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I know there are some fans here of Scottish folk music in general and Hector the Hero in particular. The song was written by J. Scott Skinner in 1903 honoring a Scottish general, a personal friend of Skinner's, Hector MacDonald, who was forced out of the military on morals charges. I happened to come across an image of the original score, for anybody that might be interested in seeing it. The tune is usually scored as a waltz time nowadays, but as you can see it was written by Skinner in 6/8 time as a "Coronach," which is a Scottish/Irish funeral song. The tune is played today in many different keys, but originally it was written in the key of A major.
Here's another of Skinner's songs, this one written on the back of a letter as a lament to a friend who died in Canada. (Incidentally, if you like Scottish fiddle check out Paul Anderson who is playing this song Paul Anderson)
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. ~Herm Albright
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Nice find @Uzi !
I seriously recommend not copying my mistakes. D'oh - 
Please make your own, different mistakes, and help us all learn :-)
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What a gorgeous piece of music. Thanks Uzi
It doesn't feel super sad to me.. kind of peaceful.
Vibrato Desperato.... Desperately seeking vibrato
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Omigosh! I totally missed this post until just now. And as bad luck would have it, the computer I'm using right now is a public computer without speakers, so I will have to wait until I get home to hear "The Fallen Chief". But I was able to see the score for "Hector the Hero", and it was really cool. Makes me want to print it out and do...something...with it.
Pfft. I'll figure it out. In any case, thanks for posting this. Very cool indeed.
-Daniel
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Well @Uzi - about 3 years later I finally get around to having a shot at this - I only remembered about it as we recently had a "named summer storm" called Hector - although I have been working with Skinner's Bonny lass o' Bon Accord. I love the original manuscript from the Aberdeen University archive. There are a lot of versions of Hector the Hero to be found, here are two of my current favorites - can't choose between them - and
Thanks for the original post !
I seriously recommend not copying my mistakes. D'oh -
Please make your own, different mistakes, and help us all learn :-)
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oooo Billy I love this Hector song, been messing with it for a while, and had a few versions in different keys, its a really nice play!
I also love this Golden Fiddle Waltz, but its way out of my league - Maybe in a couple of years or 10!
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@Mimi Aysha - that's a lovely tune - thanks for the link ! 
I seriously recommend not copying my mistakes. D'oh -
Please make your own, different mistakes, and help us all learn :-)
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@BillyG I'm so glad you posted in this 3 year old thread. 
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Violin playlist <--- Sounds like fun!
Making lists of what to play is a great idea.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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Yeah @Fiddlerman - the forum has SO much stuff on it now - the "search" function works really well - honestly 3 years on - I HAD forgotten about @Uzi original post - but "something" came to mind about - well - things like Hector the Hero, James Scott Skinner and The bonny Lass o' Bon accord (which is what I've recently been playing and brought "hector" to mind I guess after the recent named-storm you sent us from the USA !!!! Nah - blame the jet-stream bro... ) - real strange how the mind pulls it all together... I was going to create a whole new post before I used the search function.. yeah - we have a LOT of stuff here now - visitors should use the search more I think... it should possibly be made more prominent, or more-widely-shared in some way, because there IS a serious amount of useful shared info here... ( ok, and opinions, but, opinions are equally welcome as well of course - we all have them !)
Just a thought...
I seriously recommend not copying my mistakes. D'oh -
Please make your own, different mistakes, and help us all learn :-)
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It's the"Hector the Hero" thread - I know - but this is just a follow up to a related James Scott Skinner tune already referred to above - I know- I should start a new thread... (but it's of limited interest I guess anyway - so I'll just keep it here)
Soooo.... Well - I "play" the tune "The Bonnie lass o' bon Accord" in, as a fiddler does, my own way.... but... wait....
I have seen (well, listened to) the following link before - and when I first visited this tune, over a year ago, I felt it (this specific arrangement) was "somewhat beyond me" ( to get the sharp clarity of the individual notes where they are clearly staccato'd ) - so I just played it (not a difficult piece) with lots of slurred notes
Good news is - I revisited it today - and - I'm getting pretty close to the "feel" of this arrangement - it's not by any means the way this particular tune is always played - there are lots of close and similar arrangements - but I absolutely LOVE this version - gotta love the occasional intended tiny little "slide/cuts" as well ( have to listen close to get 'em! )
Ohhhh - and of course this version has the minor-voice variant included - SWEET (comes in at about 2 minutes in to the arrangement) - and IMO that works SOOOO well with a cute little cadence back to major (from the original James Skinner score, although very often, the minor variant is not played - which is a shame really)
[ Bill, as ever trying to match what I can do with my synth... if software can do it, darn it - *I damn well can* !!!! Drives me insane... ]
Anyway - enjoy this little arrangement of a GREAT tune (and lyrics) from the stable of James Scott Skinner - here yah go -
With more info to the real original manuscript and mark-ups to be found here-
https://www.abdn.ac.uk/scottskinner/display.php?ID=JSS0018
.... Real nice tune - with lots of options to "make it your own" - and - I have visited this post before and indeed started a new thread - here is a link to a "play-along" animated score I made - oh - more or less a year ago - https://fiddlerman.com/forum/irish-scottish-english-cape-breton/the-bonny-lass-o-bon-accord/#p91806
Have fun ! 
I seriously recommend not copying my mistakes. D'oh -
Please make your own, different mistakes, and help us all learn :-)
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Thanks Billy!
It sounds a little more playable than the score looks, but Im thinking for myself its on the long term to do list..
Thanks again!
Honorary tenured advisor
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@billyg What a happy and fun sounding song! I, too, am looking forward to hear you playing it, and I'll be cheering you on!
Jim
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Hector the Hero is one of my favorites. He was going to blow up the English parliament but was caught. Then he was hung for being a homosexual.
Opportunity is often missed because it wears suspenders and looks like hard work.
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