Annotation:Reel of Elegance (The)

Find traditional instrumental music



X:1 T:Reel of Elegance, The M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel B:Rev. Luke Donnellan music manuscript collection (c. 1909, Oriel region, B:south Ulster) K:G F|G2 Gc BGdG|BGdG BGGB|AG...



REEL OF ELEGANCE, THE. AKA and see "Way to Elgin (The)." Irish, Reel (cut time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. "The Reel of Elegance" is contained in the music manuscript collection of curate and fiddler biography:Rev. Luke Donnellan (1878-1952), Oriel region, south Ulster[1] Donnellan's reel is a reworking of 18th century Scottish fiddler-composer Alexander McGlashan's strathspey "Way to Elgin (The)." The title of the reel may also be a reworking, or more likely, a miss-hearing of the strathspey title, with 'Elegance' a distortion of 'Elgin'.


Additional notes
Source for notated version : - Rev. Luke Donnellan music manuscript collection [O'Connor].

Printed sources : - Gerry O'Connor (The Rose in the Gap), 2018; No. 167, p. 90.






Back to Reel of Elegance (The)

0.00
(0 votes)



  1. Donnellan researcher Gerry O'Connor came to believe the ms. is not the work of the curate but rather was originally compiled by an unknown but able fiddler over the course of a playing lifetime, probably in the late 19th century. The ms. later came into the possession of Donnellan, who was also a fiddler.