Annotation:Sarona
X:1 T:Sarona M:C L:1/8 R:Slow Air S:Skinner – The Scottish Violinist (1900, p. 49) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:D (F3E D2)F2 | (A3G)F2A2 | (d3c)B2A2 | (dA) GF (F2E) z | (F3E) D2F2 | (A3G)F2A2 | (d3c) dA GF | F2E2D4 || .A2.d2.c2 de | (d3A) G2F2 | .E.F.G.A .B.c.d.A | (Bc/d/) GF (F2E) z | (F3ED2)F2 | (A3G) F2A2 | (d3c) dA GF | F2E2D4 ||
SARONA. Scottish, Slow Air (4/4 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Skinner/Violinist): ABCDEF (Skinner/Harp). This slow hymn-like air was composed by the great 19th/early 20th century Scots fiddler-composer biography:J. Scott Skinner (1843-1927) who dedicated it to William Ferrier, Camphill Road, Broughty Ferry (a few miles from Dundee). Ferrier, according to a handwritten note by Skinner, was "an excellent maker of violins. Ferrier was born in 1849 in Scone, Scotland, and was active in Dundee as a photographer from 1880 (he was still listed in the General Directory of 1902 as a photographer. He made some thirty violins with a yellow varnish, but, despite Skinner's high opinion of his instruments he had a contemporary reputation of producing "modest level" instruments. British Violin-Makers Classical and Modern (, p. 115) opines: "Very good work, but plates in some of his instruments are left too thin, and the tone must consequently deteriorate with age."
Sarona was the name of Ferrer's house (perhaps a multifamily structure), and, according to the University of Aberdeen's Skinner site [1] "is the old Greek name for the 'plain of Sharon', near Mt Carmel, in the middle east."