Annotation:Sir William Gordon Cumming's Reel

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X:1 T:Sir William Gordon Cumming's Reel M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel C:Mr. MacIntyre (Duncan MacIntyre) B:Gow – Fifth Collection of Strathspey Reels (1809) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:G G(gg>)a baga|gede dG TB2|G(gg>)a baga|Tg>e dB A/A/A Te2:|| {^g}a>A e(=g f)def|Tg>e dB G/G/G TB2|a>A e(g f)dea|ge dB A/A/A e2| aA e(g f)def|gedB GABG|Aaa>b agab|Tg>e dB A<B e2||

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SIR WILLIAM GORDON CUMMING’S REEL. Scottish, Reel (cut time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB The tune is attributed by biography:Nathaniel Gow to Scots musician and dancing master biography:Duncan MacIntyre/McIntyre (born c. 1765). McIntyre taught Scottish dancing from his residence at 22 Great Marlborough Street, London, towards the end of the 18th century and published in that city a collection of Scottish tunes in 1796 (A Collection of Slow Airs, Reels and Strathspeys). He reportedly journeyed to India around the year 1806 as master of ceremonies to the governor general’s court, but there his trail ends. His cause and date of death is unknown. The melody features an interesting interplay with G major and A dorian tonality.

Sir William Gordon Cumming-Gordon (1787-1854), was the 2nd Baronet of Altyre and Gordonstown, who succeeded his father in 1806 and became, briefly, an MP for Elgin Burghs in the 1830’s. He married Elizabeth Maria Campbell (of Islay), and, after she died in 1842, he married (1846) Jane Eliza MacIntosh. He had fifteen children between the two women. The seat of the family was Altyre House (now demolished) in Elginshire, Moray, south of Forres.