Annotation:Comely Garden
X:1 T:Comely Garden M:C| L:1/8 R:Country Dance Tune B: Daniel Dow – Twenty Minuets and Sixteen Reels or Country Dances (c. 1775, p. 30) B: https://digital.nls.uk/special-collections-of-printed-music/archive/106036377 Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:Amix e|cA c/d/e a2 eg|fd g2 (BG)GB|cA c/d/e a2 eg|dgBd eA A:| e|(c/B/A) eA c (e2a)|gdBG B d2-e|(c/B/A e)A c(e2g)|dgBd eAAe| (c/B/A e)A c e2a|(c/B/A) (ae f)dgd|BGBd eA A||
COMELY GARDEN. Scottish (originally), English; Reel and Country Dance. A Mixolydian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. One of the most celebrated compositions by Daniel (sometimes Donald) Dow (1732-83) originally of Kirkmichael, Perthshire. John Glen (1891) believes the earliest printing of the tune in Daniel Dow's c. 1775 collection (p. 10), although it had appeared earlier in the Gillespie Manuscript of Perth (1768). It is one of the "missing tunes" from William Vickers' 1770 Northumbrian dance tune manuscript and was also later published by the Gows. In the opinion of Mr. Troup of Ballater (as cited by David Baptie in Musical Scotland, Past and Present, 1894, p. 46) "Comely Garden" is among the dozen or so of Dow's best compositions. The tune (as "Camley Garden") was printed with country dance directions in London publisher Preston's 1793 collection. It was included in the 1848 Highland bagpipe collection of Glasgow musician, pipe teacher and pipe maker William Gunn under the title "Tha car an earbul Stìdan" (Pussy’s Tail)." ]
