Annotation:Crònan na Linne Mhuilich
X:1 T:Crònan na Linne Mhuilich T:Sound of Mull M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel B:Stewart-Robertson - The Athole Collection (1884) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:Amin e(AA)c B>A B2|A2 A>^g ae^fd|e(AA)c BA B2|G2 G>c BddB:| B(ee)d e^f g2| e2 d>^g ae^fd|e/e/e ede^f g2|G2 Gc BddB| B(ee)d e^fg2|e2 e>^g ae^fd|e/e/e ed e^fge|dBGB dgdB||
CRÒNAN NA LINNE MHUILICH (The Sound of Mull). AKA and see "Reel (6)." Scottish, Canadian; Reel (cut time). Canada, Cape Breton. A Dorian (Cranford, Stewart-Robertson): B Minor (Shears). Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. Barry Shears says a similar sounding reel can be found in the Edinburgh Collection, Part 5 (c. 1910). His Cape Breton setting is from the music manuscript of piper Captain Angus J. MacNeil, of Gillis Point, Cape Breton, who compiled his work around 1915. According to Shears (1986), MacNeil was an officer-piper with the 94th Regiment, Victoria Battalion, organized for home defense during World War I. His unit had the distinction of being the only British Empire unit with over 80% of its officers and enlisted being Gaelic speakers! There is also a (musically unrelated) slow air called "Sound of Mull (2) (The)" (Laoidh Chaluim Chille). The Sound of Mull is a the name of the waterway that separates the Island of Mull from the west Scottish mainland, and is the location of numerous shipwrecks, making it a favorite site for recreational divers in modern times.
The tune can be found as an untitled reel in George Farquhar Graham's Celtic Melodies, Being a Collection of Original Slow Highland Airs, Pipe-Reels, and Cainntearachd, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, c. 1830, No. 13, p. 8).
Paul Stewart Cranford notes that Cape Breton fiddlers have adapted the Athole setting somewhat, and often varying the intonation of the 'c' notes or mixing the same notes, playing some 'c's' sharp and some natural.
