Annotation:Lasses of Stewarton
X:1 T:Lasses of Stewarttown, The M:C L:1/8 R:Reel B:Campbell – 9th Book of New and Favorite Country Dances & Strathspey B:Reels (1795, p. 19) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:D g|fdec d/c/B/c/ d2|F D2F A2 Ag|fde=c TB>A/B/4 c2|E=CCE G3:| |:c|(B/c/d) DF AFDc|B/c/d DF A3=c|B/c/d DF AB=cA|GE=CE G3:| |:=c|BGAF BGAG|FDDF A3=c|BGAF BGAF|E=CCE G3:| |:Odefg afdf|afdf a2{g}f2|defg afdf|ge=ce g2 feO:||:g||
LASSES/LASSIES OF STEWARTON, THE. AKA - "Lasses of Stewartown/Stewington/Stuarton." AKA and see "Cross Reel (Da)" (Shetland), "Humors of Williamstown (The)," "Over the Isles to America." Scottish (originally), Canadian; Reel. Canada, Cape Breton. D Mixolydian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCCD (Athole, Gow, Lowe): AABBCCDD' (Kerr, Skye). Another tune commemorating an area's local girls. John Glen (1891) finds the earliest appearance of the tune in print in Edinburgh publisher Neil Stewart's Collection of Newest and Best Reels or Country Dances (1761, p. 46). It was published again by Stewart in an edition of 1775, then subsequently appears in several later publications--but is not to be confused with a country dance of the same name, published c. 1794. A version was entered into the large 1840 music manuscript collection of John Rook (Waverton, Cumbria). See also the related Shetland tune "Cross Reel (Da)," a somewhat "crooked" (asymmetrical) version of the "Lasses of Stewarton." The first sound recording of the tune was probably that by the Cameron Men, on 78RPM for Edison Bell in London. It is a very popular old reel among Cape Breton fiddlers, and frequently recorded. "Null thar nan eileanan" is a similar, perhaps cognate, reel that also has found favor with Cape Breton musicians.
