Annotation:George I. Taylor Strathspey

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GEORGE I. TAYLOR STRATHSPEY. AKA and see ""Captain's Pledge (The)." Scottish, Strathspey. G Minor (Welling): G Major (Carignan). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. Composed in 1931 by Aberdeen fiddler J. Murdoch Henderson (1902-1972), called "one of the greatest exponents of the Scottish fiddle in the 20th century." The tune was named for Aberdeen musician Taylor, a "celebrated left handed fiddler," whose interpretation of minor-mode strathspeys Henderson much admired. J. Scott Skinner composed a tune for George I. Taylor's father, also named George Taylor (Aberdeen)--see "Left-Handed Fiddler (The)"), who used a normally strung and tuned instrument, and not a left-handed violin. Skinner was familiar with left handed fiddlers, as his father became one after an accident with machinery that left his right hand mangled (for this reason it is sometimes said that he composed his "Left-Handed Fiddler" for his father). Henderson's minor-mode stathspey is also called "Captain's Pledge (The)", but was composed as "George I. Taylor Strathspey,"

Source for notated version: Winston Fitzgerald (1914-1987, Cape Breton) [Cranford].

Printed sources: Cranford (Winston Fitzgerald), 1997; No. 161, p. 64. Henderson (Flowers of Scottish Melody), 1935. Welling (Hartford Collection), 1976; p. 20.

Recorded sources: Celtic LP CSX5 34, Winston Fitzgerald. Philo 2001, "Jean Carignan" (Carignan learned the tune from an old recording by Cape Breton fiddler Angus Chisholm). WS 031703, Wendy MacIsaac - "Timeline" (2003).

See also listing at:
Alan Snyder's Cape Breton Fiddle Recordings Index [1]
Hear Cape Breton fiddler Winston Fitzgerald play the tune at the Internet Archive [2] (1st tune in a medley, followed by "Marquis of Huntly's Strathspey (1) (The)" and "Colonel McBain's").

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