Hello! Ask me (almost) anything about traditional music.
Annotation:Lord Balgonie's Favorite
X:1 T:Lord Balgonie's Favorite M:C L:1/8 R:Strathspey Q:"Slow. With Much Expression." N:"A Very Old Highland Tune." B:Gow - Fourth Collection of Strathspey Dances (1800) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:Amin E|A2 A>B AG E2|c2 ~c>e {e}d>c B<G|A<A e2 A>G EC|D<D E>^G AA, A,:| |:B,|C2 TC>E {E}D>C B,D|~C>B, A,C B,E [^G,2E2]|c2 Tce {e}d>c Bd|c>A (c/B/)A/G/ (EA)A:| |:B|c<c g2 TB>c d2|{Bd}c>B Ac Be e2|E2 {G}FE/D/ (EA)(Bd)|c>A (c/B/)A/G/ (EA)A:||
LORD BALGO(W)NIE'S FAVORITE. AKA and see "Reverend Mr. Patrick MacDonald of Kilmore," "Gloomy Winter," "Gloomy Winter's Now Awa," "Lord Balgonie's Delight," "Mr. Nairne's Strathspey." Scottish, Slow Strathspey. A Minor (Gow): C Minor (Gatherer): D Minor (O'Farrell). Standard tuning (fiddle). ABC (Gatherer, O'Farrell): AABBCC (Gow). Appears in Gow's Fourth Collection (1800) with the note "A very old Highland tune." The same melody was claimed and published (in 1792, and again in Albyn's Anthology, 1815) by Alexander Campbell as "Reverend Mr. Patrick MacDonald of Kilmore", and later used as the melody for Tannahill's popular song "Gloomy winter's now awa.'" John Glen (1891), for one, is convinced that Gow has no claim on the melody (curious, as there is no attribution to Gow in the Fourth Collection), and concludes the melody was composed by Campbell. The editor of Wood's Songs of Scotland, George Farquhar Graham, notes that an air appearing in Simon Fraser's collection called "Dileachdan (An)" (Orphan (1) (The)) is similar in many respects, and could be the ancestral tune of "Balgonie' Favorite." Daniel McLaren published the strathpsey in his own collection of 1794 as "Mr. Nairne's Strathspey."
