Annotation:Cawdor Fair

|Tune properties and standard notation

 CAWDOR FAIR. AKA and see "Calder Fair," "Cock o' Bendy," "Cockabendie," "Go on Lads and Give a Tune," "The Hawthorne Tree of Cawdor," "Sing a Song of Sixpence." Scottish, English, Cape Breton; Reel, Strathspey or Highland Schottische. C Major: A Minor or A Dorian ('A' part) & C Major ('B' part) [Dunlay & Greenberg, Howe]: B Dorian ('A' part) & D Major ('B' part) [Lowe]: G Major [Kerr]: D Major (Gow, Surenne). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Surenne): AAB (Gow, Johnson): ABB' (Howe): AABB (Honeyman, MacDonald, Stewart-Robertson): AA'BB (Dunlay & Greenberg). Cawdor was originally called 'Calder' (see "Calder Fair"). The tonality of the 'A' part differs from publication to publication, with some ambiguously harmonizing the accompaniment with once a C, then an A bass; on Cape Breton Dunlay & Greenberg note the first section traditionally is played in A Dorian. See note for "Hawthorne Tree of Cawdor" for more on Cawdor, Invernessshire, and Cawdor Castle. Gow (1817) notes: "See Dancing Set in our Dances for 1813" but says the melody is "Very Old." "Cawdor Fair" appears in the music manuscript copybook of musician John Beach (Gloucester, Mass.), dating from 1801.

Sources for notated versions: David MacIsaac, learned from his father, Alex Dan MacIsaac (Cape Breton) [Dunlay & Greenberg]; Gow's Part Fourth of the Complete Repository (1817) [S. Johnson]. Printed sources: Dunlay & Greenberg (Traditional Celtic Violin Music of Cape Breton), 1996; p. 25. Gow (Complete Repository), Part 4, 1817; p. 9. Honeyman (Strathspey, Reel and Hornpipe Tutor), 1898; p. 16. Howe (1000 Jigs and Reels), c. 1867; p. 125. S. Johnson (A Twenty Year Anniversary Collection), 2003; p. 40. Kerr (Merry Melodies), vol. 1; No. 16, p. 20. Lowe (Collection), 1844. MacDonald (The Skye Collection), 1887; p. 111. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; p. 43. Surenne (Dance Music of Scotland), 1852; p. 81. Recorded sources: Ingold 2001-4, Dave MacIsaac and Jerry Holland. PolyGram 314 523 251-4, Kyle MacNeil. E25Q 7243 8 82013 2 2, John Morris Rankin and Howie MacDonald. See also listings at: Alan Snyder's Cape Breton Fiddle Recording Index, Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources

|Tune properties and standard notation