X:1
T:W.F. Campbell Esqr. of Islay & Shawfield’s Strathspey
C:Alexander Mackay
M:C|
L:1/16
R:Strathspey
B:Alexander Mackay – A Collection of Reels, Strathspeys and Slow Tunes…
B:Chiefly composed by Alexander Mackay, Musician Islay (c. 1822, p. 10)
B: https://digital.nls.uk/special-collections-of-printed-music/archive/104487947
N:Dedicated to the Right Hon. Lady Elinor Campbell of Islay and Shawfield.
N:Mackay was born c. 1775 and was a fiddler-composer from Islay. Many of his
N:tune titles are reflect Islay settings.
N:Printed in Glasgow by J. MacFadyen, 30 Wilson St.
Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion
K:A
c2|A3cF3A E3A C3f|e2c2 (dcBA) G2B2B2c2|A3cF3A E3A C3f|e2c2d2B2 A4 A2:|
d2|c2d2e2c2 (ABcd) e3c|d2f2B2A2 G2B2B2d2|c2d2e2c2 (ABcd) e3c|d3f E3G A4 A2d2|
c2d2e2c2 (ABcd) e3c|d2f2B2A2 G2B2B2d2|c2A2G2B2 A3FE2C2|A3f B2c2 A4A2||
"A poor sketch of my father at Avranches about 1848, J.F. Campbell."W.F. CAMPBELL ESQR. OF ISLAY & SHAWFIELD'S STRATHSPEY. Scottish, Strathspey (cut time). A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. "W.F. Campbell Esqr. of Island & Shawfield's Strathspey" was composed by Islay fiddler-composer biography:Alexander Mackay (born 1773). The title refers to Walter Frederick Campbell (1798-1855), a member of the largest landowning family on the Island of Islay--he inherited the island from his grandfather[1] in 1816. In 1822 he replaced his uncle Lord John Campbell as Member for Argyllshire and stayed in office for the better part of twenty years. On Jan. 14, 1820, he married Eleanor Charteris-Wemyss-Douglas, daughter of Francis Charteris-Wemyss-Douglas (1772-1853), Earl of Wemyss of Gosford House, Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland, to whom Mackay dedicated his volume (see "Lady Elinor Campbell's Reel"). She died in 1832, and he married again in 1837, but in February 1848 he settled at Avranches in Normandy. There he composed ‘for pastime’ some ‘Sketches of French Fishing, Farming, Cooking, Natural History and Politics’, in the belief, according to his elder son, who published them in Edinburgh as Life in Normandy in 1863, that ‘ingenious foreign devices and engines for ensnaring, growing and gathering food, and for making it eatable, might be so described as to benefit the poor at home, whose single dish of potatoes might easily be varied at small cost’. As MP, Campbell supported the Whigs and voted several times for Catholic emancipation.
Additional notes
Printed sources : - Alexander Mackay (A Collection of Reels, Strathspeys and Slow Tunes), c. 1822; p. 10.
