Hill Country Tunes
Hill Country Tunes
This directory contains John Chambers's transcription of the Hill Country Tunes collection. This is a historic collection of folk tunes from southwestern Pennsylvania, collected by Samuel Preston Bayard in 1943.

All the tunes here are in ABC format. If you don't have ABC software, you can CLICK HERE to use a tool that converts the tunes to other formats.

This text uses up-arrows and down-arrows over some notes to indicate slightly-sharp and slightly-flat notes. ABC doesn't have a way to represent these arrows, but it does have quarter-tone sharp and flat symbols (^/ and _/), so I've used those. In a few cases, a 3/4 sharp note ^g has been rewritten as _/a. Such notes should not be read as exact quarter-tones, but rather as the harmonically "neutral" intonations used by many fiddlers in the Irish-Scottish (and Scandinavian) tradition. If your instrument doesn't have these quarter-tone notes, play whichever note sounds best to you. (But expect some fiddlers to make fun of you. ;-)

Note that the file HillCountryTunes.abc contains all the tunes, in the order they are in the book.

Bayard included a good amount of information on sources and variants of the tunes. I haven't (yet) typed much of this information into the ABC files. I've included some information that may be useful to people learning the tunes, but for the rest of Bayard's notes, you'll have to read the .PDF files.

[ICO]NameLast modifiedSizeDescription
[PARENTDIR]Parent Directory   -  
[DIR]fmt/ 2024-06-16 10:00 -  
[ ]proto.abc 2010-06-22 09:55 146  
[IMG]favicon.ico 2000-02-22 17:31 221  
[ ]00_HillCountryTunes.abc2010-11-04 17:24 229  
[ ]14_RollingOffALog_D.abc2020-12-12 11:53 369  
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[ ]06_ODearMotherMyToes..>2010-04-13 09:40 413  
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[ ]88A_NapoleonCrossing..>2010-06-30 11:01 436  
[ ]26_DanceTune_CF.abc 2010-06-26 13:45 437  
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[ ]04_JinnyInTheLowland..>2010-04-13 09:39 517  
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[ ]40_Schottische_D.abc 2010-06-26 13:44 519  
[ ]08B_CuckoosNest_A.abc 2010-04-13 09:40 520  
[ ]91_MarchTune_2ndPart..>2010-06-30 11:44 528  
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[ ]08A_CuckoosNest_A.abc 2010-04-13 09:40 537  
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[ ]61_QUADRILLE_G.abc 2010-06-26 13:44 548  
[ ]05_Reel_C.abc 2010-04-13 09:40 550  
[ ]12_Reel_G.abc 2010-04-13 09:40 552  
[ ]36_Schottische_G.abc 2010-06-26 13:44 554  
[ ]18_ButtermildAndCide..>2010-06-26 13:45 560  
[ ]34_LittleHornpipe_D.abc2010-06-26 13:44 563  
[ ]89_BonaparteCrossing..>2010-06-30 11:25 572  
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[ ]56_LopEaredMule_GD.abc 2010-06-26 13:44 588  
[ ]35_Whiskey_G.abc 2010-06-26 13:44 596  
[ ]23_WindThatShookTheB..>2010-04-13 09:41 597  
[ ]42_StopTune_D.abc 2010-06-26 13:44 599  
[ ]21_KingsHead_D.abc 2010-06-26 13:44 600  
[ ]50_QuadrilleAndHornp..>2010-06-26 13:44 614  
[ ]19_RoadToBoston_D.abc 2010-04-13 09:40 630  
[ ]31A_PaddyOnTheTurnpi..>2010-06-26 13:44 648  
[ ]47_QUADRILLE_Gm.abc 2010-06-26 13:45 650  
[ ]49_Reel_Bb.abc 2010-06-26 13:45 662  
[ ]60_SCHOTTISCHE_D.abc 2010-06-26 13:44 663  
[ ]80_OldManAndOldWoman..>2010-06-26 14:03 679  
[ ]57_CloudsReel_G.abc 2010-06-26 13:44 684  
[ ]69_Blacksmith_D.abc 2010-06-26 13:44 699  
[ ]79_Reel_CG.abc 2010-06-26 13:54 700  
[ ]38_Quadrille_A.abc 2010-06-26 13:44 703  
[ ]27_DancingWithTheOne..>2010-06-26 13:44 707  
[ ]94_JohnNewgrandComeH..>2010-06-30 17:04 719  
[ ]62_MaggotsInTheSheep..>2010-06-26 13:44 721  
[ ]55_HighLevelHornpipe..>2010-06-26 13:45 729  
[ ]20_LardnersReel_A.abc 2010-06-26 13:44 748  
[ ]28_DreamSong_G.abc 2010-06-26 13:44 767  
[ ]72_FarewellToWhiskey..>2010-06-26 13:44 778  
[ ]10_FireInTheMountain..>2010-04-13 09:40 786  
[ ]HillCountryTunes.fmt 2010-03-23 10:10 793  
[ ]78_Quadrille_G.abc 2010-06-26 13:44 803  
[ ]83_Reel_G.abc 2010-06-29 08:31 804  
[ ]58_SnoutsAndEarsOfAm..>2010-06-26 13:44 822  
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[ ]64_REEL_GD.abc 2010-06-26 13:44 899  
[ ]93_RocksHornpipe_D.abc 2010-06-30 12:00 907  
[ ]90_RanahansMarch_D.abc 2010-06-30 11:38 911  
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[ ]66_OverTheStumpAndBa..>2010-06-26 13:44 1.4K 
[ ]75_HogEyeAnATater_Am..>2010-06-26 13:44 1.4K 
[ ]HillCountryTunes.abc 2012-07-10 14:39 62K 
[ ]Hill_Country_Tunes_c..>2010-08-28 13:33 122K 
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