Annotation:Sir Alexander Don's (2)

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X:1 T:Sir Alexander Don's [2] M:C L:1/8 R:Strathspey S:Gow – First Collection of Niel Gow’s Reels (1784) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:D A,|D<D D>F TE>DEF|D<D D>F A3d|D<D D>F TE>DEF| D>B,B,>A, D3A,|D<D D>F TE>DEF|D<D D>F A3d| D<D D>F E>DEF|D<B, ~B,>A, D3||B|A<F F>D FEEF| A<F F>D F3B| A<F F>D TE>DEF|D<B,TB,>A, D3B|A<F F>D TFEEF| AFFD [D3B3] (c/d/)|(B/A/G/F/) (G/F/E/D/) TE>DEF|D<B,TB,>A, D3||

SIR ALEXANDER DON [2]. AKA and see "Morag's Wedding," "Roger's Farewell." Scottish, Strathspey. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Gow): AAB (Campbell). "From the Opera of Rosina" (Gow). Rosina (1782) was a very successful comic opera by the once-popular English light composer William Shield (1748-1829). “Sir Alexander Don” is the theme from the overture, and sounds quite like “Coming Through the Rye.” Glasgow musician and publisher James Aird printed the melody (set in the key of 'G') as "Roger's Farewell" in his Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 3 (1788). "Morag's Wedding" is a title for the tune on sheet music written out by Scottish Highland fiddler Angus Grant for the Boston Scottish Fiddle Club; as played by Cape Breton fiddler Donald MacLellan it is a cognate, somewhat distanced version, more similar in the first strain than the second. See also the cognate first strain of William Marshall's "Grant Lodge."

Additional notes

Source for notated version: -

Printed sources : - Joshua Campbell (A Collection of New Reels & Highland Strathspeys), Glasgow, 1789; p. 45. Carlin (The Gow Collection), 1986; No. 212. Gow (The First Collection of Niel Gow’s Reels), 1784 (revised 1801); p. 10.

Recorded sources: -