The Four Parts of the Original "Greg's Pipes"
James Greg (alias Gregg or Greig) (1718-1817) seems to have taken the first part of a popular country dance tune, “Willy Wilkey” , which closely resembles the first part of “The Reel of Tulloch” , composed a new matching second part modelled on the second part of “The Reel of Tulloch”, added two more parts based on “Donalbane” , modifying the endings to parallel those of the first two parts*, and from the amalgam created the four part “Greg’s Pipes”. In the original setting and for most of its history the “Donalbane” section was played an octave lower than the “Reel of Tulloch” section.
* Transposed to A, the typical “Willy Wilkey” ending of each strain is <b’2c♯’’a’|b’f♯’f♯’2>. The first two strains of “Greg’s Pipes”, the contours of which are based on “The Reel of Tulloch”, adopts this ending; in the third and fourth strains, based on “Donalbane”, the typical “Donalbane” ending, <b’2c♯’’e’’|f♯’’2e’’2> is modified to <b’2c♯’’e’’|f♯’’b’b’2> to parallel the endings of the first two parts.
The format will be noted as ABC,D, to indicate the register in which the last two parts were originally played.
