Annotation:Edinburgh Musical Fund

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EDINBURGH MUSICAL FUND. Scottish, Jig. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCC. Composed by biography:Joseph Reinagle [1] (1762-1836), a contemporary of Nathaniel Gow in Edinburgh who contributed a few tunes to the Gow collections. Joseph was the English-born son of an Austrian trumpet player who lived in Portsmouth, and first gained prowess on horns. He gave them up French Horn and trumpet, according to Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians, due to his brother’s skill on them, but, later returned to them after the death of his sibling. He transferred his skill to the violin and cello, and gained great fame as a teacher and performer on those instruments. It was Reinagle who taught Nathaniel Gow the cello, and he became leader of the theatre band of St. Cecelia’s Hall, Edinburgh. After a two-year stay in Dublin, Reinagle moved to London and became a prominent cellist with orchestras in that city, and even became a principal player for the Haydn and Salomon concerts. See “Colonel Hamilton's Delight” for one of his tunes.

The Edinburgh Musical Fund was a charity established in March, 1790, "For the benefit of decayed musicians, and their families belonging to this society." The first secretary was John Watlen, compiler of Celebrated Circus Tunes, and the man credited for transforming a reel of Robert Bremner's into the air usually sung to poet Robert Burns' song "Comin' Thro' the Rye (1)." The members of the society gave an annual concert on behalf of the fund, and made public appeals to members of the nobility and gentry for support. The concerts included choral as well as orchestral pieces.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Manson (Hamilton's Universal Tune Book), 1844; p. 24.

Recorded sources:

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