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PETER LAING (The Elgin Centenarian). Scottish, Strathspey. F Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. Composed by the great Scots fiddler-composer J. Scott Skinner (1843-1927) in honor of a blacksmith, Peter Laing, who may have worked at Botriphnie House, Banffshire, a 'shooting-seat' [sporting estate] for Admiral Duff' in the 1840s (according to the Univ. of Aberdeen's Skinner site). Skinner also composed the companion reel, "Blacksmith o' Botriphnie (The)" for him. Skinner noted in the margin that tune was "Strathspey for Virtuoso" and it requires position playing on the violin.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Skinner (The Scottish Violinist), 1900; p. 15. Skinner (Harp and Claymore), 1904; p. 125.

Recorded sources:

See also listing at:
See Skinner's handwritten notation for the tune at the Univ. of Aberdeen's Skinner site [1]
Alan Snyder's Cape Breton Fiddle Recordings Index [2]




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