Annotation:John Marshall
Back to John Marshall
JOHN MARSHALL. Scottish, Strathspey. E Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. Composed by Scots fiddler-composer J. Scott Skinner (1843-1927), in honor of an Aberdeen violin maker who restored Skinner's violin. Alan Sim, in his article entitled "200 years of making North-east fiddles" (Leopard: The Magazine for North-East Scotland, June, 2005), writes:
John Marshall was born the son of a farmer in Methlick on 15 January 1844, and died unmarried in Aberdeen on 16 March 1919. Prior to becoming a full-time maker he worked as a hammerman at Broadford Works for 14 years. He was a close friend of Scott Skinner and was a maker of fine quality instruments. He was also a repairer of note and undertook work for Hill & Sons of London, who were the leading dealers and restorers of the day.
On some labels he used the inscription:
Made of the garner’d relics of a tree
In which, of old, a dryad of the lea
Did live and die.
He had a shop in Belmont Street from 1889-1903. Thereafter he occupied premises in Rosemount Viaduct and Woolmanhill before moving to 88 Schoolhill in 1914 where he remained until his death. Marshall employed an assistant/apprentice by the name of William Glennie whose hand can be seen in the very distinctive scrolls found on some of Marshall’s instruments.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Skinner (Harp and Claymore), 1904; p. 67.
Recorded sources:
Back to John Marshall