Annotation:Heights of Alma (1) (The)

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HEIGHTS OF ALMA. AKA - "Alma (1) (The)." AKA and see "Rakes of Mallow (The)." Scottish, Irish, Old-Time (?); Quickstep March, or Polka. A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Well-known as the Irish dance tune "Rakes of Mallow"--the "Heights of Alma" title is perhaps some kind of corruption of the name "Rakes of Mallow." Curiously, finds researcher Conor Ward, the tune appears with the title variant "Heights off Almagh" in the c. 1900 music manuscript collection of County Longford musician Larry Smyth (with strains reversed from the way it is usually played). County Sligo-born fiddler Michael Coleman (-1893-1946) recorded the tune for Columbia Records in 1925 as "Heights of Alma."

It is a standard in Great Highland Bagpipe repertory, with martial connections; the "Heights of Alma" is the name of the first pitched battle of the Crimean War. Curiously, the name (as a tune or song) appears in a list of traditional Ozarks Mountains fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Kerr (Caledonian Collection), p. 3.

Recorded sources: Columbia 33069-F (78 RPM), Michael Coleman (1925). Bob Smith's Ideal Band, Better than an Orchestra" (1977).

See also listing at:
Hear Michael Coleman's 1925 recording at the Internet Archive [Columbia 33069-F.]



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