Listen to Vallafield

Sign in or sign up to favourite this tune.

Notes

Learned from Pam Swing, 1984 Tom Anderson's writes: This is the only trowie tune we know of from Unst. The story goes that a man heard it on his way home one evening when he stopped to have a smoke in the shelter of Gullahammer at the south end of Vallafield. The music seemed to be coming out of the face of the rock and was very eerie. Belief in those days was that cold steel fended off evil spirits, so he reached for his pocket knife. As his fingers touched the steel, the music stopped. He still retained the tune in his memory, so when he got home he could sing it over to his daughter who played the fiddle.

This tune

This tune has these features. Click on any of them to find tunes that match. For a more detailed search, take a look at the kinds of information page.

Reel One title Only 1 transcription Has some stepwise movement major C 2/2 Has notes text Has chords explore more...

ABC

You can learn more at abcnotation.com.

X: 1
T: Vallafield
C: trad Shetland
R: reel
N: Learned from Pam Swing, 1984
Z: John Chambers <jc:trillian.mit.edu>
B: Tom Anderson "Ringing Strings" 1983
B: Tom Anderson and Tom Georgeson, 'Da Mirrie Dancers' 1970
N: Tom Anderson's writes:
N: This is the only trowie tune we know of from Unst.  The story goes that a man
N: heard  it  on his way home one evening when he stopped to have a smoke in the
N: shelter of Gullahammer at the south end of Vallafield. The music seemed to be
N: coming  out of the face of the rock and was very eerie.  Belief in those days
N: was that cold steel fended off evil spirits, so he  reached  for  his  pocket
N: knife. As his fingers touched the steel, the music stopped. He still retained
N: the tune in his memory, so when he got home he could  sing  it  over  to  his
N: daughter who played the fiddle.
M: C|
L: 1/8
K: C
G \
| "C"c2e c2e | "Am"ecA A2A | "G"Bcd dBG |1 "G"Bcd dBG :|2 "C"c3 c2 |]
|: d \
| "C"cBA "G"GAB | "G"dBA B2G | "C"cBA "G"GAB | "C"cBA "G"GAB |
| "G"dBA B2G | "G"dBA B2G | "C"cBA "G"GAB |"C"c3 c2 :|

This transcription was found: