Annotation:Lady Bruce's Reel

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LADY BRUCE'S REEL. English, Scottish?; March or reel(2/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The tune appears in a few American musicians' manuscript collections of the early 19th century, including the Abel Shattuck manuscript (Colrain, Mass., 1801) and the Gurdon Trumbull manuscript (Stonington, Conn., 1801), and in American publications Alvan Robinson's Massachusetts Collection of Martial Musick (Hallowell, Maine, 1818), Joseph Herrick's Instrumental Preceptor (Exeter, N.H., 1807), David Hazeltine's Instructor in Martial Music (Exeter, N.H., 1810, for fife and drum), and Henry Moore's Merrimack Collection of Instrumental and Martial Musick vol. 1 (Concord, 1833).

Source for notated version: the music manuscript collection of ship's fiddler William Litten, about whom unfortunately little is known. He compiled his manuscript book during his voyage to China with the East India Fleet in 1800-1802, however, other than a few references in the manuscript (such as the name of his ship and a few ports of call) he is lost. His manuscript came into the hands of another seaman, Allen Coffin, who brought it back with him to his home on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, in the first decades of the 19th century [Huntington].

Printed sources: Huntington (William Litton's), 1977; p. 17.

Recorded sources:

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