Written for Bob and Alison Massie who are unfailingly kind and generous  when the family migrate north every year to Clachtoll on our annual summer camping trip.
Recorded with Neil here in the cottage with the normal ambient background sounds  .....  bonus points for hearing the fridge gurgling away, the stove crackling, Jess the dog sneezing and a text arriving ..........

The Clachtoll Massies

A version of this lovely strathspey adapted (slightly) from the fiddle music of Aonghas Grant in his book "The Glengarry Collection Volume 1".

The tune is also known as  "Biodag Dho'ill 'Ic Alasdair" but its earliest appearance in print is as "Mac mhic Alastair" in Captain Simon Fraser's Collection of 1816.

Glengarry's Dirk

The Duke of Cumberland (1721-1765)was, and still is, a controversial figure due to his role in leading the harsh repression of the Highlands after the Battle of Culloden. This strathspey would most likely have been written during the latter part of the Duke’s lifetime but doesn’t appear in any music collection until 1804 when it was published in Gow’s Repository of Dance Music, Volume 2. It is notable for the three accidental notes in the B part of the tune which are not in the same mode / key as the rest of the tune, thus having a dissonant and jarring effect. Was this a deliberate, subtle protest against the Duke by the (anonymous)composer?

An earlier (and less discordant) version of the tune appears in Angus Cumming's - Collection of Strathspey or Old Highland Reels (1780) and is called "Glengerrie's Reell". However this version of the tune doesn't have the discordant notes of The Duke of Cumberland's Strathspey.

Neil Baillie - Cittern
Munro Gauld - Wooden flute

The Duke of Cumberland's Strathspey

Fort Agustus (sic), is a 2/4 march published in London by T Davis in his “Twenty Four Country Dances for the Year 1748” and was “Composed for the entertainment and diversion of gentlemen and ladies that are lovers of English dancing.”  The accompanying dance instructions describe a stately, mannered English country dance of the type that was hugely popular in cultured English society at the time. These dances also became popular in more refined circles in Scotland and would be added to French dances (such as the cotillion and minuet) and the indigenous “Scotch reels” to make up the formal dance programmes in assemblies in the larger towns and cities.
Neil Baillie - Cittern and melodeon
Munro Gauld - Wooden flute

Fort Agustus

"Nach bochd a bhi ‘m falach" can be found in Captain Simon Fraser’s 1816 Collection - "The Airs and Melodies peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland." The Gaelic title translates as “A pity it is to be hiding.” Fraser provides an alternative English title of “The Jacobites in their hiding places” with the tune appearing elsewhere as “Everyone must hide.”

The appendix to the Collection has the following note for the tune:
"This air does not relate to the Prince personally, but to the incident mentioned in the prospectus, of both the editor's grandfathers, with Mr. Fraser of Culduthel and others being obliged for a time to quit their homes and families, and retire to the hills from a pursuit of dragoons, that never ceased to annoy them during the residence of the Duke of Cumberland's army in the vicinity of Inverness and Fort Augustus.”

Like most of the airs in his collection it originally had Gaelic lyrics but unfortunately these were not recorded by Fraser and appears to have been lost. However, an English version of the song “transcribed from the Gaelic" is in James Hogg's "Jacobite Relics, Volume 2” titled "The Frasers in the correi", accompanied by the following note:
"I must beg pardon of the Highlanders for adding so much to the original ideas in this song, by which it is nothing improved. Frazer has a fuller set of the air, I believe, to the same name."

Nach bochd a bhi 'm falach

“Lord Lovat’s Lament”
This beautiful slow pipe march has also become popular in the fiddle traditions of both Scotland and Cape Breton. The tune commemorates the exucution for treason (by beheading) of Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat, at Tower Hill on April 9th 1747.
Neil Baillie - Cittern
Munro Gauld - Wooden flute

Lord Lovat's Lament

Mac Shimi Mòr a' basachadh - Lord Lovat Beheaded

Following his capture after the Battle of Culloden, Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat was put on trial for treason in London. He was found guilty and, as per the punishment for treason, was sentenced to be hung, drawn, and quartered. The King commuted his sentence to execution and Lovat was beheaded at Tower Hill on April 9th 1747. It is said that he maintained a light demeanor throughout the proceedings, finding amusement at the collapse of an overcrowded timber stand which killed nine spectators. He was still laughing when he was executed - said to be the origin of the phrase "to laugh your head off".

