Annotation:Devil in the Kitchen (1)

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DEVIL IN THE KITCHEN [1], THE. AKA and see "Calum Crubach," "Devil Shake the Half-Breed (2)," "Gurren's Castle," "Miss Sarah Drummond of Perth (1)," "Miss Drummond of Perth (1)," "Mountain Reel (4)," "Our Highland Cousins," "Prince of Wales Jig (1) (The)," "Titanic Highland (The)," "Yorkshire Bite (1)." Scottish, Shetland, Canadian, Irish; (Pipe) Reel, Fling or Strathspey. Ireland, County Donegal. Canada; Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton. A Mixolydian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB (Hunter): AA'B (Skinner/Harp): AABB (Martin): AABBA'A'BB (Perlman): AABCCD (Skinner/Violinist). Composed (according to J. Scott Skinner) as a pipe tune by William Ross, the Queen's Piper. The melody was arranged (and popularized) by J. Scott Skinner (1843-1927) and appears as a two-part tune in his Harp and Claymore collection (1904). Skinner later expanded the melody to four parts (variations) in his Scottish Violinist; in Harp and Claymore he directs that the tune be played an octave lower the second time through. In pipe collections the tune is set as a strathspey is usually attributed to one John MacPherson and once to a Donald McPhedran (in his own collection). A distanced version of the "Devil in the Kitchen" is popular reel in County Donegal; the late Donegal fiddler Danny O'Donnell (1910-2001) recorded a version on his album entitled generically as "Highland Fling" (see "Devil in the Kitchen (3)"). In Scotland the melody is often used to accompany the dance the Highland Fling. Christine Martin (2002) suggests the strathspey and reel settings of "The Devil in the Kitchen" are a perfect vehicle for the dance Scotch (or Highland) reel, which is also known as the foursome reel.

Source for notated version: Gus Longphie (b. 1914, Little Harbor, North-East Kings County, Prince Edward Island; now resident of Souris) [Perlman]; fiddler Ian Kennedy (Fort William, Scotland), who calls the tune "The Reel of Tulloch"-Christine Martin believes the tune may have been associated with the dance Reel of Tulloch in the Lochaber area [Martin/2002].

Printed sources: Hunter (The Fiddle Music of Scotland), 1988; No. 120. Martin (Ceol na Fidhle), vol. 1, 1991; p. 50 (strathspey setting). Martin (Traditional Scottish Fiddling), 2002; p. 48 (both strathspey and reel settings). Perlman (The Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island), 1996; p. 192 (strathspey). Skinner (The Scottish Violinist), 1900; p. 11. Skinner (Harp and Claymore), 1904; p. 115.

Recorded sources: Celestial Entertainment CECS001, Brenda Stubbert - "In Jig Time!" (1995). Culburnie Records CUL 102, Alasdair Fraser & Jody Stecher - "The Driven Bow" (1988). Culburnie COL 113D, Aladair Fraser & Tony McManus - "Return to Kintail" (1999). Green Linnet SIF 1139, "Eileen Ivers" (1994. Recorded in duet with Natalie MacMaster). Rodeo Banff RBS 1066, Dan Joe MacInnis - "The Cape Breton Fiddle of..." (1962). Rounder 7001, Joe Cormier - "Scottish Violin Music from Cape Breton Island" (1974. Strathspey setting). Rounder RO7023, Natalie MacMaster - "No Boundaries" (1996). Rounder 82161-7032-2, Bill Lamey - "From Cape Breton to Boston and Back: Classic House Sessions of Traditional Cape Breton Music 1956-1977" (2000). Rounder Records 7057, Jerry Holland - "Parlor Music" (2005). Ón tSean-Am Anall' (Danny O'Donnell).

See also listings at:
Alan Snyder's Cape Breton Fiddle Recording Index [1]
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [2]
Alan Ng's Irishtune.info [3]
Hear the recording by Dan Joe MacInnes at Juneberry 78's [4] (first tune, paired with "Old Lady of Rothesay (The)").

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