Annotation:Montrose Lyns

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MONTROSE LYNS. Scottish, Air (whole time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. The melody appears in the Blaikie MS., c. 1692, a collection of tunes for the viol. Pete Stewart writes [Tradtunes Aug 29, 2013]:

I have been for many years searching for the tunes that Robert Chambers says Peebles Town Piper James Ritchie played; the one that has always escaped me is 'Lyne's Mill Trows'. However, it has often occurred to me that this might just be Ritchie's little joke, localising a better known tune [Lyne's Mill was on the river Lyne just west of Peebles], the well-kent 'Montrose's Lyns'. Today I decided to get a pieable version together. However, searching the web, I found that the only version is this:

X:300
T:B228B- Montrose Lyns
S:Blaikie MS, c 1692
Q:1/4=120
M:C
K:G
G,|B,DEG|BA/G/DE|GAAA/G/|E3D|(F/E/((F/G/) (A/G/)A/G/|
(A/B/A/)G/DE|d3||a|dBAG|cdeg|(d/g/d)B/ (A/B/A/)G/|A3G|
FGAG|ABe2|ABAG|A3G|A,DEG|ABeg|(d/e/d/)B/ (A/B/A/)G/|G3|]

Now, this is clearly not right as a tune - bar 5 can't be melodically sensible [quite apart for the random slurs iin the abc]. tracing it back I find that the source of this version is Glen's Ancient Scottish Music [1]

<http://digital.nls.uk/special-collections-of-printed-music/pageturner.cfm?i d> =94643908 where Glen has taken it from the Blaikie MS which is viol tablature. Fortunately, I have a photocopy of the original MS and I can tell you now that the correct translation of the tabature gives this:

X:300 T:Montrose Lyns S:Blaikie MS, c 1692 M:C K:G L:1/4 G,|B,DEG|BA/G/DE|GAAA/G/|E3D|B,/A,/B,/D/ E/D/E/G/| A/B/A/G/DE|GGAB|d3||a|dBAG|cdeg|d/g/d/B/ A/B/A/G/|A3G|\ B,DEG[]|ABe2|ABAG|A3G|A,DEG|[]]ABeg|d/e/d/B/ A/B/A/G/|G3|]

There does appear to be an error in the original: I have marked with brackets the bars which seem to be a transcription error, where the scribe has slipped back a few bars in their copying."'

Source for notated version:

Printed sources:

Recorded sources:

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