ATHOL(L) HOUSE. AKA - "Athole House." Scottish, Reel. F Major. Standard. AAB. One of the most famous compositions of Edingburgh music teacher Daniel (or perhaps Donald) Dow (c. 1783). Little is known about Dow, who was born in Kirkmichael, Perthshire, but "his compositions were highly esteemed in their time and still live" (Emmerson, 1971). The tune was originally published as a country dance in the Edinburgh Magazine and Review in 1773. Originally printed without dotted rhythms, the Gows later added them in places to change the tune to a strathspey (Alburger says this may illustrate Niel Gow's up-driven bowing style). The piece first appears published by Dow (pg. 1) in his c. 1775 collection.
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Athole (or Atholl) House was the seat of the Duke of Atholl, who in the mid-18th century was the first patron of the famous Scots fiddler and composer Niel Gow, who besides his noted skill on his instrument, also possessed an earthy frankness and who was not intimidated by social standing. On one occasion when he was playing for dancing at Atholl, a portion of the invited party lingered in the ballroom, loath to forsake the dancing. Gow, not impressed with the fashionable indifference to the waiting supper, soon became exasperated and called out to the remaining crowd: "Gang doun to your supper, ye daft limmers, and dinna hand me reelin' here, as if hunger and drouth were unkent i' the land--a'body can naethin' done for you!" The name Athole (or Atholl) derives from the Gaelic ath Fodla, generally translated as New Ireland, and stems from the first invasion of the northern land by the Irish tribe the Scots in the 7th century (Matthews, 1972).
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Alburger (Scottish Fiddlers and Their Music), 1983; Ex. 60, pg. 97. Glen (The Glen Collection of Scottish Dance Music), Vol. II, 1895; pg. 25. Gow (Complete Repository), Part 1, 1799; pg. 31. MacDonald (The Skye Collection), 1887; pg. 151. McGlashan (A Collection of Reels), c. 1786; pg. 27. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; pg. 211.
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BLAIR ATHOLL [2]. Scottish, Reel. A Minor/Dorian. Standard. AB (Kerr): AABB (Lerwick, Songer). Blair Castle is the seat of the Duke of Athole, and lies just northwest of the village of Blair Athole, in the parish of Blair Athole, district of Athole, Perthshire. Still a functional residence, some of its buildings are open to the public. The castle dates to the 13th century when its oldest part, Comyn's Tower, was constructed. It was occupied by the Marquess of Montrose in 1644, and again garrisoned by Claverhouse in 1689 (Claverhouse was killed in the battle of Killiecrankie, and his body brought to Blair Castle where his cuirass can be seen today). Bonnie Prince Charlie and his troops rested at the Castle on their journey south during the Jacobite rebellion of 1745, and the castle was damaged the next year in a bombardment. It was restored as a manor house at the end of the century, minus all fortress-like vestiges, but these were restored in the Victorian era.
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In the autumn of 1787 the poet Robert Burns, at that time on a tour in the Highlands, came to Blair Athole with a letter of introduction to the Duke. His Grace was not a home when Burns arrived, but he was cordially welcomed by the Duchess of Athole and stayed a few days at the castle, with the Duke returning before the poet left. He found staying at the same time the Duchess sister, Mrs. Graham along with their youngest sibling, Miss Cathcart, then in her seventeenth year. Burns declared later that the two days he spent there were among the happiest days of his life. He wrote from Inverness soon after to Mr. Walker (later a Professor of Humanity) of Glasgow, who was then residing at Blair Athole, and enclosed his composition "Humble Petition of Bruar Water." In the letter he says:
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The "little-angel band"-I declare I prayed for them very sincerely
today at the Fall of Fyers. I shall never forget the fine family-piece
I saw at Blair: the amiable, the truly noble Duchess, with her smiling
little seraph in her lap, at the head of the table; the lovely "olive-plants,"
as the Hebrew bard finely says, round the happy mother; the beautiful
Mrs. Graham; the lovely sweet Miss Cathcart, &c. I wish I had the
power of Guido to do them justice.'
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As fate would have it, the three sisters, known for their beauty all passed away when relatively young. The Duchess survived Burns's visit only three years, and Mrs. Graham five. Miss Cathcart, who was singularly amiable as well as beautiful, was cut off at twenty-four.
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Kerr (Merry Melodies), Vol. 3; No. 146, pg. 17. Lerwick (The Kilted Fiddler), 1985; pg. 25. Songer (Portland Collection), 1997; pg. 32. Green Linnet SIF 1047, John Cunningham - "Fair Warning" (1983).
DUNKELD HOUSE [1]. AKA and see "Frogs' Frolic." Scottish, Jig. E Minor. Standard. AAB (Gow, Hunter): AABB' (Johnson). Composed in the hexatonic mode by Niel Gow (1727-1807) around the 1770's for his patron John Murray, the Duke of Atholl -- Dunkeld House in Perthshire was one of the latter's residences, and lies "no more than a stone's throw" from Inver, the birthplace of the great fiddler. Gow's remains repose in the churchyard of Little Dunkeld. Johnson (1983) says the tune, which has "an unmistakeable air of friendship (for Murray) about it," is still popular in Scotland. It was first published in Gow's First Colletion of Strathsepy Reels (1784). The name Dunkeld means the 'fort of the Caledonians' and refers to the people that dominated the central lowlands of Scotland during the time of the Romans (Matthews, 1972). Celtic monks, driven from Iona, established themselves there in the year 729 and Kenneth Macalpin made Dunkeld the ecclesiastical capital of his combined kingdom of the Scots and Picts in 849. Dunkeld has been much fought over. It was raided by Vikings in 903 and by Malcolm of Moray in 1027; it was the site of MacBeth's victory over Crinan and Maldred in 1045. In 1689 Captain Munro massacred an army of Highland supporters of James VII there. Source for notated version: Niel Gow's Strathspey Reels [Johnson]. Carlin (The Gow Collection), 1986; No. 328. Collinson (The Traditional and National Music of Scotland), 1966; pg. 219. Hardie (Caledonian Companion), 1992; pg. 43. Johnson (Scottish Fiddle Music in the 18th Century), 1984; No. 85, pg. 229.
