"Green Mountain Petronella"

Part of a set; Merry Blacksmith, Green Mountain Petronella, and Reel de Montreal.

The Session version seems to be an admixture, alternating between G and A, with a total of 4 variants (2 in each key).

A lengthy discussion in the Session describes this as a New England fiddle tune, used with Petronella in a set with a lot of repeats each (6x?) for the dance known as "Petronella".

There is also an interesting discussion of typesetting of traditional music, with an explanation of why music publishers don't "get it right", especially with regards to timing;

The swing given to tunes with the midi here is jarring to my senses, but it does give some idea of it. While 'A>A' suggests mathematically that the previous 'A' takes half the value of the following 'A', making it 'A/', I have never played anything with that 'extreme' of a swing.

For the sake of mayhem, and realizing this is under the influence of the flu and a bad night's sleep, let's use the minim (1/2 note):

SWING = A>A
~ dotted minim (1/2 note +) followed by a crotchet (1/4 note)

SWANG = (3A-AA
~ dividing a semi-breve into thirds, 2/3s followed by a 1/3

SWUNG = (5A-A-AA-A
~ taking a Balkan twist to it, 3/5ths followed by 2/5ths

It's the middle one that makes the most sense, especially when you see all the transcriptions in the past that tend to favour triplets as content and variation... That's also, at least around that, where I tend to be, though I do sometimes slip into a balkan swing now and then..

And one more;

Anyone who has heard world class classical violinists (Perlman, Lynsey , etc) trying to play jigs, reels or hornpipes will see immediately what i mean. The notes are all correct but the music just isn't dancey.