Annotation:Loch Erroch Side

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LOCH ERROCH SIDE. AKA - "Loch Eireachd Side," "Loch Ericht Side." AKA and see "Lass o' Gowrie (1)," "Lakes of Sligo (The)," "Niel Gow's Second Wife (1)," "Over the Hills to Glory," "Rocky Road to Dublin (4) (The)" (Bayard's No. 2), "Tom Billy's Polka (2)." Scottish, Slow Strathspey. D Major (Cole): C Major (Alburger, Athole, Kerr, Skye). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Alburger, Cole, McGlashan, Skye): AAB (Athole): AABB (Kerr). Loch Erroch is the largest lake in Perthshire. This tune may have been composed by Niel Gow, who played it for Robert Burns when the latter visited him in Dunkeld in October, 1787 (though in later life Burns did not support Gow's authorship). Burns long afterwards wrote the lyric "Oh, stay, sweet warbling woodlark, stay!" to the tune. Gow attributed it to both "Niel Gow & his 2nd Wife" (who was Margaret Urquhart) in his publication Second Collection, 2nd edition, 1803 (repeated in the 3rd edition), but a prior claim existed to the tune from Alexander McGlashan, who published it earlier under the same title in his Third Collection, 1786. In fact, when Gow first published it (in his Second Collection, 1st edition, 1788), he left it un-attributed, only claiming authorship for he and Margaret in the 2nd edition of his collection. The tune is similar to "I'm O'er Young to Marry Yet" (in the first strain), but Alburger (1983) is of the opinion only that "it is likely Gow was unconsciously influenced by that earlier piece, but no more than that." The tune first appeared in print in 1786 (i.e. McGlashan), a year before Burns' visit to Gow, according to Glen.

Nigel Gatherer found the following passage in an old book called The Fiddle in Scotland (n.d.) by Alexander G. Murdoch, from an account by Peter Stewart, who accompanied Niel Gow during the Burns visit:

Arriving at Dunkeld, [Burns]...put up at the principal inn...[He] was fortunate in making the acquaintance of Dr Stewart, an enthusiastic amateur violin player. At the dinner table he quoted to his guests the well-known local ditty-

Dunkeld it is a little toon,
An' lies intil a howe;
An' if ye want a fiddler loon,
Spier ye for Niel Gow.

Burns expressed much delight at the proposal...a visit was at once agreed to.

The greeting was a cordial one on both sides, and the meeting of Burns and Gow - both geniuses of the first order in their respective lines - was mutually worthy of each other. The magician of the bow gave them a selection of north-country airs mostly of his own spirited composition. The first tune was "Loch Erroch Side" which greatly delighted the poet, who long afterwards wrote for the same melody his touching lyric "Oh, stay, sweet warbling woodlark, stay!"

At Burns's request, Niel next gave them his pathetic "Lament for Abercairney" and afterwards one of the best-known compositions in the Highlands, "McIntosh's Lament". "Tullochgorum" was also duly honoured, after which the whole party adjourned to the little old-fashioned inn at Inver, where there was a famous deoch, or parting friendly drink.

An unusual Scottish country dance called Loch Erichtside (from Roxburghshire and West Berwickshire) was one of the relatively few dances wholly or in part in strathspey time in the early 10th century (Flett & Flett, 1964). See also the related Irish polka settings, such as "Lakes of Sligo."

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Aird (Selections of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs), 1788, vol. 3; No. 543. Alburger (Scottish Fiddlers and Their Music), 1983; Ex. 66, pp. 105-106. Cole (1000 Fiddle Tunes), 1940; p. 128. Crosby (The Caledonian Musical Repository), 1811; p. 102. Gale (Companion to the Flute), p. 39. Gow (Second Collection of Niel Gow's Reels), 1788, 3rd ed.; p. 7. Gow (The Beauties of Niel Gow), vol. 1, p. 20. Gow (Strathspey Reels), vol. 1, p. 7. Graham, 1908; p. 235. Henderson (Flowers of Scottish Melody), 1935. Johnson (Scots Musicial Museum), 1787-1803, vol. 1, No. 78. Kerr (Merry Melodies), vol. 2, No. 76, p. 11. MacDonald (The Skye Collection), 1887; p. 159. McGlashan (A Collection of Reels), 1781; p. 46. Ryan's Mammoth Collection, 1883; p. 167. Smith (Scottish Minstrel), 1820-24, vol. 2, p. 66. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; p. 60. Wilson (Companion to the Ball Room), 1816; p. 34.

Recorded sources:

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