Annotation:Colonel David Stewart of Garth's Reel

Back to Colonel David Stewart of Garth's Reel

---

COLONEL DAVID STEWART OF GARTH'S REEL. AKA and see "General Stewart of Garth," "This is no my ain House," "This is not My Own House." Scottish, Reel. A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. Composed by renowned Dunkeld, Perthshire, fiddler-composer Niel Gow (1727-1807). The tune appears twice in Gow's publications; in the Sixth Collection (1822), and, under the original title, in the First Collection (1784). John Glen (1895) sees it as simply a transformation of the older Scots tune "This is no t My Own House." The melody has also been described as a set of "De'il Stick da Minister/De'il Stick the Minister (2)." Colonel David Stewart of Garth (1772-1829) was a career army officer, who late in life wrote an account of Highlanders and Highland customs that did much to romanticize the militant nature of the Highlanders (for more on whom see "Lieutenant Colonel David Stewart's Strathspey" and "David Stewart"). Stewart composed as well; at least one tune of his made it to the Gow collections, "Original Gallic Air (An)." See also Cape Breton versions under the title "General Stewart of Garth."

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Gow (Sixth Collection of Strathspey Reels), 1822; p. 4. Duncan McKercher (A Collection of Original Stathspeys and Reels), Edinburgh, 1824; p. 11.

Recorded sources:

---