Annotation:Annie is My Darling

ANNIE/ANNA IS MY DARLING (Anna thug mi gradh dhuit). Scottish (originally), Canadian; Reel. Canada; Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island. A Major. Standard or AEae fiddle tunings. AAB. Composed by Captain Simon Fraser, compiler of the Fraser Collection, originally dated 1815. The editor of the 1986 edition, Paul Cranford of Cape Breton, says it is a good tune for a "raised bass", or AEae tuning. The tune "celebrates the beauty of a young lady, in terms which she thinks so very far beyond her due, that she requested her name to remain uncommunicated" (Fraser). Sources for notated versions: Allan MacDonald (b. 1950, Bangor, North-East Kings County, Prince Edward Island) [Perlman]; Simon Fraser's collection [Henderson].

Printed sourcs: Fraser (The Airs and Melodies Peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland and the Isles), 1874; No. 30, pg. 10. Henderson (Flowers of Scottish Melody), 1935. Kerr (Merry Melodies), vol. 2; No. 16, pg. 5. Lowe (A Collection of Reels and Strathspeys), 1844. MacDonald (The Skye Collection), 1887; pg. 31 (as "Annie is my darling"). Perlman (The Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island), 1996; pg. 107. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; pg. 19.

Recorded sources: Canadian Broadcasting Corp. NMAS 1972, Natalie MacMaster - "Fit as a Fiddle" (1993).