Annotation:Fingall's Lamentation

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FINGALL'S LAMENTATION. AKA and see "Miss Guthrie's." Scottish, Air ("Very Slow"). F Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. "A very old Gaelic air" (Gow). Despite Gow's assertion that the tune was very old, John Purser could find no earlier printed version than Gow's own. Purser regards it as typical example of the 'Celtic revival style' of Scottish fiddle composition of Gow's era. Poet Robert Tannahill directed his song "Wild drives the bitter northern blast" to the air of "Fingal's Lamentation."

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Carlin (The Gow Collection), 1986; No. 539. Gow (Fourth Collection of Niel Gow's Reels), 2nd ed., originally 1800; p. 17.

Recorded sources: Redwing Music RWMCD 5410, Abby Newton - "Castles, Kirks and Caves" (2001).




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