Annotation:Peter Bailie (1)

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PETER BAILIE [1]. AKA - "Peter Baillie," "Peter Bailey." AKA and see “Lonach Highland Fling.” Scottish, Canadian; Strathspey. Canada, Cape Breton. E Dorian (most versions): A Minor (Logan). Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB (Athole, Cranford/Holland, Honeyman, Skinner, Skye): AABB' (Kerr): AA'BB' (Logan). Part of "Scott Skinner's Set." The tune was named after Pate Bailie of Loanhead (1774-1841 or 1843), known as the fiddling tinker, though actually his similar occupation was making horn-spoons. He was also sometimes a stone-mason who participated in the erection of the stone pillars forming the gateway of Edinburgh University (during which he broke his leg). In addition, he was a renowned fiddler (who, by accounts, had a strong up-bow and a talent for improvisation and double stops) and much in demand for dances and other occasions and published a collection of strathspeys, reels and other tunes under the title A Selection of Original Tunes arranged for the Piano Forte and Violin (1825). He was somewhat cautiously patronized by the nobility and played regularly at Dalkeith House (home of Sir James Montgomery) and at Stobo Castle. Neil (1991) relates:

The story is told that one night after playing in a town in Berwickshire he 'went on a spree' and ended up not having enough money to pay for lodgings. Wandering about the town he came to a hall from which there came sounds of music and dancing. He slipped in with his violin under his coat and worked himself nearer and nearer to the fiddlers. When they noticed him they made fun of him, believing him to be an itinerant fiddler and jokingly asked him to play. He responded by amazing them with a fine selection in his inimitable style. When he had finished, the leader exclaimed that he 'must either be the devil or Pate Baillie!

Pate Bailie is given a short biographical sketch in William Hunter's Biggar and the House of Fleming (1867, p. 414), wherein he describes the Baillie [Ed. Hunter's spelling] family:

The most noted of the descendants of the Baillies was Peter, or as he was most commonly called Pate baillie, who was, for many years settled about Loanhead and Bonnyrigg in Mid Lothian, and who excelled as a player on the fiddle. He certainly was gifted with musical abilities of a very high order. Had these received due cultivation, and had he not possessed the wayward and obstinate disposition of the unsettled habits of the gipsy, he might have taken a high place as a musical performer. He devoted his attention almost exclusively to Scotch music; and certainly the variations which he improvised, when playing some of our best tunes, were highly original and striking. His intemperance and his rude and offensive manners prevented him from receiving that patronage from the higher classes of society which he would, no doubt, have otherwise obtained; but he was often employed by the country people at penny weddings, kirns, and other merry "splores," when he was largely plied with intoxicating drink, and it was alleged that he played as well when he was drunk as when he was sober. He died some twenty years ago, and was interred, we believe, in the Church-yard of Lasswade.

A County Donegal adaptation of the tune appears under the title "Brown-Sailed Boat (The)," which has a legend attached to it. Cape Breton fiddler Little Jack MacDonald (1887-1969, b. Judique, Nova Scotia) recorded the strathspey on 78RPM disc. MacDonald, one of the older generation of fiddlers from the island to record, was known as the “Bard of Scottish fiddling” and was a member of the Five MacDonald Fiddlers, a group of expatriate Cape Breton musicians living in Detroit/Windson area in the mid-20th century. The alternate title “Lonach Highland Fling” is given in Skinner’s Harp and Claymore collection (1904). Gavin Greig’s handwritten manuscript at Univ. of Aberdeen’s Skinner site [1].

Source for notated version: learned by the late Cape Breton fiddler Jerry Holland (1955-2009) from the playing of his father [Cranford].

Printed sources: Cranford (Jerry Holland: The Second Collection), 2000; No. 152, p. 58 (includes two of J. Scott Skinner’s variations). Honeyman (Strathspey, Reel and Hornpipe Tutor), 1898; p. 14. Kerr (Merry Melodies, vol. 1), c. 1880’s; Set 29, No. 1, p. 18. Logan's Collection of Highland Bagpipe Music, Book 3, c. 1905; No. 8, p. 7. MacDonald (The Skye Collection), 1887; p. 30. Rideout (Scottish Fiddle Encyclopedia), 2010; p. 94. Skinner (The Scottish Violinist, with one variation), 1900; p. 12. Skinner (Harp and Claymore), 1904; p. 66 (includes one variation set). Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; p. 251.

Recorded sources: Beltona Bel 1989 (78 RPM), James Young Cameron (1933).

See also listings at:
Alan Snyder’s Cape Breton Fiddle Recording Index [2]
Alan Ng’s Irishtune.info [3]
Hear James Young Cameron's 1933 recording at Rare Tunes [4]

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