Annotation:Winter Hill Troop
X:1 T:Winter Hill Troop, or Gramachree Molly M:C| L:1/8 S:Thomas Nixon Jr./Joseph Long music copybook (c. 1776- 1778, p. 22) N:Nixon (1762-1842) was a 13 yr. old from Framingham, Ct., who accompanied his father N:to the opening conflicts of the American Revolution at Lexington and Concord, N:and who served as a fifer in the army until 1780. K:G D2|G>A G>F B>cd>B|A>FE>F D2 AB/c/|d>cd>e d>cB>A|B>Ad>F A2:| |:AB/c/|d>cd>e d>cB>A|.B>.A .G>.F B4 {Bcd}|d>cB>A B>cd>B|A>FE>F D2:|]
WINTER HILL TROOP. AKA and see "Gramachree Molly." English, Irish, American; Air (whole time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. "Winter Hill Troop" was entered into the c. 1776-1778 music manuscript collection belonging to American War of Independence musician Thomas Nixon, Jr., of Framingham, Connecticut[1]. Nixon was a 13 year old fife player who saw service during the first years of the war. The tune, however, is "Gramachree Molly," an Irish air employed as a military troop march (another American fifer of the era, John Greenwood, had it in his manuscript under the "Gramachree Molly" title).
Winter Hill is now a neighborhood in Somerville, Massachusetts, northwest of and adjacent to Boston city. There was an American fort on the geographic Winter Hill, said to have been the most extensive defense in the Boston region with numerous entrenchments. However, by the beginning of the 20th century there was almost nothing remaining of the works. Young Nixon may have been familiar with it, for he followed his father to the American army at the time of the nearby battles of Lexington and Concord.
- ↑ Nixon is believed to have come into possession of the book in 1778, however, the copybook appears to have started by another musician, Joseph Long.