Annotation:Niel Gow
X:1 T:Niel Gow M:C| L:1/8 Q:"Moderato" B:Aird - Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, B:vol. 5 (1797, No. 1, p. 1) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:G e|d>Bgd eAAe|d>B gd e2 (ef)|(g/f/e/d/) gd eAAe|gedB G2G:| |:A|G<GG<G AEEA|G<GBd g>deg|dgBg AEEf|gedB G2G:|]
NIEL GOW. See also spellings "Neil Gow" and "Neal Gow." Gow himself insisted on the spelling 'Niel' for his name.
AKA – “Neil Gow," "Niel Gow's Reel (2).” AKA and see "Irish Jig", "Keep Your Country Bonnie Lasses" (Shetland) {?}, "New Gun Reel," "Niel Gow's Strathspey." Scottish (originally), English; Strathspey. England, Northumberland. A Major (most versions): G Major (Peacock, Surenne): D Major (Gow). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Surenne): AAB (Athole, Gow): AABB (Carlin/Gow, Honeyman, Kennedy, Kerr, Lowe, Peacock). Composed by the most famous of Scots fiddler-composers, Niel Gow (1727-1807), Dunkeld, Perthshire. It is worth remembering Gow’s wry epitaph, inscribed on his gravestone:
Gow and Time are Even Now,
Gow Beat Time and Time Beat Gow.
The witticism, however, long predates Niel's death. Richard Baldwin's periodical The London Magazine of October, 1749, printed a few pages of "Humourous Epitaphs", among which can be found (on p. 495):
On Stephen, the Fidler. [sic]
Old Time and Stephen are now even,
Stephen beat Time, and Time has beat Stephen.
Musician William Clarke of Feltwell, Norfolk, East Anglia, entered the tune as "New Gun Reel" in his mid-19th century music manuscript collection, mishearing the title "Niel Gow."