The tune "Mac Shimi mor a basachadh" commemorates Lord Lovat’s execution – the last person in Britain to be beheaded. According to notes in Captain Simon Fraser’s Collection:
“The name of this melody bespeaks what gave occasion to it. It is the production of the famous poet, Alexander McDonell, who is never at a loss in addressing his feelings, and who says he would for ever regard Lord Lovat’s death as murder, having been tried merely by his enemies.”

Captain Simon Fraser translated “a basachadh” as “beheaded” rather than the more literal “dying.” Ever looking to embellish and exaggerate (both musically and in writing), he no doubt wanted to elevate the prosaic tune title to a more dramatic one.

Neil Baillie - Cittern and melodeon
Munro Gauld - Wooden flute

Mac Shimi Mòr a' basachadh

Coir’ a Ghearraig appears in Simon Fraser’s 1816 Collection along with the following note:
 "The words associated with this air give anecdotes regarding that stupendous work, the road cut in traverses, by General Wade, down the face of a mountain, in forming a communication betwixt Fort Augustus and Garvamore. By this road old Lord Lovat was carried, when on his last journey to London, on a litter.”
The image is from James Dorret's map of Scotland 1750, and clearly shows the military road zig-zagging up / down the corrie.
Neil Baillie - Cittern
Munro Gauld - Wooden flute

Coir' a' Ghearraig

Lord Lovate’s Reell was first published by Angus Cumming in 1780.  Cumming (c.1730-1780) was born into a family who for generations had been musicians at Grantown, Strathspey. He was also a piper, and served in one of the Laird of Grant's Independent Companies raised to fight for the Hanoverian side in the '45 uprising.

Lord Lovate's Reell

General Lord Glenlyon's March was written by John Crerar (ca. 1750-1840),  Head Forester to the Duke of Atholl. John Crerar was a good fiddler - he had been taught by Niel Gow - but also wrote many fine tunes, some of which were published during his lifetime in various fiddle collections. However, some of his compositions have never been published including "General Lord Glenlyon's March" which only appears in a handwritten manuscript book belonging to Dorothea Ruggles-Brice - eldest daughter of the 7th Duke of Atholl. 

Lord Glenlyon, James Murray  (1782-1837) was the second son of John Murray, the 4th Duke of Atholl. As his elder brother (also called John Murray, but known by the courtesy title "The Marquis of Tullibardine") was decalared insane at age 20, James undertook many of the duties of the heir, but was never to inherit the Dukedom. However his son George Murray did, and became the 6th Duke in 1846.

Unusually it doesn't appear that there are any paintings of James Murray. The image attached shows his wife, Lady Emily Frances Murray (nee Percy) whom he married in 1810.

General Lord Glenlyon's March

Morair Sìm - Lord Simon
This is the melody of a Gaelic song written around 1750 for Simon Fraser (son of the traitorous and beheaded 11th Lord Lovat) just after he'd received a Royal Pardon for his part in the 1745 Jacobite rebellion.
The song is written from the perspective of Fraser's clansmen, with them trying to persuade him to return home to the Highlands saying that the King's daughter is going to marry him, he'd be welcomed by his own people, as well as by his former foes at Fort Augustus. And that once home they could all go hunting together in Stratherrick and between them share the spoils.
However Simon Fraser didn't return north to live the idyllic life of a Highland laird - partly because his family's land and title had been confiscated as punishment for their allegiance to the Jacobite cause. Instead he chose to further his ambitions in the south by becoming a lawyer and advocate. But some 7 years later he did return to raise a regiment from his family's former tenants.- The Fraser Highlanders. They were to fight with distinction in the Seven Years War against the French in Canada and took part in the capture of Quebec where General Wolfe said of them ..... "Send in the Highlanders first as it is no great mischief if they fall". And on the back of the Fraser Highlanders' blood, sacrifice and loss, Simon Fraser had his land and title returned, was lauded as a hero, and gained social respectability, prestige, and influence. He was a Colonel in the British army and served as an MP for 21 years, living in Downing Street in London.

Neil Baillie - Cittern and melodeon
Munro Gauld - Wooden flute

Morair Sìm - Lord Simon

A beautiful reel - a version of a mid-18th century Strathspey - from the William Vickers' music manuscripts (1770).

