Annotation:Earl of Home
Tune properties and standard notation
EARL OF HOME(S). Scottish, Strathspey. F Major (Athole, Gow, Skye): G Major (Kerr). Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. Composed by Scottish fiddler, composer, music publisher and bandleader Nathaniel Gow (1763-1831), third son of the famous Niel Gow. The Earl of Home (pronounced 'Hume') at the time of publication of the Gow's 3rd Collection (1792), and presumably whom the title honors, was Alexander Douglas-Home (1769-1841), 10th Earl of Home, who married Lady Elizabeth Scott (daughter of Sir Henry Scott, 3rd Duke of Buccleuch, and Lady Elzabeth Montagu) in 1798. He assumed the Berwickshire earlship upon the death of his father, also Alexander, in 1786, and eventually became Lord Lieutenant of Parliament and a representative Scottish peer. The 'Earl of Home' is also the name of a Scottish country dance from the Borders region, one of fifteen or so collected in the early 20th century that were wholly or in part in strathspey tempo.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Carlin (The Gow Collection), 1986; No. 52. Gow (3rd Collection of Niel Gow's Reels), 1792; p. 7 (3rd ed.). Kerr (Merry Melodies), vol. 1; Set 15, No. 5, p. 10. MacDonald (The Skye Collection), 1887; p. 142. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; p. 220.
Recorded sources: