Annotation:Celebrated German Minuet (The)

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CELEBRATED GERMAN MINUET, THE. Scottish, Slow Air (3/4 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABCCDEEF. Gow notes the variation sets of the tune are by "the late Mr. Nisbet of Dirleton, and John Shaw Stewart Esquire." The variations Gow prints were, in part, composed by Mr. William Nisbet of Dirleton. William (1747-1822) was an East Lothian landowner and army officer, who married Mary Manners, daughter of Lord Robert Manners, and grand-daughter of the Duke of Rutland. Their only child and daughter was Mary Nisbet (b. 1778) of Dirleton, Countess of Elgin. In 1784 William acceded to the barony of Dirleton upon the death of his father, also William. The Nisbets were hugely wealthy, and at her birth Mary became one of the richest heiresses in the world. The family seat was the manor of Archerfield, in Dirleton, some eighteen miles east of Edinburgh. Father William was an amateur musician who was a member of the Edinburgh Musical Society for much of his life.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Gow (Third Collection of Niel Gow's Reels), 3rd ed., originally 1792; pp. 34-35.

Recorded sources:

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