Annotation:Miss Augusta Murray Ochtertyre's Strathspey
MISS AUGUSTA MURRAY OCTERTYRE'S STRATHSPEY. Scottish, Strathspey (cut time). B Flat Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. The tune is claimed and credited to Tibbermore, Perthshire, fiddler-composer biography:John Bowie (1759-1815). It is a different tune than the similarly-titled "Miss Murray of Auchtertyre's Strathspey," published in 1797 by William Campbell, and in 1799 by the Gows, but also credited by the Gows to Bowie. Researcher Paul Cooper scoured Bowie's collections for the latter tune, but did not find it among his published works; however, Cooper discovered that Bowie himself seemed to claim it in his advertising[1]:
John Bowie, Author of Miss Murray of Ochteryre's Strathspey, and others so much danced of late.
There is more than enough confusion between to the two tunes to go around. It may be that Bowie was referring to his strathspey "Miss Augusta/Ochtertyre" from his own collection, deleting the first name in his advertising; or, he may have picked up on the Gows confusion of titles to take them up on their attribution of "Miss Murry/Auchtertyre" to him. Perhaps he was the composer of the strathspey the Gows printed, which may have been in circulation but not in print, nevertheless known to be a Bowie composition. It would be somewhat uncharacteristic of the Gows to attribute an unclaimed composition, for they sometimes changed titles or deleted attributions in their collections, but perhaps the Gows were confused themselves by the similar titles. Cooper also points out that the placenames Ochtertyre and Auchtertyre are actually different places in Scotland, 100 miles apart; the similarity of the names resulted in the spellings being used interchangeably. See also note for "annotation:Miss Murray of Auchtertyre's Strathspey" for more.
