Annotation:Lady Lucy Ramsay's Strathspey (1)

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Sheet Music for "Lady Louisa Ramsay's Strathspey"Lady Louisa Ramsay's StrathspeyLady Lucy Ramsay's Strathspey [1]StrathspeyBook: Robert Mackintosh – “A Fourth Collection of New Strathspey Reels, also some Famous old Reels” (1804, p. 15)Notes: Dedicated to the Dutchess [sic] of ManchesterRobert “Red Rob” Mackintosh (c. 1745-1808) was a Scottish violinist andcomposer active in Edinburgh at the end of the 18th century. Originally fromTullymet, near Pitlochry, Perthshire. He moved to London in the last decadeof his life.Transcription: AK/Fiddler’s Companion



LADY LUCY RAMSAY. AKA - "Lady Louisa Ramsay's Strathspey." AKA and see "Mrs. Todd's Strathspey." Scottish, Strathspey. C Major (most versions): D Major (Anderson, Rook). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Surenne): AAB (Anderson, Balmoral, Gow, Honeyman): AABB' (Athole, Kerr, Skye). MacDonald's Skye Collection (1887) credits this tune to biography:Nathaniel Gow (1763-1831), however the Gows printed the tune with the attribution "By a Lady." "Lady Lucy Ramsay's Favorite Strathspey" was printed on a single sheet by Gow & Shepherd in the first decade of the 19th century, this time with the attribution "by A female amateur"[1]. This is a curious attribution, however, for the strathspey is substantially the same as biography:Duncan MacIntyre's "Mrs. Todd's Strathspey," printed in Edinburgh in 1794 in his Collection of Slow Airs, Reels and Strathspeys, containing tunes without composer attribution but all considered MacIntyre compositions. The first strains of the two tunes are very similar, while the second differs somewhat more but still follows a similar harmonic and melodic contour. Edinburgh fiddler-composer and bandleader biography:Robert Mackintosh (c. 1745-1808) included a version of the strathspey in his Fourth Collection of New Strathspey Reels (c. 1804) under the slightly different title "Lady Louisa Ramsay's Strathpsey."

There is a Scottish Country Dance by the name of Lady Lucy Ramsay. The strathspey may be a companion piece to "Lady Mary Ramsay."

Lucy is perhaps Lady Elisabeth Ramsay (1769-1848), the 2nd daughter of George, the 8th Earl of Dalhousie (died 1787). (The 9th Earl of Dalhouse, also a George, did not marry until 1805, five years after the tune was published; his wife was Christina, and they did not have any female children). Lady Elizabeth married Sir Thomas Moncreiffe of that Ilk, 5th Bt., in 1786. Nathaniel Gow also composed a reel, "Lady L. Ramsay's Reel", which may be in her honor as well.


Additional notes



Printed sources : - Anderson (Anderson's Budget of Strathspeys, Reels & Country Dances for the German Flute or Violin), Edinburgh, 1820; p. 29. Carlin (Gow Collection), 1986; No. 99. Gow (Fourth Collection of Strathspey Dances), 2nd ed., originally 1800; p. 16. Honeyman (Strathspey, Reel and Hornpipe Tutor), 1898; p. 15. Kerr (Merry Melodies, vol. 1), c. 1880; Set 23, No. 3, p. 14. J. Kenyon Lees (Balmoral Reel Book), c. 1910; p. 5. MacDonald (The Skye Collection), 1887; p. 120. Robert Mackintosh (Fourth Collection of New Strathspey Reels), c. 1804; p. 15 (as "Lady Louisa Ramsay's Strathspey). Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; p. 66. Surenne (Dance Music of Scotland), 1852; pp. 64-65.

Recorded sources : - Beltona SDP03, Jimmy Shand - "King of the Button Box" (2002).

See also listing at :
Alan Syner's Cape Breton Fiddle Recording Index [1]
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [2]



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