Annotation:Valafyel

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VALAFYEL. Scottish, Jig (6/8 time). Scotland, Shetland. C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB.

Source for notated version: from a manuscript collection [given A.W. Johnston] by the late Mrs. Balfour, which had been in the possession of her husband, the late Colonel David Balfour of Balfour and Trenaby. The Ms. also contains "Day Dawn (1) (Da)" and "Foula Reel". John Spence, writing in Shetland Folk-Lore pp. 151-152, states that "an old man of his early acquaintance, when crossing Valafell in the gloaming of an autumn day, heard the strains of sweet music vibrating among the crevices of the rocks overhead, as he sat down to rest at the foot of Gulla Hammar. He afterwards taught the fairy air to a fiddler, who classed it among his best dance music under the name of 'The Trowie Reel.'"

Printed sources: Johnston (Old-Lore Miscellany of Orkney, Shetland, Caithness and Sutherland, vol. V), 1912; p. 81.

Recorded sources:

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