Lady Anne Mackintosh of Moy was famously a Jacobite whilst her husband was a Hanoverian and an officer in the British Army. During the night of 16th February 1746, 1,500 government troops (including her husband's company) marched from Inverness looking to capture Bonnie Prince Charlie who was staying as the guest of Lady Anne at Moy Castle.  "Colonel Anne" sent out five of her men to "ambush" the detachment  Such was the clamour that the five men made, shouting and firing off guns that, in the confusion and darkness, the goverment troops feared that they were being attacked by a large number of Jacobites and they fled back to Inverness. This "battle" is known as the "Rout of Moy".

Neil and myself at the kitchen table enjoying playing around with this utterly beautiful tune from Strathdearn ........ March 2024.

Lady Mackintoshes Real

A lovely laid-back wee jig written by James Macintosh of Dunkeld and published in his 1930 book of his own compositions. 

The tune is named after a stone perched on the hillside just to the north of Craig a Barns overlooking Dunkeld. The stone is a glacial erratic - carried many miles from its original source by a glacier and deposited at its current location when the glacier melted. Rocking stones or "clach-bràth" (knowledge stones) were thought to have been used in past times to help ascertain a person’s guilt or innocence depending upon the way the stone moved when a person sat on it. Alas this particular rocking stone no longer can pass judgement as it appears that a smaller stone has been wedged under it to prevent any movement.

The Rocking Stone

Written by the celebrated piper Angus MacKay to commemorate the 1841 Glengarrry Gathering. The games were hosted by Mackay's patron Lord Ward on his recently acquired Glengarry Estate.
The tune was originally written as a 2/4 Pipe March, but here has been adapted and is played as a reel.

Cruinneachadh Ghleann Garaidh - The Glengarry Gathering

Driving Strathspey from the Simon Fraser Collection Volume 2.
The tune relates to a gruesome tale of murder and revenge dating back to September 1663 when young Alexander, 13th Chief of the Keppoch MacDonalds, and his brother were killed in their own home by a group of aggrieved tenants led by their Inverlair cousins. The underlying motive seems to have been rival claimants to the chieftainship – a perennial source of conflict throughout the Highlands. Iain Lom, the Keppoch bard and warrior, sought vengeance and approached the nearby Lord MacDonell of Glengarry, who refused to get involved. For two years Iain Lom unsuccessfully looked for support, but eventually received the backing of Sir James MacDonald at Duntulm Castle on Skye who was the murdered brothers’ foster-father. Sir James successfully appealed to the Privy Council in Edinburgh which issued letters of “fire and sword” against the killers and 50 men were sent to dispense justice. Iain Lom guided them to the Macdonald home at Inverlair where, after a brief struggle, seven of the accused men were murdered and decapitated.
Iain Lom was satisfied that vengeance had been served. As proof, he gathered up the heads, which he tied by the hair to a rope of heather, and set out for Glengarry. Before presenting them to Lord MacDonell at Invergarry Castle, he stopped to wash them by Loch Oich. In 1812 a monument was erected close to the site by Alasdair MacDonell of Glengarry. Known as Tobar na'n Ceann (The Well of the Heads), it is a pointed obelisk with at its top, seven carved stone heads.

Tobar Na'n Ceann - The Well of the Heads

A beautiful pipe march written in the mid 1800s when Aden was annexed to the British Empire. The tune is associated with the regiments, The Seaforth Highlanders and later with The Gordon Highlanders, and is usually played at a fair swing so you can march to it (or dance the Gay Gordons). But it works well as a tune when played a wee bit slower.

The Barren Rocks Of Aden

Untitled reel, written by Charles MacIntosh of Inver (1797-1867). The tune was found in the Charter Room of Blair Castle in the personal music manuscript book of Lady Dorothea Ruggles-Brise, eldest daughter of the 7th Duke of Atholl, who was a keen collector of Scottish traditional music. Dorothea will likely have transcribed the tune from the playing of one of Charles's sons - either Charles (1839-1922) or James (1846-1937). Dorothea was friendly with the brothers and would often visited them in Inver to collect local fiddle tunes or songs.
Recorded with Neil Baillie on cittern and me on flute in Neil's hoose on 7.7.24.

