Annotation:Lord Montgomerie

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LORD MONTGOMERIE. Scottish, Slow Strathspey. G Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. Composed by John Gow (1764-1826), youngest son of Scots fiddler-composer Niel Gow (1727-1807). John and his brother Andrew established the London branch of the family publishing concern in 1788. They were distributors for the music publications of their brother Nathaniel's Edinburgh music publishing business, as well as publishers of their own material.

The title references Hugh Montgomerie [1] (1739-1819), 12th Earl of Eglinton, a Scottish peer, politician and composer (who played the cello). Montgomerie fought in the American wars of the latter 18th century earning the nickname “Sodger Hugh”, and was a member of Parliament for Ayrshire for 16 years, after which, in 1796, he became Lord-Lieutenant for Ayrshire. As an entrepreneur, he was one of the backers of the partially built Glasgow, Paisley and Ardrossan Canal, which facilitated shipping to the Scottish interior. The Earl had a reputation for being a fine cellist and fiddler, and was an exponent of the national music (Emmerson, 1971), composing enough material to issue “New Strathspey Reels, …Composed by a Gentleman and given with permission to be published by Nathl. Gow” (Edinburgh, 1796, 24 pp). The Gows' Fourth Collection (1800) is dedicated to him. See also Montgomerie's composition "Ayrshire Lasses (2)," and Nathaniel Gow's "Nathaniel Gow's Lament for (Hugh) Earl of Eglintoun."

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Carlin (The Gow Collection), 1986; No. 124. Gow (Fourth Collection of Niel Gow's Reels), 2nd ed., originally 1800; p. 31.

Recorded sources: