Annotation:Muir o' Gellan (The)
Back to Muir o' Gellan (The)
MUIR O' GELLAN, THE. Scottish, Strathspey. A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. The Muir o' Gellan is a farm in in Aberdeenshire, Scotland (thus individual's names like 'Gillian' for the tune are erroneous). The strathspey is the composition of Peter Milne [1] (1824-1908), one of J. Scott Skinner's teachers and, later, fiddling partner. Milne managed to make a living playing theater venues all over Scotland, but became addicted to opium in the drug laudanum, which he originally took as a pain-killer after becoming disabled. Milne ended his life in reduced circumstances, busking on the ferry which crossed the Firth of Forth. When Milne was a boy in the 1830's he worked as a herd on the nearby Muir o’ Gellan.
See also his "Gellan's Reel."
Source for notated version: Winston Fitzgerald (1914-1987, Cape Breton) [Cranford]; "After (Scottish fiddler) J.F. Dickie's set" [Henderson].
Printed sources: Cranford (Winston Fitzgerald), 1997; No. 97, p. 41. Henderson (Flowers of Scottish Melody), 1935.
Recorded sources: Waverley Records GLN 1023, Hector MacAndrew - "The Fiddler's Companion" (1980, various artists). Topic Records 12TS354, John Neil MacLean - "Cape Breton Scottish Fiddle: The Music of Cape Breton vol. 2" (1978, various artists).
See also listing at:
Alan Snyder's Cape Breton Fiddle Recordings Index [2]
See/hear the tune played by Ed Pearlman in 2012 on youtube.com [3] (1st tune in medley).