ANGUS CAMPBELL. Scottish, Reel (cut or 2/4 time). A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. "Angus Campbell" is the product of Scottish composer and fiddle virtuoso J. Scott Skinner (1842–1927), who coined it a "concert reel" (tempo 136). Skinner used the same melodic motif fashioned into a strathspey called "Laird o' Drumblair Strathspey (The)," and the two were written as companion pieces (the reel following the strathspey). The melody quickly found its way into traditional repertory on both sides of the Atlantic and can now even be heard played by American Mid-West fiddlers as well as Canadian and New England musicians. Illustrative of its wide dissemination is that the title appeared in a list of dance tunes played in the early/mid-20th century by Arizona fiddler Kenner C. Kartchner, while at approximately the same time Adirondack Mountains, N.Y., fiddler Vic Kibler believed he had learned the tune in Vermont.
The first strain of Quebec fiddler Joe Bouchard's "Reel Saint-Jean de I'Île d'Orléans (Le)" is a variation of of "Angus Campbell" (Bouchard's second strain differs).
Additional notes Source for notated version : - Kelly Jones (Missouri) [Phillips]; Francis MacDonald (b. 1940, Morell Rear, North-East Kings County, Prince Edward Island) [Perlman]; fiddler Dawson Girdwood (Perth, Ottawa Valley, Ontario) [Bégin]; Cyril Stinnett (Missouri) [Devil's Box].
Printed sources : - Bégin (Fiddle Music in the Ottawa Valley: Dawson Girdwood), 1985; No. 26, p. 39.
Bohrer (Vic Kibler: Adirondack Fiddler), 1992; No. 21, p. 21.
Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; p. 23.
Stephen F. Davis (The Devil's Box), vol. 25, No. 2, Summer 1991; p. 6.
Hinds/Hébert (Grumbling Old Woman), 1981; p. 8.
Hunter (The Fiddle Music of Scotland), 1988; No. 224.
Jarman (Old Time Fiddlin' Tunes), No. or p. 23.
Messer (Way Down East Fiddlin' Tunes), 1948; No. 7 (Messer's version is altered from the original).
Messer (Anthology of Favorite Fiddle Tunes), 1980; No. 27, p. 26.
Perlman (The Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island), 1996; p. 104.
Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 1), 1994; p. 15.
Silberberg (Fiddle Tunes I Learned at the Tractor Tavern), 2002; p. 4.
Skinner (The Scottish Violinist); p. 13.
Skinner (Harp and Claymore), 1904; p. 94.
Recorded sources : - American Heritage 516, Jana Greif – "I Love Fiddlin.'"
Caney Mountain Records CLP 228, Lonnie Robertson (Mo.) – "Fiddle Favorites."
Condor 977-1489, "Graham and Eleanor Townsend Live at Barre, Vermont."
Fretless 101, "The Campbell Family—Champion Fiddlers."
Fretless 200 A, Yankee Ingenuity – "Kitchen Junket" (1977).
Green Mountain 1026, Leo Beaudoin – "Old Time Fiddler's Contest 7/30/77."
Green Mountain 1050, Sonja Nordstrom – "Old Time Fiddler's Contest 7/26/75."
Missouri State Old Time Fiddlers' Association 002, Taylor McBaine – "Boone County Fiddler."
Missouri State Old Time Fiddlers' Association, Cyril Stinnett (Stinnett epitomized the "North Missouri Hornpipe Style of fiddling).
Missouri State Old Time Fiddlers' Association, Kelly Jones (b. 1947) – "Authentic Old-Time Fiddle Tunes."
Philo 1040, Jay Ungar and Lyn Hardy – "Catskill Mountain Goose Chase" (1977. Learned from Putnam County, N.Y. fiddler Bud Snow).
Tradition 2118, "Scottish Dances: Jigs, Waltzes and Reels" (1979).
