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X:1
T:St. Kilda Wedding, The
M:C|
L:1/8
S:Reel
B:Stewart-Robertson – The Athole Collection (1884)
Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion
K:A
A/A/A A2 A>cec|B/B/B (cA) F2 (EF)|A/A/A Acec|1 f/f/f (fe) fefa:|2 f/f/f (fe) fefg||
|:agab aeea|fgag f2 (ed)|cefg agfa|eaca B2 (AF):|]
ST. KILDA WEDDING, THE (A' bhanais Irteach). Scottish (originally), Canadian; Strathspey, March, Reel and Air. Canada; Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island. A Major (most versions): G Major (Johnson). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Perlman): AA'B (Kerr): AABB (Athole, Hunter, Martin, Skye): AA'BB' (Johnson). The song, says Fraser, humorously told of the marriage ritual on St. Kilda before a permanent church was established on the remote western archipelago. According to the notes on Ossian's album, the last wedding that took place in St. Kilda was in 1926, for the remote island was evacuated in 1930. Fraser sneers that the tune is "murdered" in Macdonald's collection, while his father's set corresponds "with that of Miss Macleod of St. Kilda, now in Edinburgh." Christine Martin (2002) says the strathspey “St. Kilda Wedding” is often played as a reel, but it has also been played as a march and as a song tune.
Additional notes
Printed sources : - Cranford (Winston Fitzgerald), 1997; No. 93, p. 39. Fraser (The Airs and Melodies Peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland and the Isles), 1816/1874; No. 7, p. 3. Hunter (Fiddle Music of Scotland), 1988; No. 251. Johnson (The Kitchen Musician's No. 10: Airs & Melodies of Scotland's Past), 1992 (revised 2001); p. 15. Kerr (Merry Melodies, vol. 2); No. 34, p. 7, MacDonald (The Skye Collection), 1887; p. 52. Martin (Traditional Scottish Fiddling), 2002; p. 87. Perlman (The Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island), 1996; p. 87. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; p. 16.
Recorded sources : - Breton Books and Records BOC 1HO, Winston “Scotty” Fitzgerald - “Classic Cuts” (reissue of Celtic Records CX 17). Culburnie Records CUL 121D, Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas – “Fire and Grace” (2004). Iona IR001, Ossian "St. Kilda Wedding" (1978). Rounder 7004, Joe Cormier "The Dances Down Home" (1977). Rounder Records , John L. MacDonald – “Formerly of Foot Cape Road: Scottish Fiddle Music in the Classic Inverness County Style” (2005). Frank Ferrel - "Maritime Melodies" (2012. 7th tune in "John Campbell's Big Set").
See also listing at :
Alan Snyder's Cape Breton Fiddle Recordings Index [1]
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [2]
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