Annotation:Niel Gow's Strathspey (1)

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NIEL GOW'S STRATHSPEY. Scottish, Strathspey. AKA and see "Jack at the Helm" (Shetland) {?}, "Keep Your Country Bonnie Lasses," "Neil Gow's Strathspey (2)," "Niel Gow's Reel (2)." Scottish, Strathspey. A Major (Gow/Repository, Johnson/Petrie, Skye): E Flat Major (MacIntyre): D Major (Gow/Carlin). Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB (Johnson/Petrie): AABB (Carlin, Gow, MacDonald, MacIntyre). Composed by Scottish dancing master and musician Biography:Duncan MacIntyre (c. 1767-1807), who established a practice in Edinburgh, but who moved to London in the 1790's. It was in the English city that he published his 1794 collection, dedicated to Lady Charlotte Campbell. MacIntyre spent some years in India (probably as a Master of Ceremonies to the Governor-General's Court), and died there about 1806 or 1807. "Niel Gow's" is the air for Robert Couper Esq., M.D.'s song "Kinrara; or, Red Gleams the Sun."

Source for notated version: Robert Petrie's Third Collection of Strathspey Reels (1800), where it is attributed to Macintyre [S. Johnson].

Printed sources: Carlin (Gow Collection), 1986; No. 196. Gow (Complete Repository, Part 2), 1802; p. 24. S. Johnson (A Twenty Year Anniversary Collection), 2003; p. 34. MacDonald (Skye Collection), 1887; p. 5. MacIntyre (A Collection of Slow Airs, Reels and Strathspeys), 1794; p. 17.

Recorded sources: Rounder 7059, Alex Francis MacKay with Gordon MacLean - "Gaelic in the Bow" (2005).