HAWK OF (LOUGH EIRNE OF) BALLYSHANNON, THE (Seabhac Na h-Eirne). AKA and see "Port Atholl," "Hawk of Lough Erne" (Seabhac na hEirne), "Miss Moore," "O'Moore's Fair Daughter," "Katherine O'More." Irish, Slow Air (4/4 time). A Minor (Joyce): F # Minor (O'Sullivan/Bunting). Standard. AB (Joyce): AA'BB (O'Suliivan/Bunting). Joyce (1909) says "The Hawk of Ballyshannon" was a well-known air which was also known as "O'Moore's Fair Daughter," according to his source, and by others as "Miss Moore." He notes that the Irish collector Forde gives half a dozen settings, including that of Bunting, but that O'Beirne's version (which he prints) is more simple and flowing, and less interrupted by instrumental ornamentations than Bunting's (1840). Bunting and Joyce both state the air was composed by the great Ulster harper Rory Dall O'Cahan (whose period was roughly 1550-1650) which he called "Port Atholl," and was somewhat varied by O'Carolan. Little is known of Rory Dall except that he was born to a noble County Derry family, but lived and composed mainly in Scotland where he found patronage for his music (which consisted of tunes he called "ports") among the nobility of that country.
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O'Carolans' "Ode to Miss Moore" is sung to this air (see Hardiman's Irish Minstrelsy, vol. i., p. 32). Flood (1906), explains that the song was one of several composed by O'Carolan for the MacDermot family, in "Hawk's" case in honor of the marriage of Charles O'Donnell (d. 1770), the son of Colonel Manus Roe O'Donnell of Westport (or Newport, Co. Mayo), to Katherine O'More, daughter of Colonel Lewis O'More of Ballyna House, Moyvalley, Co. Kildare. {the bridegroom, Charles O'Donnell, was the brother of Nanny O'Donnell. Nanny herself was married to Henry, the only son of MacDermot Roe (see notes for the airs "MacDermot Roe" and "Edward MacDermot Roe"). Nanny and Henry MacDermot Roe had a daughter, Eliza, who married Robert Maguire of Tempo, for whom O'Carolan composed "Planxty Maguire."} O'Sullivan (1983) notes that both the O'Donnell and O'More families belonged to the Irish Catholic gentry and suffered by the Penal Laws imposed by the English.
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Caoimhin Mac Aoidh (1994) states that "The Hawk of Ballyshannon" is a title that cryptically refers to the Fermanagh Chieftain Philip MaGuire.
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Source for notated versions: fiddler O'Beirne (Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim) [Joyce]; harper Arthur O'Neill in 1792 [Bunting]. Joyce (Old Irish Folk Music and Song: The Forde Collection), 1909; No. 563, pg. 298. O'Sullivan/Bunting, 1983; No. 13, pgs. 19-21.
YE'RE WELCOME CHARLIE STUART. AKA and see "Charlie Stuart," "The Confederacy," "Glen Morisone's Reel," "Kate of Garnavilla," "McAlman's Reel," "Queensbury House," "Welcome, Charlie Stewart(, You're Welcome)." Scottish, Reel; New England, Polka. D Major (Honeyman, Kerr): B Flat Major (Miller & Perron). Standard. AABB. The earliest record of the tune is in David Young's Duke of Perth MS (AKA the Drummond Castle MS), of 1734, where it appears as "The Confederacy." James C. Dick, in The Songs of Robert Burns, also finds "The Confederacy" in Walsh's Caledonian Country Dances, published a few years later, around 1736. As "Glen Morisone's Reel" it appears in Angus Cumming's 1780 Collection, written in cut time with dotted strathspey rhythms. Dance instructions, but no music, for the tune appear in the Menzies Manuscript, 1749, contained in the Atholl Collection of the Sandeman Library, Perth. The famous Scots poet Robert Burns wrote a song to the air in the Scots Musical Museum (1796), beginning "The Flower it blaws, it fades, it fa's," though Dick maintains that it was formed on one of the Jacobite ballads made after the highland rising of 1745. For Cape Breton versions see "Welcome, Charlie Stewart." Gow (Complete Repository), Vol. IV, 1817, pg. 29. Honeyman (Strathspey, Reel and Hornpipe Tutor), 1898; pg. 10. Johnson (The Scots Musical Museum), Vol. V, 1787-1803, No. 471. Kerr (Merry Melodies), Vol. 1, Set 6, No. 6, pg. 6. Miller & Perron (101 Polkas), 1978; No. 27. Roche Collection, Vol. 2, No. 344. The Scottish Country Dance Book, 1930-57, Book 7, No. 1. Smith (Scottish Minstrel), Vol. IV, 1820-24, pg. 78. Surenne, 1852; pg. 9. Walsh (Caledonian Country Dances), Vol. II, 1737, pg. 54.
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