Annotation:Beatrice Hill's Three Handed Reel
X:1 T:Beatrice Hill's Three Handed Reel M:4/4 L:1/8 K:D FG | B2A2 AFAd | c2 BA B2 ed | cdef gece | edcB A2FG | B2A2 AFAd | c2 BA B2 ed | cdef gece | e2d2d2 :| |: A2 | B2 AF DF A2 | A2 GF G2 EF | GFED C2E2 | G2F2F2A2 | B2 AF DF A2 | A2G2G2EF | GFED C2E2 | E2D2D2 :||
BEATRICE HILL'S THREE HANDED REEL. AKA and see "Beatrice Hill's 3-Hand," "Bromsberrow Heath Three Handed," "Late Kelly's Wake." English, Reel (cut time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The tune is sourced to melodeon player Beatrice Hill, of Bromsberrow Heath, Forest of Dean, Worcestershire (not far from the border with Wales), who recorded it in 1954 (and again in 1957) for collector Russell Wortley. Hill's father was the village publican and was 'King', or leader, of the Bromsberrow Heath Morris Dancers. The tune was also in the repertoire of East Anglia hammered dulcimer player Walter Geary (Norfolk) and harmonica player Dennis Crowther (south Shropshire), and has even surfaced in folk tradition in Australia, played by fiddler Charlie Bachelor as a schottische. It is also known by the title "Late Kelly's Wake" in Australia.
The tune was originally in the key of 'F', as Mrs. Hill's melodeon was in that key.
See also the Orkney-collected "Jimmy o' the Bu's Polka", cognate (but not identical) in the first stain, and harmonically congruent (although melodically different) in the second strain. Similarly, the Orkney-collected tune, "Old Polka (The)" is anther variant of the tune family. Phillip Heath-Coleman identifies the precursor melody of the entire tune family as 19th century "pop" classical composer Julien's "Moldavian Schottische."
