Annotation:Mrs. Menzies of Culdares (1)

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 MRS. MENZIES OF CULDARE(S). Scottish, Slow Strathspey. B Flat Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. Composer credit given variously to Niel Gow {1727-1807, in Gow, Perlman}, A. Duff {in Hunter} or Robert Petrie (b. 1767, Kirkmichael, Perthshire) {in Skye}. It was first printed in Gow’s First Repository (1784) followed by appearences in Joshua Campbell’s 1788 collection and Archibald Duff’s First Collection (1794). The tune was copied by Setauket, Long Island, painter and fiddler William Sydney Mount (1807-1868), and included in his manuscript copy-book of tunes, along with many other Scottish dance tunes. The name Menzies is pronounced ‘Ming-ess’ or ‘Minges’ in Scotland. They were a Jacobite family, having turned out in 1715, and, although the scion of the family at the time was too old to fight, he sent Bonnie Prince Charlie (the ‘Young Pretender’) a fine white horse in 1745. Gow composed other tunes for the family: see “Mr. Menzies of Culdares” and “Miss Menzies of Culdare.”  Source for notated version: Kenny Chaisson (b. c. 1947, Bear River, North-East Kings County, Prince Edward Island; now resident of Rollo Bay) [Perlman]; Winston Fitzgerald (1914-1987, Cape Breton) [Cranford].  Printed sources: Carlin (The Gow Collection), 1986; No. 187. Cranford (Winston Fitzgerald), 1997; No. 102, p. 43. Gow (First Repository of Strathspey Reels), 1784 (revised 1801); p. 6. Gow (Beauties of Niel Gow). Hunter (The Fiddle Music of Scotland), 1988; No. 177. MacDonald (The Skye Collection), 1887; p. 137. Perlman (The Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island), 1996; p. 199. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; p. 295.  Recorded sources:  See also listings at: Alan Snyder’s Cape Breton Fiddle Recording Index Jane Keefer’s Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources

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