Annotation:Montgomerie's Rant

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MONTGOMERIE'S RANT. AKA and see "Lady Montgomery's Reel (1)." Scottish, Reel (cut time). B Flat Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB'. The dance instructions, but not the music for "Montgomerie's Rant" (clearly marked a 'Strathspey Reele'), appear in the Menzies Manuscript ("The Register of Dances at Castle Menzies" [pronounced Mingis), 1749, in the Atholl Collection of the Sandeman Library, Perth. It seems to be the earliest allusion to the strathspey as a class of instrumental music or dance, states Emmerson (1971). While the dance is called "Montgomerie's Rant," today it is traditional to play the tune "Lady Montgomery's Reel (1)" for the beginning of the dance, although "Lord Eglintoune" is also played. The tune is also frequently transposed to the key of 'D', as it is notoriously hard to play in the original key of B Flat. See Annotation:Lady Montgomery's Reel (1) for more.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources:

Recorded sources: Beltona 6142 (78 RPM), George F. Davis & Annie Shand. HMV C-3843 (78 RPM), The Scottish Country Dance Players (1948). Viva W103, Sean McGuire - "Irish Jigs and Reels" (c. 1960's, a reissue of "Sean Maguire Plays," the first recording of McGuire that Josephine Keegan accompanied on piano).

See also listing at:
See the dance performed on youtube.com [1]
Hear the Davis/Shand recording at Rare Tunes [2]

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