Annotation:Piadmontese (Les)

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PIADMONTESE, LES. Scottish (?), Jig. B Flat Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). ABCD. In the original edition Gow placed the tune in a section called “Fashionable Dances in Edinr. 1787-88”. The Second Collection was published in Niel Gow's (1727-1807) name, but who likely had the considerable help from sons William Gow (1751-1791) and Nathaniel (1763-1831). They would certainly have contributed to the aforementioned section as they were highly knowledgeable regarding the city's dance fashions, as William was the leader of the Edinburgh Assembly Orchestra until his death, while Nathaniel was a member of the orchestra and a leader of the ensemble after his brother's death. The (misspelled) title references the Piedmont, an Alpine region that borders France and Switzerland in Italy's far north-west, including the city of Turin. A lively Italian folk-dance in 6/8 time, like "Les Piedmontese," called the Monferrina sometimes appears in dance and music collections of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, named after the place of its origin, Montferrat, in the Italian region of Piedmont.

See also the similarly-named “Piedmontese Cotillion.”

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Gow (Second Collection of Niel Gow’s Reels), 1788; pp. 34-35 (3rd ed.).

Recorded sources:

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