Annotation:Duke of Gordon's Rant (The)
X:1 T:Duke of Gordon's Rant M:C| L:1/8 R:Strathspey S:McGlashan - Strathspey Reels (1786) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:D B|A>DF>D A>DDB|A>DF>D A3d|B>EG>E B>EE>c|d>efd (B2 B)c| d>ef>a e>fd>B|A>FD>F A>Bd>e|f>de>B d>BAF|E/E/E F>A B2B|| f/g/|a>df>d addf/g/|a>dfd a3f|b>eg>e b>eef|gfed B3c| d>ef>a e>fd>B|A>FD>F A>Bd>e|f>de>B d>BA>F|E/E/E F>A (B2 B)|| f/g/|a>dfd addf/g/|a>dfd a3f|b>eg>e b>eeb|a>fe>d (B2 B)c| d>ef>a e>fd>B|A>FD>F A>Bd>e|f>ae>f d>BAF|E/E/E F>A (B2B)||
DUKE OF GORDON'S RANT, THE. AKA and see "Bohd na Hesudh," "Burns Scotch Reel," "Duke Gordon," "Duke of Gordon's Favourite (2) (The)," "Lord Gordon's Reel," "Pride of Kildare (3)," etc. Scottish, Strathspey. See discussion of tune in note for "Lord Gordon's Reel." John Glen (1891) finds the earliest appearance of this tune in print in Alexander McGlashan's 1786 collection. Others cite that the melody was published in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1778 as "The Duke of Gordon's Rant." However, an older title for the reel is "Bod 'na Sheasamh/Bohd na Hesudh," published more than twenty years earlier by Scottish cellist-composer James Oswald. Uilleann piper Seamus Ennis played a reel version of the tune (as "Duke Gordon"), says Neil Mulligan, which he had from his father, who learned it from the famous piper and reed-maker, Pat Ward of the Black Bill, Drogheda. County Leitrim piper and fiddler biography:Stephen Grier also entered a reel-setting of the strathspey as "Duke Gordon" in vol. 2 of his c. 1883 music collection. Alan Jabbour finds this tune printed in America by George P. Knauff as "Scott's Favorite" in Virginia Reels, volume III (Baltimore, 1839). See also the Irish version "Lord Gordon" and the American variant "Scott's Return." Cape Breton fiddlers play variants under the titles "Taste of Gaelic (A)" and "Scotch Patriot's Reel (The)" (a title from Ryan's/Coles). Anne Gilchrist ["Old Fiddlers' Tune Books of the Georgian Period", JEFDSS, vol. 4, No. 1, Dec. 1940, p. 18] noted that, in her experience, the Rant was a name rather loosely applied of various lively dance-tunes, but properly seemed to her to have belonged to a quick 2/4 time melody. However, as this strathspey suggests, it was applied to a variety of meters.
