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Issue 2427: Willie Anderson of Condie

Object
Willie Anderson of Condie (Tune)
Submitter
Finlay Forbes
Assigned to
Murrough Landon
Priority
Normal
Disposition
Needs help
Description

This tune is called “Willie Anderson of Dalharn” in George Bell’s own collection (Page 30) and is generally played under that title although for some mysterious reason, it seems to have attracted more than its fair share of alternative names.

Previous Actions

  • Date  April 6, 2021, 1:41 p.m.
  • User  Unknown

New issue submitted

  • Date  April 6, 2021, 2:26 p.m.
  • User  Murrough Landon (murrough)

Assigned changed to »murrough« (previously »None«)
Disposition changed to »Needs help« (previously »New«)

Thanks. I see the database has entries for Willie Anderson of: (a) Beith, (b) Condie and © Dalharn. Are those all alternative names for the same tune? Or just the Condie & Dalharn pair? Hopefully you can reply, if you know, via the link at the bottom of the mail you should get.

We also have Willie Anderson’s Farewell to Dalharn. Is that one different?

We have no entry yet for The George Bell Collection, but I found it listed at https://musicscotland.com/products/george-bell-george-bell-collection-book so we can at least add that.

  • Date  April 6, 2021, 6:37 p.m.
  • User  Murrough Landon (murrough)

I added The George Bell Collection (https://my.strathspey.org/dd/publication/1587/). Some tunes in the database have different spellings from those on the musicscotland link.

Also I discovered the database has both an entry for George Bell (https://my.strathspey.org/dd/person/1579/) and a more recent one for G Bell (https://my.strathspey.org/dd/person/10017/) with three tunes, two of which are named in the link for the collection. So I presume those two entries should be merged.

  • Date  April 6, 2021, 11:51 p.m.
  • User  Murrough Landon (murrough)

Received from Finlay by email:

The tune played as Willie Anderson’s Farewell to Dalharn in Colin Dewar’s set for The Eightsome Reel (RSCDS Book 2) is definitely the same tune as is the Glencraig version with “Dalcharn”. I don’t have access to the other listed recordings so I cannot be definite but I suspect that they are the same because they name George Bell as the composer. As George himself uses the “farewell” version, there is a possibility that he changed the name of the tune for publication. The footnote in the music book describes Willie Anderson as a fellow Dundee musician. As Dalharn is in the Tongue area of Sutherland, Mr Anderson must have said farewell to it at some stage because it is a long way from Dundee!

Willie Anderson of Beith is more of a problem because there is a tune by Bobby Crowe called “Willie Wilson of Beith”. That said, Bobby’s tune is a jig and Muriel Johnstone plays “Willie Anderson of Beith” in a reel set with George Bell listed as the composer so there is a reasonable probability that it is our man from Dalharn in yet another guise. Once again, I don’t have access to the track in question, so I cannot be 100% sure.

The labelling of recorded Scottish dance music would never win any prizes for accuracy!