Annotation:Knockando House
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KNOCKANDO HOUSE. AKA - "Knockandoe's Reel (1)." Scottish, Strathspey. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. Composed by William Marshall (1748-1833). It was thought by Collinson (1966) to be one of Marshall's best compositions, while Emmerson (1971) deems it "particularly celebrated." John Glen (1891) finds the earliest printing of the tune in Angus Cumming's 1780 collection (p. 8).
Knockando house is a late 18th century house overlooking the River Spey and Ballintomb Burn in Moray. It was occupied in Marshall's time by Captain Shanks of the Royal Navy, although at one time it was the residence of the Lairds Grant, and has their Coat of Arms emblazoned over the front door. The village of Knockando is home to the Knockando distillery, which produces a fine single malt whisky. Captain Shanks was an engineer credited with a number of inventions. A passage from Lachlan Shaw's The History of the Province of Moray (1882) reads:
At the rock of Tomdow, in this parish, the river [Spey] dashes with such rapidity at right angles against the cliti" that by the violence of the collision the rafts were shattered. To avoid this charybdis, the York Building Company, when established at Coulnacoill, cut a new channel along the hypothenuse, and by this course the floating business is still carried on. Capt. Shank of the Navy resided at Knockando House in the year 1783. After having maturely considered the course of the Spey, he would have undertaken to render the river navigable, for flat-bottomed vessels of 40 tons, from its influx up to Grantown. There being no trade or manufacture adequate to the expense, the execution, if practicable, was deferred till some future age, when the superior improvement of the country may require such accommodation.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Marshall, Fiddlecase Edition, 1978; 1822 Collection, p. 34. McGlashan (A Collection of Reels), c. 1786; p. 14 (appears as "Knockande's Reel"). Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; p. 127.
Recorded sources: