“Whaddya Mean Those are the Same Tune??”

On the 9th of February 2025, Paul and Sally Wells will present a couple of traditional tunes that have had long, complicated lives, selected from Paul’s new tune book, The Maine Musical Compendium.

Paul and Sally host the "North by Northeast" radio show. Click here for their brief bios, and visit the February monthly music for the ‘dots’ of some of the other tunes mentioned.

One of the things that distinguishes traditional music from art music is that in traditional music there is no one, single, authoritative, “correct” version of any given melody. In general every player shapes the tunes in his or her own way, through a combination of personal and community factors: taste, skill level, performance context, regional standards, etc. The fact that tunes change across time and space is one of things that make traditional music intriguing and keep those who study it, whether as player, scholar, or simply interested party observer, on their toes.

Additionally, there is considerable latitude in the degree of change, from small differences in the way particular phrases are turned, to consciously worked out variations. In some cases the degree of change is such that it can be difficult to recognize identity. In the academic world this sort of study is known as “tune family theory,” and things can get quite complicated quite quickly. And it is not by any means an exact science!

We’ll keep things fairly simple and look at a couple of tunes that have extensive histories in the documentary record and that might be familiar to folks. One is the 6/8 tune perhaps most often known as “The Campbells are Coming,” with variant forms also known as “The Burnt Old Man,” “Hob or Nob,” “Jackson’s Bottle of Brandy,” and various others. We begin with a version from a Portsmouth, NH tune manuscript from 1826, where it is titled “Potatoe on a Stick.”

Then we move to a reel or hornpipe that again has many variant forms. We begin with a version titled “Portsmouth Hornpipe” – the title may or may not refer to Portsmouth, NH – published in a violin instruction book published in Hallowell, ME, in 1828. In this instance the first strain of the tune has floated around and combined with numerous second strains. Perhaps the most well-known of the other forms is the hornpipe known in Irish tradition as “Off to California.”