Untitled Reel by Charles MacIntosh (1797-1867)

A tune with a long and interesting pedigree. The earliest versions of this tune are from the latter half of the 17th century going under the names of "A Scotish March" (Playford’s Musicks Hand-Maid, 1663) and "Montrosse's March" (in Playford's Musick’s Recreation, 1669). It is more commonly known as "The Rock and the wee Pickle Tow", referring to the use of a stone with a hole in it (the "rock") to pull flax fibres (the "tow") downwards whilst twisting in order to make thread. It's a popular pipe and fiddle tune and has many incarnations and other names, and there a couple of songs sung to the melody. It has a parrallel life in Ireland where it is known as O' Sullivan's March.

The Rock and the Wee Pickle Tow

Two whisky related tunes:

"Thainig a ntuisga beatha — The Whisky" is taken from Daniel (or Donald) Dow's "A Collection of Ancient Scots Music for the Violin Harpsichord or German-Flute. Never before Printed Consisting of Ports Salutations Marches or Pibrachs &c. " c. 1778. 

Daniel or Donald Dow was born around 1732, probably in the Perthshire parish of Monzie. He died aged 51 in Edinburgh where he had lived since 1765 and was buried in the Canongate Kirkyard in January 1783. His early training is uncertain but he had been publishing his own music since 1773 and was one of the professional musicians regularly employed by the Musical Society of Edinburgh for their concerts.  Unlike his other works which consist of Scottish dance music, this collection has a broader compass with the tunes having an "older feel" and includes four pipe tunes which appear to have been written down by a musically literate piper or by someone with a very close practical knowledge of piping. The Collection is therefore one of the most important early sources of traditional Scottish music - see below for a digital  copy:
http://www.wirestrungharp.com/library/daniel_dow.html

"The Ewe wi the crookit horn is a very old Scottish Strathspey - the earliest recorded example of it beieng in the c. 1740 MacFarlane Manuscript under the title “An caora crom.” The title is a reference to a whisky still with its condensing coil ......

"Ewie wi the crookit horn
May ye never see the morn
Ilka nicht you steal my corn
Ewie wi the crookit horn"

I was taught this version many years ago by Chris Norman when he came to Aberdeen and shared his unique and fab take on playing Scottish trad on wooden flute.

The Whisky and The Ewe Wi' The Crookit Horn

Two crackling Strathspeys. They are both simple tunes - but with something wild and untamed in them (you can see in them exactly why Strathspeys were seen by the Church as dangerous and likely to lead to ungodly behaviour). They are great fun to play, and are also very forgiving if you go off on a bit of a tangent ,,,,,,,,  as long as you return to the core of the tunes!

Cha Cheilinn Sugradh Uileam - I wouldn't hide William's flirting - is an unusal  5-bar Strathspey from the Perthshire section of the 1784 Patrick McDonald Collection.
Atholl Brose, also known as Niel Gow's Favourite and Buckingham House, is thought to have been written by Abraham Mackintosh (born 1769), son of Red Rob Mackintosh of Tulliemet.

Cha Cheilinn Sugradh Uileam and Atholl Brose

A manuscript of various Scottish airs and tunes, including "Rothiemurchus Rant" was compiled by Elizabeth Grant of Rothiemurchus (1797-1885) and was dedicated to Ferdinand von Thinnfeld in 1817 (the manuscript is preserved at Thinnfeld Castle in Styria), The author claimed that "this air was composed by my Great-grandfather James Grant Esq. of Rothiemurchus", The tune may therefore date back to the first half of the 18th century.

Robert Burns was a huge fan of the tune - "Many of our Strathspeys ancient and modern give me exquisite enjoyment...For instance, I am just now making verses to Rothiemurche's Rant, an air which puts me into raptures ..."
I kinda agree - there is something about it that is both wrenching and uplifting at the same time. It is a beautiful tune to play ...... recorded here in the cottage with my mate Will playing guitar.

