Annotation:Lady Madelina Sinclair's Birthday
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LADY MADELINA SINCLAIR'S BIRTHDAY. AKA and see "Lady Elgin's Courtship." Scottish, Reel. B Flat Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Surenne): AAB (Athole, Cranford, Gow): AABB' (Kerr). Lady Madelina Sinclair (1772-1847) was the second daughter of Alexander, 4th Duke of Gordon, and William Marshall's employer and patron. Unfortunately, we don't know when her birthday is, as records do not specify a date and even the year of her birth is a 'circa'. She married Sir Robert Sinclair in 1789. Her second husband was named Charles Fyshe Palmer (See note above for "Annotation:Lady Madelina Sinclair" for more), which dates the tune to the period between 1789 and 1805, when she remarried. Paul Stewart Cranford (1997) remarks that this tune was a favorite of Mary 'Hughie' MacDonald, and that his source Fitzgerald "played some of his best music with Mary's daughter, pianist Mary Jessie MacDonald."
Source for notated version: Winston Fitzgerald (1914-1987, Cape Breton) [Cranford].
Printed sources: Carlin (The Gow Collection), 1986; No. 266. Cranford (Winston Fitzgerald), 1997; No. 110, p. 45. Gow (Fourth Collection of Niel Gow's Reels), 2nd ed., originally 1800; p. 6. Kerr (Merry Melodies), vol. 2; No. 203, p. 23. MacDonald (The Skye Collection), 1887; p. 135. Ryan's Mammoth Collection, 1883; p. 60. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; p. 284. Surenne (Dance Music of Scotland); p. 34.
Recorded sources: Rounder Records CDROUN 7042, Willie Kennedy - "Cape Breton Violin" (2002). WMT002, Wendy MacIsaac - "That's What You Get" (1998?).
See also listing at:
Alan Snyder's Cape Breton Fiddle Recordings Index [1]