Annotation:Glenlivet (1): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 09:08, 1 April 2012

GLENLIVET [1], THE. AKA and see "Minmore Schottische." Scottish, Strathspey or Highland Schottische. A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Hardie, Skinner): AAB (Hunter, Martin): AA'B (Alburger). The tune was composed by J. Scott Skinner (1843-1927), in honor of the famous Scotch whisky founded by George Smith of Minmore, who owned an illicit still in Upper Drummin (Skinner also composed "Colonel Smith's Lament" in honor of a contemporary member of the family). Skinner must have thought the melody one of his best, for he issued it in no less than four publications: The Elgin Collection [1] (1884), The Logie Collection [2] (1888), The Scottish Violinist (1900), and Monikie Series No. 2 [3] (folio, c. 1908).

In 1797, according to Moyra Cowie (Life and Times of William Marshall, 1999), the parish of Glenlivet had some 200 stills in operation, and, along with stills in neighboring parishes, they distilled the finest malt liquor for local consumption and export. The following lines preface the melody in Skinner's Elgin Collection:

Scott Skinner's made anither tune
The very dirl o't reached the moon
Till ilka lassie an' her loon
Commenced to dance fu' frisky O.

Another literary reference to the whisky in conjunction with fiddling was penned by R.P. Gillies, describing the effect of James Hogg, "the Ettrick Shepherd", on Edinburgh society. Hogg was a noted poet and a keen fiddler as well:

...cast utterly into the shade by an illiterate shepherd, a man also who seemed to give himself no thought or care about his own works, but to be engaged day after day, or rather night after night, in scraping on the fiddle, singing his own ballads, and, with the help of Glenlivet, making himself and others uproariously happy.

Source for notated version: Bill Hardie (Scotland) [Hardie]; Hector MacAndrew [Martin].

Printed sources: Alburger (Scottish Fiddlers and Their Music), 1983; Ex. 113, p. 189. Hardie (Caledonian Companion), 1992; p. 74. Hunter (Fiddle Music of Scotland), 1988; No. 132. Martin (Traditional Scottish Fiddling), 2002; p. 143. Skinner, (The Elgin Collection). Skinner (The Logie Collection). Skinner (Monikie Series No. 2). Skinner (The Scottish Violinist), 1900; p. 8.

Recorded sources:

See also listings at: Alan Snyder's Cape Breton Fiddle Recording Index [4]
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [5]

Tune properties and standard notation