Annotation:Fanny Farquharson

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FANNY FARQUHARSON. Scottish, Strathspey. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. There was a Frances "Fanny" Farquharson, perhaps the person honored by the title of this strathspey, who was the sister of James Farquharson of Invercauld, Deeside, laird from 1750 to 1805. In 1761 Fanny married Doctor Alexander Donaldson, a physician and Professor of Medicine and Oriental Languages in the Marischal College, Aberdeen. She is said to have had "a literary turn of mind and wrote verses, some of which have been preserved."

David Baptie (Musical Scotland, Past and Present 1894, p. 235) remarks that Archie Symon, born Crathie, Aberdeenshire, is "given out" as the composer of "Fanny Farquharson's" Strathspey." He was "a splendid player on the violin in his day," notes Baptie.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: MacDonald (The Skye Collection), 1887; p. 77. Milne (Middleton’s Selection of Strathspeys, Reels &c. for the Violin), 1870; p. 10.

Recorded sources:




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