Annotation:Willow Hornpipe (The)
X:1 % T:Willow Hornpipe, The C:Alexander Troup M:C L:1/8 R:Hornpipe B:Walker - Collection of Strathspeys, Reels, Marches etc. (1866, p. 28) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion F:http://digital.nls.uk/special-collections-of-printed-music/archive/105875422?mode=zoom K:D AG|F2d2 ecdB|A2F2F2A2|GFGE efed|c2A2A2 AG| F2d2 ecdB|A2F2F2A2|GFGE ABAG|F2D2D2:| (de)|fafd gfed|(cd)ec A2 de|fafd gfed|c2A2A2F2| GFGE !fermata!e3F|GFGE !fermata!d3F|GFGE ABAG|F2d2d2!fermata!||
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WILLOW HORNPIPE, THE. Scottish, Hornpipe (whole time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB.
Aberdeenshire fiddler-composer biography:Alexander Walker credits the reel to "A. Troup" referring to the 19th century Alexander Troup of Ballater, who once lived for fifteen weeks at the house of Niel Gow, presumably to study and play with the great fiddler. According to the University of Aberdeen's J. Scott Skinner site:
Many thought that...Alexander Troup (b. near Ballater, Aberdeenshire, 1835) was 'one of the greatest living authorities upon all things pertaining to Scotch music.' As a young man he led the psalmody at before Queen Victoria at Crathie Church,' by Balmoral Castle. He also performed before her with Willie Blair, The Queen's 'Fiddler. [note for "Cluny Castle"]
The long-lived Willie Blair, farmer, fiddler, composer, violin maker, was Queen Victoria's fiddler from 1848 until his death in the 1880's, and composed his own "Mr. A. Troup's."
The tune appears in a collection by Aberdeenshire fiddler-composer biography:Alexander Walker, born in Rhynie, Strathbogie, in 1819, who worked as a gardener for Sir Charles Forbes of Castle Newe (and who became his patron). At about age 50, in 1870, Walker followed family and emigrated to the United States where he settled in Northampton, Massachusetts. He established a prosperous farm there and continued to compose (although unfortunately his American output appears to be lost).