Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

The Miller Of Drone

strathspey

Key signature: Amajor

Submitted on October 1st 2004 by natharious.

This tune has been added to 44 tunebooks.

Also known as The Miller O' Drone, The Miller O'Drone, Miller Of Drohan, The Miller Of Drohan, Miller Of Drone.

Recordings of a tune by this name:

An Traidisiun Beo by Angelina Carberry
Cape Breton Tradition by Buddy MacMaster
Collectors' Items by Duncan Dyker And Friends
Fine� Thank You Very Much by Ashley MacIsaac
Fit As A Fiddle by Natalie MacMaster
For Each New Day by Jennifer Roland
House Sessions by Brenda Stubbert
Live by Blazin' Fiddles
Otherworld by Lunasa
The Call by Rebecca Lomnicky
The Story So Far... by Lunasa

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

The Miller of Drone

This beautiful strathspey was composed by James Scott Skinner (1843 – 1927), a key figure in Scottish traditional music. It's a fairly popular little tune in Cape Breton.

# Posted on October 1st 2004 by natharious

Original sheetmusic

I found this after I had already transcribed the song from an Ashley MacIsaac recording. It was a result when I was searching for a information on the composer. It would have saved me some time. I'll put the link up here for all to enjoy:

http://www.abdn.ac.uk/scottskinner/display.php?ID=JSS0099

Nathanael

# Posted on October 1st 2004 by natharious

Wierd Rythm

I noticed that there's a wierd rythm on the ABC that I submitted. I've corrected it and edited the ABC file. Sorry, its my first tune!

Nathanael

# Posted on October 1st 2004 by natharious

Nathanael, it's nice of you to submit a tune for us, but I'm afraid it's unreadable. Do bear in mind that this stays on the net forever, sheetmusic, midi file, and abc searchable by other websites. I think the idea is that you use software to check your work first before you submit it. Try the free one at concertina.net (look in the links section). Please please, I beg you, learn how to write abc before you post any more tunes - stuff like the arrow signs for strathspeys, and how to write triplets. It's basic stuff. Sorry if this sounds harsh but it has to be said and nobody else has said it so it'll have to be me.

# Posted on October 1st 2004 by Dow

Wierd Rhythm

Mark, I agree 100% with your comments (you got in there before I did!). I think it would be of help, particularly to the first-timers (and perhaps even some of the more experienced!), if Jeremy were to place an easily-seen notice in the Tunes Submission advising people to check the validity of their abc by listening to it carefully via software before submission.
Even the most careful can easily type in "b" instead of "B", and miss it on a visual check. Also, some word processors (e.g. Word), if not set up properly, can change a lower case letter to upper case if it thinks it is starting a paragraph (I've had this happen, so I had to talk severely to Word to make it see sense).
Trevor

# Posted on October 1st 2004 by lazyhound

I think Jeremy's made it pretty clear actually. In the end if someone doesn't want to take the time to learn how to write abc first, there's not much he can do about it. Other than suggest what I've suggested of course, i.e. "learn abc".

# Posted on October 1st 2004 by Dow

Wierd Rhythm

I'd also advise the first-timer wishing to submit a tune with a complex rhythmic structure (such as a strathspey or highland) to have a look at the abc and sheet music of other tunes of that type on the database, to see how it's done.
Trevor

# Posted on October 1st 2004 by lazyhound

Don't get me wrong we're not looking for perfection here, just readability... like, the basic tune.

# Posted on October 1st 2004 by Dow

Sorry guys. I did use the concertina.net to check it (and it looked alright) but something got a little bit garbled. I'll take much more care for future submissions. I've updated the ABC file to be more accurate, but I'm afraid there's nothing I can do in terms of sheet music and midi. Sorry!

Nathanael

# Posted on October 1st 2004 by natharious

It's your abc I'm talking about, not the sheetmusic and midi. The abc is still seriously complicated and needlessly so with all the 3:2 notes and dashes /. Have a look at the way strathspeys are notated elsewhere on this site, and you'll find that the arrows > are used, and also triplets (3. Notice also how notes are grouped together. Then, before you try to submit any more tunes, please please first update the abc for this one properly, I beg you?

# Posted on October 2nd 2004 by Dow

Nathanael thanks! It reads beautifully now. It's a lovely tune!

# Posted on October 2nd 2004 by Dow

This tune appears to have actually been written by Nathaniel Gow (the Gow Collection), although he wrote it more as a reel with less strathspey pairs than Skinner's version.

# Posted on May 26th 2005 by glennP

"The Miller of Drone" ~ first a rehash of this transcript then some history

This transcript redone ~
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: strathspey
K: A Major
(3AcB ||
A>FF<A E>FE>C | (3A,A,A, A>c B2 (3BcB |
A>FF<A E>FE>C | D>FE<G A2 (3AcB |
A>FF<A E>FE>C | (3A,A,A, A,>c B2 (3Bcd |
e>Bc<G A>EF>C | D>FE<G A2 (3Acd ||
e>ce<a e>e f/e/d/c/ | e>c e<a f2 (3fga |
e>ce<a e>e f/e/d/c/ | d>B c<A F2 (3Acd |
e>ce<a e>e f/e/d/c/ | e>f a<=g f>e f>^g |
(3agf (3efg (3aed (3cBA | (3dcB (3cBA (3Bfe (3dcB ||

"The Athole Collection" ~ James Stewart Robertson, 1884

K: A Major
|: c/B/ |
A<FF<A E>FE<C | A,<Ad>c B2 Bc/B/ |
1 A<FF>A E>FE<C | D<FE>G A2 A :|
2 e>Bc>G A>EF>C | D>FE>G A2 A ||
c/d/ |
e<cc<a e>e f/e/d/c/ | e<cc<a f2 f>a |
e<cc>a e>e f/e/d/c/ | d>Bc>A F2 Fc/d/ |
e<cc<a e>e f/e/d/c/ | e>fa>g f2 f>g |
(3agf (3efg (3aed (3cBA | (3dcB (3cBA (3Ffe d ||

# Posted on November 3rd 2006 by ceolachan

Two different tunes

One of the Gows probably wrote The Miller of Drone, but James Scott Skinner rewrote it as "The Miller o' Hirn" (http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/3770), saying the miller would drone no more.

Nathanial Gow would write his name at the top of tunes he had composed and also tunes he had just rearranged, so no-one knows for certain which ones were his own.

# Posted on November 8th 2008 by LowProfile

The Millar of Drone

In this case, LowProfile, Nathaniel Gow's authorship is pretty much undisputed (see Mary Anne Alburger, Scottish Fiddlers and their Music, 1983).

Interested in your idea that Skinner rewrote this tune as "The Miller o'Hirn" - I see no resemblance between the two. In the lyrics to the air -

"The Miller o' the Hirn, O, Hoch hey, the Hirn O!
The heesie-weesie Hirn, O;
We'll "Drone" nae mair, sin we hae got
The Miller o' the Hirn, O."

- I believe the author ("La Teste") was proposing "Hirn" as a replacement for "Drone".

# Posted on November 8th 2008 by nigelg