tune for more trad based stuff IMO though. I would be very surprised if this tune was traditional.

I just noticed it had been recorded by artists. And by traditional, I meant that the poster didn’t compose the tune. I should really rephrase myself.

"This is one of the worst tunes I’ve ever heard. But at least its not another tune composed by the poster. At the very least…"

The Declan Masterson tune is a different one altogether.

I came looking for this tune just now after it came up on my iPod from Colin MacLeod’s CD and I remembered how much I liked it.

It doesn’t sound crap to me, it’s clearly a type of pipe tune as bogman suggests, (which don’t always look good on paper) played wonderfully on fiddle by Colin (who I presume is Donough’s source)

In Colin’s CD notes he says "… pipe tune by Fraser Martin. I first heard this tune back in Scotland in 2002. Fraser wrote this tune for his friend Mick Edmonds"

A bit of googling with those names finds that Fraser Martin is currently the PM for the North Queensland Scottish Pipe Band and wrote this tune in the 1990s after the not well-travelled Mick returned wide-eyed from his first trip abroad with the Victoria Police Pipe band, with stories of deep-fried pizzas, battered Mars Bars and Scottish landladies.

Interesting that Colin first heard it in Scotland, it seems to have been round the world a couple of times now!

I heard this tune at the recent National Folk Festival in Canberra, with the Canberra Scottish Fiddlers playing it. It reminds me of the tune Clumsy Lover. It’s a great pipe tune in this key G major.

I’ve added a D major and G major version wit the chords.