Green Hills was originally composed for the opera “William Tell” by Gioachino Rossini sometime around 1830. Pipe Major John MacLeod, while serving in the Crimean War with the 93rd Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (1854) heard it played by a military band from Sardinia and wrote it out for bagpipes. It has become one of the most widely played and appreciated tunes for bagpipes worldwide. According to Wikipedia, Scottish singer/song-writer Andy Stewart penned words in 1960 and the song charted for about a year.
But did you know that Green Hills staff notation is written incorrectly, as are most 3/4 marches? Here’s why.
In a 3/4 tune, the heavy pulse is on the left foot of the first, third, fifth, and seventh measures. The way Green Hills is found in most bagpipe music books places Low A and B “pick-up” notes within the first measure, technically changing the pulse of the tune throughout! As well, most bands play a two-beat intro note and then start the tune (on the Low A) on the left foot. The way it should be played is with a “short” one-beat intro E, the Low A and B pick-up notes on the right foot, and then the grip up to C played as a left-foot beat.
The tune is written correctly below, with notes landing on the beat indicated in red within each measure.
How this happened is open to speculation and I won’t contribute to that here. It seems to have been perpetuated unknowingly perhaps.
Why haven’t more pipers and drummers picked up on this? Perhaps it’s become the standard “accepted” and no more thought given. Perhaps it’s because we don’t pay enough attention to the pulse of our music. Perhaps it’s because many learn based on computer-generated sound files incapable of subtle pulsing of music. All these and more are probable causes/reasons.
Does this matter? Yes, I’m afraid that it does. I will allow others to argue their opinions unfettered.
My thinking is that if we’re going to play and teach something, we should do so correctly, being faithful to the core elements of the music, being tempo, timing, and phrasing and the overall intended melody. In 3/4 marches, the strong pulse is as indicated above.
So, the bottom line is all this is to re-visit your 3/4 repertoire. You may find that you’re playing the tunes correctly but not necessarily in keeping with the written notation. You also may find that drummers are not pulsing the same note as the pipers.
