Annotation:Major McNiel's Strathspey
X:1 T:Major McNeil's Strathspey C:James Boick M:C L:1/16 R:Strathspey B:Robert Purdie - "Tom Thumb: A Favorite Dance" (Edinburgh, c. 1810, B:a single-sheet issue of 2 pages). Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:Bb FE|D3FB3F GE3E3e|d3fd3B Tc3Bc3d|D3FB3F GE3E3e|{e}d2cB {d}c2BA B4 B2:| e2|d3fTf3d e3eTc2e2|Td3fd2B2 {B}TA3GF2B2|{Bc}d3c TB2F2 e3dc2e2|d3ff2d2 .e.d.c.B .A.G.F.E| D3FB3F GE3E3e|d3fTd3B c3Bc3d|D3FB3F G3E e3c|d3Bc3A B4 B2||
MAJOR McNIEL'S STRATHSPEY. Scottish, Strathspey (whole time). B Flat Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. "Major McNiel's Strathspey" was first printed around the year 1810 by music seller Robert Purdie for his Princes Street, Edinburgh, shop on a single sheet issue (2 pages) entitled "Tom Thumb, A Favoirite Dance", together with "three new strathspeys and a reel" by biography:James Boick (Boick's name is not attached to "Tom Thumb" as it is the other tunes, although he may have been the composer). Boick's name crops up as the composer of tunes in the collections of Robert Petrie, and, later, in Hamilton's Universal Tune Book (1843) and Köhler's Violin Repository (1881-1885); John Pringle composed a strathspey for him. David Baptie (Musical Scotland, 1885), however, makes no mention of him.