Rothiemurchas Rant

Source:  John Playford’s Musick’s Delight on the Cithern (1666).
This tune is named after the 1st Marquis of Montrose James Graham (1612-1650) who fought in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, first for the Covenanters, and confusingly then switching sides to lead the forces in Scotland loyal to King Charles 1st. The Royalist Irish Confederates sent 2,000 Irish soldiers to assist him and proved to be formidable fighters, teaching his Scottish troops what was to become known as the “Highland Charge”. 
The Parliamentarians were led by Montrose's great rival, the Marquis of Argyll  with his Campbell clansmen. On 11th December 1644 Montrose set off with his army  from Blair Atholl, going west past Loch Tummel and then southwards over the shoulder of Schiehallion into Campbell-owned Breadalbane, Montrose captured the castle at Balloch(where Taymouth Castle now is) and then his troops laid waste to the Campbell lands along both sides of Loch Tay, destroying all livestock, crops and buildings. It is said that Breadalbane took a generation to recover.

The tune has several forms and titles, but is probably best known either as “O’ Sullivan’s March” or the Scottish pipe march “The rock and the wee pickle tow”. However the earliest known version of the tune is "Montrosse’s March", found in John Playford’s 1678 book of cittern music, it’s not obvious whether the tune originated in Scotland or Ireland. Perhaps it was brought over from Ireland by the Irish Confederate soldiers who fought with Montrose. Or did they learn the tune whilst in Scotland, taking it back with them to Ireland? Either which way, it is a great tune.

Montrosse's March

Grandtully Castle is in Strathtay, roughly 4 miles east of Aberfeldy and was, in the C18th, the home of Sir John Stewart of Grandtully. Written by Niel Gow for one of Sir John’s daughters, this is a Strathspey setting of a reel of the same name. 

According to John Purser (Scotland’s Music, 2007):
“Miss Stewart of Grandtully is the sort of music he (Niel Gow) was best at and that was in such demand from the young ladies. It uses only the notes of the bagpipe scale, has as a structural feature the Scottish love of the double-tonic, and with its Scotch snaps and dotted Strathspey rhythms for which Scots fiddlers have developed their own bowing techniques, it can be said to represent the quintessence of Scottish dance melodies”

Miss Stewart Of Grandtully

"The Song of the Gruagach" found in The Gesto Collection of Highland Music (1895) by Keith Norman MacDonald. 
"The Gruagach, or long-haired one, was a good being who presided over the cattle folds, and while alluded to as if he were a young woman, was a beautiful youth with long golden hair and a shining white bosom. He carried a rod in his hand, with which he would smite anyone who was ungentle with the cattle. The song is the lament of a woman whose daughter having said a “bad word” to a cow, the Gruagach though invisible, struck her, and she died. The mother laid out the body and sat watching all night by the fire, while the Gruagach was leaning over the roof of the hut and gazing at her till day-break, when he vanished away."

Oran na Gruagaich

A lovely Gaelic song from Skye to be found in the Gesto Collection of Highland Music (1895). This song is unusual in that it is from the perspective of an each uisge (a water horse, or kelpie).
"The each-uisge could take any form and was once in the likeness of a man, married to a woman called Morag - who fled when she discovered what he really was, leaving him behind to nurse her child - and he was singing to the child - while he hoped at the same time to induce (his wife) to return."

A first attempt at the tune by Neil and myself  but hope it still captures a bit of the other-worldy feel and subject matter of the song.  The recording has a few rough edges - but that comes along sometimes with improvising. And it is fun finding out what happens when you let go and explore the in-between of the upside down .......

Oran an t- Each Uisge

Lovely tune from Gow's Complete Repository. Also known as Aldavaloch - from the Gaelic, Allt a' bhealaich, the burn of the pass. Aldavaloch is on the hillside just south of Kenmore at the east end of Loch Tay. There are other Aldavolchs in Scotland, including one in the Cabrach which lays claim to the tune and has a song associated with it - Roy's wife of Aldivaloch. But ........ obviously ........ the real Aldavaloch is in Perthshire.

O'er the moor and amang the heather

Munro Gauld plays traditional Scottish music on a Tom Aebi wooden flute (a copy of an 1841 Rudall and Rose). 
I'm especially interested in playing tunes from the 17th - 19th centuries .... from the  fiddle, pipe, lute, clarsach and Gaelic song traditions. And musically scratching my chin as to how these old Scottish tunes can be sympathetically played on a wooden simple system flute. And, being from Perthshire, I'm drawn towards excavating the rich Perthshire musical and folklore traditions, and trying to put tunes in their historical context of time, place, people and historical events.

Munro Gauld - Scottish Traditional Flute

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