Annotation:Miller o' Hirn (The)

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MILLER O' HIRN, THE. Scottish, Schottische or Strathspey. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. The first tune composed by J. Scott Skinner, for the friend of his father (and he) James Johnston, the miller at Hirn, near Banchory, whom he visited as a child (Hunter says Skinner's grandfather and Johnston married sisters). Skinner apparently was confident that his composition, which in fact is one of his best, would supplant the famous strathspey "Miller of Drone (1) (The)" in the literature, for he prefaced the tune in his Harp and Claymore (1904) collection with:

J. Scott Skinner

We'll 'Drone' nae mair, sin' we ha'e got
The 'Miller o' the Hirn', O.

Skinner named his first large collection The Miller of Hirn Collection [1], printed in 1881, "Respectfully Dedicated to all Lovers of Scotch Music." Tunes in the collection were dedicated to Johnston, his wife ("Miller o' Hirn's Wife (The)") and son (see "Miller o' Hirn's Son (The)"). He this bit of verse, by La Teste (who also wrote other lyrics to Skinner's music), in the collection, to be set to his tune:

'Lad, cam' ye doun by Feugh's green howe,
The Feugh that rins through Crathes, O?
Heard ye a fiddler dirl a bow,
Wi' something like a pathos, O?
Weel, gin he meet wi' your applause,
I brawly can discern, O,
The dusty-noted fiddler was
"The Miller o' the Hirn", O.
Hech, hey, the Hirn, O!
The water-clatter Hirn, O;
There's few can play a reel wi' him,
The Miller o' the Hirn, O.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Alburger (Scottish Fiddlers and Their Music), 1983; Ex. 105, p. 182. Feldman & O'Doherty (The Northern Fiddler), 1979; p. 109 (appears as "Untitled Strathspey"). Hardie (Caledonian Companion), 1992; pg. 73. Hunter (Fiddle Music of Scotland), 1988; No. 111. MacDonald (The Skye Collection), 1887; p. 67. Moffat (Dance Music of the North), 1908; No. 32, p. 14. Skinner (Miller o' Hirn Collection), 1881; No. 1, p. 1. Skinner (Harp and Claymore Collection), 1904; p. 71. Skinner (The Scottish Violinist), 1900; p. 2.

Recorded sources: Topic 12T280, J. Scott Skinner "The Starthspey King." Tradition 2118, Jim MacLeod & His Band - "Scottish Dances: Jigs, Waltzes and Reels" (1979).

See also listing at:
Alan Snyder's Cape Breton Fiddle Recording Index [2]
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [3]
See Skinner's hand-written manuscript copy at the University of Aberdeen's Skinner site [4]
See the Mill of Hirn at Scotland's Places [5]

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