Annotation:John Morrison Assynt House

Back to 

 JOHN MORRISON, ASSYNT HOUSE. Scottish (originally), Canadian; Pipe Reel. Canada; Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton. A Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). ABCDEF (Cranford, Little, Martin): AABBCCDDEEFF (Perlman). The tune was composed in the 20th century by the Scottish Pipe Major Peter MacLeod (1878-1964), born in Aird on the Isle of Lewis. His son, also Peter (1916-1974) was likewise a skilled piper and composer. The Sr. MacLeod enlisted in the 17th Cameronians Scottish Rifles and by World War I was a Pipe Major. Sent to the Middle East, he saw service in Egypt and Gallipoli. After the war he found employment as a shipwright on the Clyde, a career cut short when an accident necessitated the amputation of his right leg. However, with World War II the demand for labor found him re-employed in the shipyards, where he worked until his retirement in 1955 at the age of 77. Peter MacLeod Sr. composed some 200 pipe tunes. John Morrison, Assynt House, was a founder member of the Lewis Pipe Band, formed on the 5th. July 1904, an association that lasted his lifetime. "John Morrison, Assynt House" was popularized among Cape Breton fiddlers through the playing of Winston 'Scotty' Fitzgerald, and has proven a popular and often recorded piece.  Source for notated version: Little got many of his tunes from Cape Breton style fiddler Harvey Tolman (Nelson, N.H.) [Little]; Buddy MacMaster (Cape Breton), Peter Chaisson, Sr. (North-East Kings County, PEI) and Carl & Jackie Webster (Cardigan, Central Kings County, PEI) [Perlman]; Winston Fitzgerald (1014-1987, Cape Breton) [Cranford].  Printed sources: Cranford (Winston Fitzgerald), 1997; No. 53, p. 22. John Wilson's Collection of Highland Bagpipe Music, vol. 1, 1937. Little (Scottish and Cape Breton Fiddle Music in New Hampshire), 1984; pp. 34-35. Martin (Ceol na Fidhle), vol. 4, 1991; p. 11. Perlman (The Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island), 1996; p. 106.  Recorded sources: BM-91, Buddy MacMaster - "Glencoe Hall."  See also listing at: Alan Snyder's Cape Breton Fiddle Recordings Index

Back to