Annotation:Mr. Rienagle’s Favorite

Tune properties and standard notation

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MR. REINAGLE’S FAVORITE. Scottish, Strathspey. C Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB’. Composed by Nathaniel Gow (1763-1831), in honor of fellow composer and contemporary Joseph Reinagle [1] (1762-1836), who himself contributed a few tunes to the Gow collections. The tune takes advantage of the dotted strathspey rhythm and triplets to slip into a 12/8 time second part (which can be seen simply as an extension of the triplets of the first part). Joseph was the English-born son of an Austrian trumpet player who lived in Portsmouth, and first gained prowess on horns. He gave them up French Horn and trumpet, according to Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians, due to his brother’s skill on them, but, later returned to them after the death of his sibling. He transferred his skill to the violin and cello, and gained great fame as a teacher and performer on those instruments. It was Reinagle who taught Nathaniel Gow the cello, and he became leader of St. Cecelia’s Hall, Edinburgh. the theatre band. After a two-year stay in Dublin, Reinagle moved to London and became a prominent cellist with orchestras there, and even a principal player for the Haydn and Salomon concerts. See “Colonel Hamilton's Delight” for one of his tunes.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Gow (Sixth Collection of Strathspey Reels), 1822; p. 2.

Recorded sources:

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Tune properties and standard notation