Annotation:Duke of Athole's Rant (The)
X:1 T:Duke of Athole's Rant M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel S:McGlashan - Strathspey Reels (c. 1780/81) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:D B|ADAF D/D/D AF|GEGF E/E/E BF|ADAF D/D/D f>e|dBAF D/D/D D:| |:e|d>ef>a e>fdA|BdAF E/E/E E>e|d>ef>a e>fdA|B>dAF D/D/D D:| |:f|a>baf a>baf|g>eg>f g>eb>f|a>baf a>baf|geaf d/d/d d:| |:e|d>ef>a efdA|B>dAF E/E/E E>e|d>ef>a e>fdA|B>dAF D/D/D D:||
DUKE OF ATHOLE'S RANT. AKA - "Duke of Athol's Rant." Scottish, Reel. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCCDD. John Glen (1891) finds the earliest appearance of this tune in print in Neil Stewart's 1761 collection (p. 31). Fintan Vallely believes this tune is the ancestor of the Irish "Captain Rock's (1),"/"Humors of Ballyconnell (1) (The)"/"O'Neill's Maggot (1)." However, the second, third and fourth strains of "Duke of Athole's Rant" are to be found in either close or more distanced relationship in a variety of tunes in Scotland, Ireland and the United States under titles "Highland Reel (1) (A)," "Scotch Reel (7) (A)," "Humors of Ballyconnell (1) (The)," "Lustian's Reel," "Now is the Time."
A different "Duke of Athol's Rant" appears in the Walsh's Second Book of the Compleat Country Dancing Master (3rd edition, London, 1735). Anne Gilchrist ["Old Fiddlers' Tune Books of the Georgian Period", JEFDSS, vol. 4, No. 1, Dec. 1940, p. 18] noted that, in her experience, the Rant was a name rather loosely applied of various lively dance-tunes, but properly seemed to her to have belonged to a quick 2/4 time melody.
