Annotation:Forbes Morrison

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FORBES MORRISON. Scottish, Strathspey. A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Hardie, Hunter): AAB (Martin, Skinner). Composed by J. Scott Skinner, it appears in his Logie Collection. It was included as one of the tunes Skinner used in 1921 concert tours in the romantically entitled set "Spey's Fury's." Forbes Morrison (1833-1906), according to Hunter (1979), was a fiddler and dancing master in Tarves, Aberdeenshire, expert in the use of the Scottish fiddle ornaments of short snap bow and syncopated triplets. Purser (1992) states the tune "gives a good idea of the rhythmic vigour characteristic of the Scotch fiddle style (Skinner) so loved, and which was carried on by fiddlers such as James Dickie and John Murdoch Henderson..." Morrison's reputation was enhanced when he placed second to Skinner in the strathspey competition in Inverness in 1863. See also Alexander Walker's tune for him: "Mr. Forbes Morrison."

Source for notated version: Hector MacAndrew [Martin].

Printed sources: Hardie (Caledonian Companion), 1992; p. 55. Hunter (Fiddle Music of Scotland), 1988; No. 123. Martin (Ceol na Fidhle), vol. 4, 1991; p. 19. Martin (Traditional Scottish Fiddling), 2002; p. 129. Purser (Scotland's Music), 1992; Ex. 15, p. 238. Skinner (The Scottish Violinist), 1900; p. 10.

Recorded sources: Lismor LCOM5017, Ron Gonnella - "Fiddler's Fancy" (). Archie McAllister - "A Fiddler's Tapestry" (2009).

See also listing at:
Alan Snyder's Cape Breton Fiddle Recordings Index [1]
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [2]

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