Annotation:Fingal's Cave (1)

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 FINGAL'S CAVE [1]. AKA and see "Miss Guthrie's." Scottish, Strathspey. E Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCCD. The tune was composed by John Gow (1764-1826), one of the sons of the famous fiddler Niel Gow. John removed from Scotland to London, and with his brother Andrew established a publishing firm, becoming the English distributor of the Gow family publications. Fingal's Cave is a 230 ft. deep cave on the island of Staffa on west coast of Scotland near the islands of Mull and Iona. It is a sea cave carved from Tertiary basalt lava flows that have cooled to form hexagonal columns similar to those of the Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland. A path on one side of the cave travels from column to column back into the cave that stretches 250 feet into the rock, with a height of 70 feet above sea level. It is fabled in art; the great watercolor painter John Turner painted Fingal's Cave in 1832. Composer Felix Mendelsohn wrote an overture called The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave), having been inspired by the sight of the caves while on a trip to Scotland and Itlay, sent by his father at age 20. Curiously, the cave has no real associations with Fingal. John Purser explains that the original name of the main cave is, in Scots Gaelic, Uamh Bhin, meaning a musical or sweet-sounding cave, and that it is misinterpretations of the Gaelic name that led to its being called 'Fingal's Cave'.  Source for notated version:  Printed sources: Carlin (The Gow Collection), 1986; No. 58. Gow (Complete Repository), Part 2, 1802; p. 6.  Recorded sources: Redwing Music RWMCD 5410, Abby Newton - "Castles, Kirks and Caves" (2001).  See also listing at: Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources

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