Annotation:Grant's Rant (1) (The)

Back to Grant's Rant (1) (The)

---

GRANT'S RANT [1]. AKA - "Feve feve Tunal chie." AKA and see "Green Grow the Rushes O," "Highland Sword Dance." Scottish, Strathspey. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (Bremner): AABBCCD (McGlashan). Robert Burns used the tune for his song "Green Grow the Rushes O," by which it is usually known today. The tune was originally written as a rant, but as "Green Grow the Rushes," it is commonly heard as a strathspey; not an uncommon circumstance (or fate) for rants. The melody appears in the Drummond Castle Manuscript (1734), in the possession of the Earl of Ancaster at Drummond Castle; it is inscribed "A Collection of best Highland Reels written by David Young, W.M. & Accomptant." John Glen (1891) finds the tune earliest in print in Robert Bremner's 1757 collection. It appears in the Angus Cumming c. 1778 (or 1780) collection under the title "Fevei feve Tunal chie."

The Grant clan was located primarily in Strathspey, where stands castle Grant, the seat of the chief. At the upper end of the district is the famous hill called Craigellachie, or the rock of alarm, from which the war shout known as the Cathghairm and gave name to the gathering of the clan. There is a pipe tune called "Stad Creageilichie!" (Craigellachie, stand firm!) that derives from this connection.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Bremner (Scots Reels), 1757; p. 64. Cumming (Collection of Strathspey or Old Highland Reels), 1780; No. 3, p. 1. McGlashan (Collection of Strathspey Reels), c. 1781; p. 12.

Recorded sources: Maggie's Music MMCD222, Bonnie Rideout - "Scottish Fire" (2000). Viva W103, Sean McGuire - "Irish Jigs and Reels" (c. 1960's, a reissue of "Sean Maguire Plays," the first recording of McGuire that Josephine Keegan accompanied on piano).

---