Annotation:Gellan's Reel
X:1 T:Gellan's Reel T:Gillian's Reel T:Gillan's Reel C:Peter Milne (1824-1908) M:4/4 L:1/8 R:Reel K:A |:A2 cA {d}B2 dB|c2 ec dBAG|A2 ce fgaf|edcB AGFE|AEAc BEBd| cdec dcBA |(3A/2A/2A/2 Ace fgaf|1 edcB A2 FG:|2 edcB A2 fg|| |:a2 fa g2 eg|f2 df ecBA|{b}a2 fa gaba|gfe^d e2 fg|agfa gfeg| fedf ecBA|(3A/2A/2A/2 Ace fgaf|1 edcB A2 gf:|2 edcB A2 (3GFE||
GELLAN'S/GILLAN'S REEL. AKA - "Gillan's Reel," "Gillian's Reel." Scottish (originally), Canadian; Reel. Canada, Cape Breton. A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Hunter): AABB (Brody). Composed by Peter Milne (1824-1908), the Tarland Minstrel, a self-taught fiddler and one of J. Scott Skinner's teachers as well as his friend. Milne earned a living playing in theaters until his career deteriorated from opium addiction, reducing him to eking a livelihood from busking on ferry-boats crossing the Firth of Forth. He died in 1908, destitute, in an insane asylum. The title of the reel is "Gellan's Reel" and refers to the farm Muir of Gellan, in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. As a boy Milne lived nearby, and often worked as a herd on the farm. Thus the titles that reference a person, such as "Gillan's Reel" and "Gillian's Reel" are erroneous. See also Milne's strathspey "Muir o' Gellan (The)."
Researcher Jean Duval compares Milne's "Gellan's Reel" with "Clog en la (Boucher)", a piece contained in J.A. Boucher's Le Répertoire du Violoneux[1] (1933, No. 67, p. 36), suggesting it may be an dotted-rhythm adaptation. However, the relationship, if it exists at all, seems tenuous.
