Annotation:Niel Gow's Third Wife
X:1 T:Neal Gow's Third Wife T:Niel Gow's Third Wife M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel B:Rev. Luke Donnellan's music manuscript collection (c. 1909, Oriel region, B:south Ulster) K:Ador A/A/A AB cABG|A/A/A Af gedB|A/A/A....
NEAL GOW'S THIRD WIFE. AKA - "Niel Gow's Third Wife." Irish, Reel (cut time). A Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. "Neal Gow's Third Wife" is a reel contained in the music manuscript collection of curate and fiddler biography:Rev. Luke Donnellan (1878-1952), Oriel region, south Ulster[1]. wikipedia:Niel_Gow (1727-1807) was a famous Scottish fiddler-composer, and although there is a melody called "Niel Gow's Second Wife (1)" (generally thought to be a reference to his fiddle, although Gow did have a second spouse), there is no evidence for a "...Third Wife" melody prior to Donnellan. Researcher Conor Ward finds the second strain of Donnellan's reel to be cognate with the second strain of "Sporting Paddy (1)," and, while the first strains of the tune are much less similar "there's still that "A" motif throughout the part and they have same 4th and 8th bars."
- ↑ Donnellan researcher Gerry O'Connor came to believe the ms. is not the work of the curate but rather was originally compiled by an unknown but able fiddler over the course of a playing lifetime, probably in the late 19th century. The ms. later came into the possession of Donnellan, who was also a fiddler.