Annotation:Miss Wedderburn's Reel (1)

Back to Miss Wedderburn's Reel (1)

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MISS WEDDERBURN('S REEL) [1]. AKA and see "Miss Jenny Wedderburn," “Burn o' Cairnie,” "Greenfields of America (1)," "Molly Brallaghan (1)," "Old Mother Flanagan," "Carpenter's March (The)," "Napoleon's Farewell to Paris," "Grand Conversatoin of Napoleon (The)," "Bold Sportsman (The)," "Captain Rock's (1)," "Captain Rocke’s (1)," "McKenna's Dream," "Pratie Apples," "Under the Rose." Scottish, Reel. A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Surenne): AAB (most versions): AABCCD (Gow). John Glen (1891) finds the earliest appearance of the tune in print in Joshua Campbell's 1778 collection (p. 75). The melody has considerable currency among Cape Breton fiddlers and has been recorded often. "Miss Wedderburn's" seems ancestral to a number of derivative Irish versions (c.f. "Molly Brallaghan (1)"), and even some Appalachian cognates ("Old Mother Flanaghan").

Without a first name it is difficult to determine who Miss Wedderburn was. Scottish portraitist Henry Raeburn painted Margaret Wedderburn in 1792, who later married Philip Dundas, a naval officer and British administrator. She was his second wife.

Source for notated version: Carl MacKenzie (Cape Breton) [Brody].

Printed sources: Brody (Fiddler’s Fakebook), 1983; p. 194. Cranford (Jerry Holland: The Second Collection), 2000; No. 27, p. 12. Gow (Complete Repository), Part 4, 1817; p. 27. Hunter (Fiddle Music of Scotland), 1988; No. 248. Kerr (Merry Melodies), vol. 1; Set 25, No. 4, p. 15. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; p. 1. Surenne (Dance Music of Scotland), 1852; p. 76.

Recorded sources: Rounder 7008, "Jerry Holland" (1976). Carl MacKenzie "Welcome To Your Feet Again."

See also listings at:
Alan Snyder’s Cape Breton Fiddle Recording Index [1]
Jane Keefer’s Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [2]

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