Annotation:Fall of Fyers (1)

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FALL OF FOYERS [1] (Eas na Smuid). Scottish, Slow Air (4/4 time). C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. This tune "is an attempt of the editor to celebrate that grand and interesting object, belonging to his native country, called the 'Fall of Foyers,' and to testify his respectful esteem for the kind and hospitable family who have so long inherited it, and the wild and picturesque grounds adjacent" (Fraser). The Fall(s) of Foyers is a waterfall on the River Foyers, which feeds Loch Ness in central Inverness-shire, Scotland. There are two parts of the falls, an upper of 40 feet and a spectacular lower fall of 165 feet. Robert Burns visited the falls in September, 1787, and wrote:

Among the heathy hills and rugged woods,
The roaring Foyers pours his mossy floods,
Till full he dashes on the rocky mounds,
Where thro' a shapeless breach his stream resounds,
As high in air the bursting torrents flow,
As deep recoiling surges foam below.
Prone down the rock the whitening sheet descends,
And viewless echo's ear, asthonish'd, rends.
Dim-seen, thro' rising mists and ceaseless showers,
The hoary cavern, wide surrounding, lowers;
Sill thro' the gap the struggling river toils,
And still below the horrid caldron boils.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Fraser (The Airs and Melodies Peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland and the Isles), 1874; No. 193, p. 80.

Recorded sources: Lismore LILP 5044, Ron Gonnella - "Fiddle Gems" (1976).

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