Annotation:Lady Balcarras
X:1 T:Lady Balcarras's Reel M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel B:John Riddell of Ayr – Collection of Scots Reels, Minuets &c. B:for the Violin (1782, p. 57) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:D A|TF2 (DF) (AB/c/d)A|TF2 (DF) EB, B,2|F2 DF ABde|gfed TB2d:| g|Tf2 (df) abaf|gbfa egfe|f2 (df) abaf|egfe fddg| Tf2 (df) abaf|gbfa efgb|afed T(BAB)d|ABde f(dd)||
LADY BALCARRAS. Scottish, Reel (cut time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. John Glen (1891) finds the earliest printing of the tune in Ayrshire fiddler-composer biography:Robert Riddell's (1718-1795) second collection (p. 57), printed in Glasgow by James Aird. This collection, printed in Edinburgh in 1782, was a second edition, "greatly improved" of his original collection, published around the year 1766.
One "Lady Balcarras", Elizabeth Dalrymple Lindsay (1759-1816), was the Countess of Balcarres was the spouse of Alexander Lindsay, Sixth Earl of Balcarres in Fife, whom she married in 1780. She was a patroness of musicians in the Scottish capital of Edinburgh. She was an accomplished keyboard player and composed tunes, one of which, "Lady Eliza Lindsay," a hornpipe written for her ten-year-old daughter, was published in John Watlen's 1791 collection. See note for "Annotation:Lady Elizabeth Lindsay" for more on the subject. The tune title may also refer to Alexander's mother, ther former Anne Dalrymple, daughter of Sir Robert Dalrymple, who married James Lindsay, Fifth Earl of Balcarras in 1749. She was aged 22 at the time and he aged 58, but they produced eight sons and three daughters before he died in 1768.
