Annotation:Mrs. Bisset's Strathspey

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MRS. BISSET'S STRATHSPEY. Scottish, Strathspey (cut time). B Flat Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. "Mrs. Bisset's Strathspey" was composed by John Morison (1772-1848), a fiddler and, for a time, organist at St. Peter's Chapel, Peterhead. Morison was from Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, the easternmost point of Scotland and a port town on the North Sea. He had a small fiddle band for playing dances, but he supported himself, as many musicians did, with diversification. Alburger notes he also organized balls and ran a ship's chandlery; he also tuned pianos and organs and copied out music, but eventually he went bankrupt (at least once). Morison published two collections; the first around 1797 and the second in 1815.

The 'Mrs. Bisset' of the title was likely the spouse of George Bisset (1760-1812), the founder of Udny Academy, Aberdeenshire (see note for Morison's "Udny Academy Reel." She was the former Mary Adamson, born in 1765 in Strichen, Aberdeenshire, who outlived her husband George by some sixty years. She died in 1872 at the age of 106 and is buried at Udny Kirkyard Ellon, Aberdeenshire.

Additional notes

Printed sources : - John Morison (A Collection of New Strathspey Reels, with a few favourite Marches), Edinburgh, c. 1797; No. 6.

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