The Balmoral Highlanders

barndance

Key signature: Amixolydian

Submitted on January 6th 2008 by benhockenberry.

This tune has been added to 19 tunebooks.

Also known as Balmoral Highlander, The Balmoral Highlander, Balmoral Highlanders, Balmoral Highlanders March, The Balmoral Highlanders March, The Balmoral Highlanders' March.

Recordings of a tune by this name:

My Roots Are Showing by Natalie MacMaster
Pride Of The West by John Wynne And John McEvoy
Richard Fitzgerald Ceili Band by Richard Fitzgerald Ceili Band
The Fiddle Music Of Donegal - Volume Two by Various Artists
The Ladies From Hell by The Black Watch
Vintage 78s by Bobby MacLeod

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

Balmoral Highlanders

Popular pipe march, played on fiddle by Natalie MacMaster on her "My Roots are Showing" album. This is a spare setting of the tune; a full-fledged version with variations is online here:
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/music/Info/RRTuneBk/gettune/00000afe.html

# Posted on January 6th 2008 by benhockenberry

Composed by Angus MacKay

Forgot to include the composer in initial note -- the composer was Angus MacKay. A scan of sheet music of James Scott Skinner's setting is here:
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/scottskinner/display.php?ID=JSS0638

The ABC:
X:1
T:Balmoral Highlanders, The
R:Pipe March
C:Angus MacKay
M:2/4
L:1/16
K:Amix
ec|Aece Aece|eAfA {f}e2dB|GdBd GdBd|GABc dBec|
Aece Aece|eAfA {f}e2dB|BdGB gfed|{d}[c2E2][A2E2][A2E2C2]||
ed|ce{g}a2 ce{g}a2|ce{g}af {f}e2dc|B<Bg2 B<Bg2|B<Bg2 agfd|
eeaf geaf|gefd eacA|BdGB gfed|{d}c2A2[A2E2]||

# Posted on January 6th 2008 by benhockenberry

This is not a Strathspey

This is a 2/4 march not a strathspey. It is not half the tune when played as a strathspey.

# Posted on January 7th 2008 by bogman

Re: This is not a strathspey

Agreed, it is a march -- but in order to get a 2/4 time signature on the site, I would need to cite it as a "polka", which would seriously change the feel... That said, would folks prefer me to change it? I can change the abc, and I think the tune type can change as well.

Thanks!

# Posted on January 7th 2008 by benhockenberry

4/4 ~ !!!

4/4 does it better justice, as is generally the case with many of these marches. The 'old' way was to transcribe them as 2/4, which ends up with a transcription that really doesn't do the tunes justice and which is very, very dense with black ink, and not really as easy to read as 4/4... Now all old ways are necessarily good ways... ;-)

# Posted on January 7th 2008 by ceolachan

Minus the 'w' ~ Not all old ways are necessarily good ways...

# Posted on January 7th 2008 by ceolachan

4/4

I'm keeping it in 4/4 for the time being, but changed it from a strathspey to a barndance (thanks for the suggestion, C!) to differentiate from the implied playing accent of a strathspey. Alternate titles have been added for all the variations I could find on the site at the moment...thanks!

# Posted on January 8th 2008 by benhockenberry

Another 4 Parts!

This is an awesome pipe march- usually thought of (and originally written as) a 2/4 - there are actually 6 parts in the original tune- might try to dig it out!

# Posted on January 12th 2008 by big jim

Here's the ABC file to Richard Robinson's version, from the link I posted up above -- it has the multipart bits.

X:51
T:the Balmoral Highlanders
M:2/4
L:1/16
O:Scotland
R:Pipe march
Z:Richard Robinson <URL:http://www.leeds.ac.uk/music/Info/RRTuneBk/contact.html>;
%%FILEURL: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/music/Info/RRTuneBk/RRtunes/RRtunes.abc
%%TUNEURL: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/music/Info/RRTuneBk/gettune/00000afe.html
%%ID:00000afe
K:A mixolydian
e|\
A>e c<e A>e c<e|e>Af>A e2d>B|\
G>d B<d G>d B<d|G>AB>c d>Be>c|1\
A>e c<e A>e c<e|e>Af>A e2d>c|\
B<dG>B g>fe>d|{d}c2A2 A<A :|2\
A>e c<e A>ec>d|e>Af>A e2d>c|\
B<dG>B g>fe>d|{d}c2A2 A<A::\
e2|\
c<e{g}a2 c<e{g}a2|c<e{g}a>f e2d>c|\
BBg2 BBg2|BBg2 a>gf>d|\
c<e{g}a2 g>e{g}a2|g>ef>d e2d>c|\
B<dG>B g>fe>d|{d}c2A2 A<A::\
e2|\
A>AA>c A>AA>c|A>AA>c e2d>B|\
G>GG>B G>GG>B|G>GG>B d>Be>c|\
A>AA<d c<eA>c|e>Af>A e2d>c|\
B<dG>B g>fe>d|{d}c2A2 A<A::\
e>d|\
c<ea>e g>ea>e|c<ea>g f>ed>c|\
B<Bg>B a>Bg2|B<Bg2 a>gf>d|\
c<ea2 g<ea2|g>ef>d e2d>c|\
B<dG>B g>fe>d|{d}c2A2 A<A:|

# Posted on January 21st 2008 by benhockenberry