Annotation:Miss Abercromby's Reel (1)

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MISS ABERCROMBY'S REEL (--OF BIRKENBOG). Scottish, Reel. C Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB (Athole, S. Johnson): AABB' (Marshall). Composed by William Marshall (1748-1833), first printed in his 1781 collection. The title refers to the daughter of Sir Robert Abercromby of Birkenbog near Portsoy, Banffshire, according to Moyra Cowie (Life and Times of William Marshall, 1999). The Abercrombys were friends with the 4th Duke and Duchess of Gordon, and through this relationship would have had contact with Marshall, who was employed as the Duke’s Steward of the Household. Cowie points out that Banff was a favorite wintering place for the well-to-do of North-East Scotland, many of whom maintained town-homes there, spending the season visiting and socializing. Birkenbog was a farm house south of Cullen and was a well-developed and substantive property. A variant, set as a slow strathspey in the key of G Minor, appears in the William Sydney Mount manuscripts under the title “Mrs. Abercrombys of Glupas Reel.”

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: S. Johnson (A Twenty Year Anniversary Collection), 2003; p. 30. Marshall, Fiddlecase Edition, 1978; 1781 Collection, p. 5, and the 1822 Collection, p. 23. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; p. 273.

Recorded sources:

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