Annotation:Duchess of Gordon's Reel (7)
X:1 T:Dutchess of Gordon's Reel [7] T:Cean Loch Alain (Ceann Loch Àlainn) M:C L:1/8 B:Cumming - A Collection of Strathspey or Old Highland Reels (1782, No. 11, p. 4) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:C c>GE>C G/G/G G2|c/c/c e>c d>DDF|EDCE G/G/G G2|e>ag>e c/c/c c2:| g|e>cg>c a>cg>c|e>cg>e d/d/d d>g|e>cg>c a>cg>c|e>cg>c c/c/c c>g| e>cg>c a>cg>c|e>cg>e d/d/d d>e|c>GE>G c>de>c|e>ag>e c/c/c c2|| |:E>CG>C A>CG>C|E>CG>E D/D/D D2|E>CG>C A>CG>C|c/B/A/B/ cE C/C/C C2:| |:G>cE>c G>cE>c|e>dc>e d/d/d d2|G>cE>c G>Ac>a|gcge c/c/c c2:|]
DUTCHESS OF GORDON'S REEL [7]. Scottish, Reel or Strathspey (whole time). C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABCCDD. The reel appears as "Dutchess of Gordon's Reell" with the Gaelic title "Ceann Loch Àlainn" (Lochaline Head) in Angus Cumming's collection of 1782. Cumming (c. 1750-c. 1800) was from a long line of Speyside musicians. However, as William Lamb[1] points out, the word strathspey only appears in the title of his collection, and not with any of the tunes themselves; "the tunes were simply all 'Old Highland reels' to him." The boundary between what we think of as reels versus the syncopated strathspey was much more permeable to Cumming.
Cumming's title is yet another named for wikipedia:Jane_Gordon,_Duchess_of_Gordon (née Maxwell; 1748 or 1749-1812), a Scottish Tory political hostess. Together with her husband Alexander, 4th Duke of Gordon, and son George, Marquess of Huntly (the future 5th Duke of Gordon), she founded the British army regiment the Gordon Highlanders.
- ↑ William Lamb, "Reeling in the Strathspey: The Origins of Scotland's National Music", Scottish Studies, Vol. 36, pp 66-102, Jun 2013.