Annotation:Driving the Steers

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DRIVING THE STEERS (Ioman nan gàmhna). AKA - "Malcolm's Jig," "Tending the Steer with a Heavy Heart." Scottish, Slow Air (9/8 time). F Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. "The words of this air personify a grazier and a sportsman recapitulating the events of a day's weary and solitary range through the forest. The editor does not apply this note to make his grandfather appear the composer. He was extremely fond of singing it as here given, which would not have been the case if it applied to himself" (Fraser). The Gaelic title, "(G') Ioman nan Gàmhna, 's mi mulacach" translates as "(To) Driving the Steers, I am melancholy."

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Fraser (The Airs and Melodies Peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland and the Isles), 1816/1874; No. 120, p. 47.

Recorded sources:

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