Annotation:John Gow's Compliments to the Minstrels of Scotland

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JOHN GOW'S COMPLIMENTS TO THE MINSTRELS OF SCOTLAND. Scottish, Slow Air (4/4 time). A Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. This melody was composed by John Gow (1764-1826), youngest son of Niel (1727-1807) and elder brother of Nathaniel (1763-1831). It includes "a rather un-Scottish passage" in the first two bars--the chromaticism found there evidence of the move of the later Gow family compositions away from the strict confines of the old modes and gapped scales (Collinson, 1966). Purser (1992) is of the opinion that the device, while not particularly tradition, works "not badly at all."

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Gow (Sixth Collection of Strathspeys Reels), 1822; p. 33. Purser (Scotland's Music), 1992; Ex. 8, p. 206.

Recorded sources:



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