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," "Old Polka (The)." English, Hornpipe (4/4). 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.
The Russell Whortly's recordings of Beatrice Hill are now at the British Library in London,but some of them, like this one, are available on the Internet as audio clips, thanks to the excellent GlosTrad Web site. In the anootations for this tune, that ìs simply called “Beatrice Hill's Untitled Hornpipe”, can be read that Michael Raven published it under the title "Beatrice Hill’s Three Handed Reel", under which it has become known. but also that there isn't any evidence that Mrs Hill actually played it for the Reel.
A final note about the transcriptions. Beatrice Hill played a one row four stop melodeon - i.e. an instrument with four banks of reeds that play the notes of the melody simultaneously on three different octaves and produces a full, well balanced sound. When played transposed to D on the two row D/G melodeons used today by the average English players, that have just two banks of reeds, the second part of the tune ends up on the squeaky highest pitch range of the instrument. Then, as a way round, the second part of the tune is often played - and eventually transcribed - an octave lower.
Compare also the Orkney-collected "Jimmy o' the Bu's Polka"; similar, perhaps cognate, 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[1] identifies the precursor melody of the entire tune family as 19th century "pop" classical composer Louis-Antoine Jullien's (1812-1860) "Moldavian Schottische." See also the related "George Parkin's Schottische" and "Dennis Crowther's No. 3," and, in Orkney, as "Old Polka (The)" and "Jimmy o' the Bu's Polka."
"Charlie Bachelor’s Quare Fella Schottische" is an Australian derivative of the tune.
- ↑ Philip Heath-Coleman, "Name that tune: waifs and strays of English melody."