Annotation:McNabb's Hornpipe

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McNAB(B)'S HORNPIPE. AKA and see "Crossing the Minch." Scottish, Canadian; Hornpipe. Canada; Maritimes, Cape Breton. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (Phillips): AABBCC (Messer): AABBCCDD (Cranford). Composition credits for the tune attributed to Pipe Major Donald MacLeod, under the title "Crossing the Minch," according to Paul Cranford (1997). Dunlay & Greenberg (1996, p. 53) credit the fourth part to Donald MacLeod. Christine Martin ascribes "Crossing the Minch" to Pipe Major Donald Shaw Ramsay. Played in a medley with "Farmer's Daughter (1)," "McNabb's Hornpipe" was one of the most popular recordings by Winston Fitzgerald and made it onto the Canadian music "hit parade" after it was released.

Source for notated version: Winston Fitzgerald (1914-1987, Cape Breton), who "likely learned this one from either Angus Chisholm or Sandy Boyd" [Cranford].

Printed sources: Cranford (Winston Fitzgerald), 1997; No. 61, pp. 26-27. Messer (Don Messer's Barn Dance Breakdowns: Violin and Piano), 1954; No. 2. Messer (Anthology of Favorite Fiddle Tunes), 1980; No. 121, pp. 76-77. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), vol. 2, 1995; p. 207.

Recorded sources: Breton Books and Records BOC 1HO, Winston "Scotty" Fitzgerald - "Classic Cuts" (reissue of Celtic Records CX 59).

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