Annotation:Cairngorum Mountain (1)
Tune properties and standard notation
CAIRNGORUM MOUNTAIN [1] (An carn gorm). AKA and see "Hibernian Jig," "The Highlander's Lament," "(An) Irish Jigg," Scottish, Slow Air (6/8 time). "A very old Gaelic air" (Gow). A Major (Gow): G Major (Fraser). Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB (Fraser): AABB (Gow). The Gaelic title, "An carn gorm" translates as 'the blue-green rocky mountain'. "The editor inserts this air, given in excellent style by Mr. Gow, as it is called an Irish air, by the Reverend Patrick Macdonald, who published a very inferior set of it. He had not, however, traversed that part of the country to which it belonged, but had he called for John MacPherson, for a long time fox-hunter betwixt the braes of Mar and Cairngorm, extending to parts of the forests of Gordon, Fife, Airdy, Seafield, Invercauld, Rothiemarchus, and Invereshire estates, and heard him sing the 'Pursuit of the Deer' to this air, he would have been delighted, and would instantly recognise it as a native, as well as thank the editor for reclaiming it. John MacPherson died but lately, and for the few last years of his life resided within a couple of miles of the editor's house; he had been a universal sportsman and angler, and the editor often had pleasure in bringing him into his angling boat to row and sing this air" (Fraser). James Aird prints the tune in his Selections under the title "An Irish Jigg," and it appears in Kerr as "The Highlander's Lament." O'Neill prints versions as "Hibernian Jig" and "A Clan March."
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Carlin (The Gow Collection), 1986; No. 324. Fraser (The Airs and Melodies Peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland and the Isles), 1816/1874; No. 154, p. 62 (appears as "Cairngorm Mountain," under the Gaelic title). Gow (Fourth Collection of Niel Gow's Reels), 2nd ed., originally 1800; p. 11.
Recorded sources: