Annotation:Udny Academy Reel

Find traditional instrumental music



X:1 T:Udny Academy Reel M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel B: John Morison - A Collection of New Strathspey Reels, with a few favourite Marches (Edinburgh, c. 1797, No. 44) N:Organist and fiddler Morison (1772-1848) was from Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, the easternmost point in Scotland, on the North Sea. Alburger notes that failing fortunes forced him to diversify: he also organized balls and ran a ship's chandlery. F:https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Collection_of_New_Strathspey_Reels_wit/Vo-EymUbJkYC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22john+morison%22+%22new+strathspey+reels%22%C2%A0&pg=PP1&printsec=frontcover K:A e|A/A/AcA eAcA|A/A/AcA fBBa|A/A/AcA eAcA|dfed cAA:| |:e|aece fece|aece fBBe|aece fece|dfed cAA:| |:f|eA d/c/B/A/ EA d/c/B/A/|eA d/c/B/A/ fBBa|eA d/c/B/A/ EA d/c/B/A/|dfed cAA:| e|aefe efGac|dfec fBBe|aefe ef/g/ac|dfed cAAe| aefe ef/g/ac|dfec fBBe|afge fdec|dfed cAA||



UDNY ACADEMY REEL. Scottish, Reel (cut time). A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCCD. "Udny Academy Reel" was composed by John Morison (1772-1848), a fiddler and, for a time, organist at St. Peter's Chapel, Peterhead. Morison was from Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, the easternmost point of Scotland and a port town on the North Sea. He had a small fiddle band for playing dances, but he supported himself, as many musicians did, with diversification. Alburger notes he also organized balls and ran a ship's chandlery; he also tuned pianos and organs and copied out music, but eventually he went bankrupt (at least once). Morison published two collections; the first around 1797 and the second in 1815.

Mr. George Bisset, born in the parish of Keith-hall, was appointed, in the year 1784, schoolmaster of the parish of Udny, and soon after, in 1786, he added to the school a boarding establishment, which he called the " Udny Academy." This academy, under him and his son James, became a very important preliminary school, and attracted to it a great many of the sons of the county gentlemen in the north of Scotland. It afforded to them, and to many others in the neighbouring parishes of Tarves and Ellon, a good education, fitting them for the university. The Premier Earl of Aberdeen used to speak with proud satisfaction, that a great many of his tenants were graduates of an university, and it was in the Udny Academy that they received their preliminary training, fitting them for the universities of King's and Marischal colleges.[1]


Additional notes



Printed sources : - John Morison (A Collection of New Strathspey Reels, with a few favourite Marches), Edinburgh, c. 1797; No. 44.






Back to Udny Academy Reel

0.00
(0 votes)



  1. Murray Garden, The Thanage of Fermartyn [1]