Annotation:Sir Allan McLean's Reel
X:1 % T:Sir Allan McLean's Reel M:C| L:1/8 R:Strathspey B:Robert Ross – Choice Collection of Scots Reels or Country Dances B:& Strathspeys (Edinburgh, 1780, p. 37) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:G B|G<(GG>E) A2 A<B|G<G G>E G<G G>(E|G<G) G>E A2 A<B| G<G G>E {E}(G2G)::e|G<G B>d Te>d e<g|G<G B>G d>G B>G| d/g/g B/g/g A>GA<B|G<G G>E {E}(G2G)::b|g<(gg>e) a2 (a<b)| g<g g>e g<g g<(e|g<g) Tg>e a2 (a<b)|g<g Tg>e (g2g):||:e|G<G Bd Te>d e<g| G<G B>G d>G B>G|d/g/g B/g/g TA>G A<B|A<(G {A}G>E) G2G:|]
SIR ALLAN McLEAN'S REEL. Scottish, Strathspey (cut time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCCDD. John Glen (1891) finds the earliest printing of the tune in Robert Ross's 1780 collection (p. 37).
The title may refer to Sir Allan MacLean [1] of Inchkenneth, a small island in the district of Mull in the Hebrides. When Dr. Johnson and Boswell visited the island is 1773, Sir Allan, formerly a Colonel in the British army, was chief of the clan and played host to the pair. "This island," recorded Dr. Johnson, "is about a mile long, and perhaps half-a-mile broad, remarkable for pleasantness and fertility. Its only inhabitants were Sir Allan MacLean and two young ladies, his daughters, with their servants. Romance does not often exhibit a scene that strikes the imagination more than this little desert, in those depths of western obscurity, occupied not by a gentleman and two ladies, of high birth, polished mannerss, and elegant conversation, who, in a habitation raised not very far above the ground, bur furnished with unexpected neatness and convenience, practised all the kindness of hospitality and refinement of courtesy." Sir Allen died in 1783.