Annotation:McLauchlanes Scottish Measure
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McLA(U)CHLAN'S SCOTTISH MEASURE. AKA - "Mc Lachlans Scotts Measure," "McLaughlin's Scottish Measure." AKA and see "Inverness Scots Measure (The)." Scottish, Scots Measure. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Howe): AABB (Gow). Alburger (1983) states the tune could have been written by John McLaughlan (Johnson {1984} says it was), a fiddler working around Edinburgh at the end of the seventeenth century (he is known to have played violin in an orchestral concert in Edinburgh in 1695). Some of his violin sets can be found arranged for lute in the Balcarres MS (c. 1700), including "McLauchlan's Scottish Measure, a tune that also was printed by London publisher Henry Playford in his Original Scots Tunes (1700). In the latter volume it is the first tune in the collection, but the title is "Mr. Mc Laines Scotch-measure,"--while the (different) tune directly below it is called "Mr. Mc Clauklaines Scotch-measure", which conceivably is a closer match to "McLauchlan's" than in the "Mc Laine" title. It was included by James Gillespie in his 'Gillespie Manuscript of Perth (1768), and in Neil Stewart's A Select Collection of Scots English Irish and Foreign Airs Jiggs & Marches (Edinburgh, 1788, as "Mc Lachlans Scotts Measure"). Paul Cranford notes that the tune has long been popular among Cape Breton musicians in the Washabuck area of the Island (where his source, fiddler Stan Chapman, has a summer home).
"McLachlan's Scottish Measure" was used by Robert Burns for one of his songs, "Nae gentle dames, tho' ne'er sae fair", from the Scots Musical Museum (1788, No. 117), although it is considered inappropriate for the verse as it has an extended compass and hard-to-sing skipping intervals.
Source for notated version: Stan Chapman [Cranford].
Printed sources: Carlin (Gow Collection), 1986; No. 138. Cranford (The Cape Breton Scottish Collection). Gow (Complete Repository), Part 2, 1802; p. 3. Howe (1000 Jigs and Reels), c. 1867; p. 136 (appears as "M'Lachlan's Scotch Measure").
Recorded sources: Rounder Records, "Traditional Fiddle Music Of Cape Breton, vol.4: Mackinnon’s Brook" (2008).
See also listing at:
Alan Snyder's Cape Breton Fiddle Recordings Index [1]