Annotation:Miss Hunter Blair’s Reel

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MISS HUNTER BLAIR'S REEL. Scottish, Reel. F Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. The reel was composed by fiddler-composer Biography:John French (1752-1803) of Cumnock, Ayrshire. Miss Hunter Blair was one of the daughters (and fourteen children) of Sir William Hunter (1741–1787) and Jean Blair--the family becoming Hunter-Blair for inheritance reasons. The eldest daughter, Anne, married a soldier named Muir (or Mure) who owned the fine Refrewshire estate of Caldwell (for whom see French's "Mrs. Muir of Caldwall’s Strathspey"). Anne wed 1791, and it is possible the present reel was also composed, prenuptial, in her honor. The Hunter-Bairs also had daughters Clementina (married 1808), Jane, and Jemima (the youngest of the siblings).

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: French (Collection of New Strathspeys, Reels, etc.), 1801; p. 2.

Recorded sources:




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