Annotation:Kinrara (1)

Back to 

 KINRARA (STRATHSPEY) [1]. AKA and see "Countess of Dalkeith." Scottish, Strathspey. B Flat Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Marshall): AAB (Athole, Hunter). Kinrara was the summer residence "where the Duchess of Gordon resided in Badenoch" (Marshall). The strathspey was composed by William Marshall (1748-1833) on short notice, at the request of Jane (Nee Maxwell), Duchess of Gordon, wife of his patron and employer, Alexander, the fourth Duke of Gordon. Moyra Cowie (1999) writes that Jane had become estranged from Alexander because of his liason with Jean Christie, the daughter of the housekeeper at Gordon Castle, and since she would not abide long in the same house, she had Kinrara built on the banks of the Spey in Badenoch, below the hill of Tor Alvie. The tune was first published in 1800 by Pietro Urbani and Liston (Edinburgh), alongside a piece by the Duke (who was an amateur fiddler) called "Brodie House." It was republished by the Gows in their Fourth Collection (1800) under the title "Countess of Dalkeieth," without crediting Marshall. Jane Gordon died in 1812 and is buried on the Kinrara estate, overlooking a broad curve in the Spey. Elizabeth Grant of Rothiemurches describes her experiences of Kinrara: We are often over at Kinrara, the Duchess having perpetual dances, either in  the drawing room or the servants hall and my father returning these entertainments ''in the same style. A few candles lighted up bare walls, at short warnings fiddles'' and whisky punch were always at hand and then gentles and simples reeled away in company till the ladies thought the scene becoming more boisterous that they liked remaining in; nothing more however, a highlander never forgets his place, never loses his native inborn politeness, never presumes upon on favour.  Source for notated version:  Printed sources: Hunter (The Fiddle Music of Scotland), 1988; No. 170. Marshall, Fiddlecase Edition, 1978; 1822 Collection, p. 2 and the Kinrara Collection (1800), p. 25. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; p. 293.  Recorded sources: Scotdisc R 267719, Ron Gonnella - "Ron Gonnella's International Friendship of the Fiddle" (1995).

Back to