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"Da Cross Reel", also known as "Cross Rig", "General Howe",
"The Lasses/Lassies of Stewarton" is a Shetland reel in D Mixolydian/G Major.
The parts are played AABCDAA (Brody) or AABB (Anderson).
According to Cooke the tune is a cousin to the Scottish tune "Lasses of Stewarton" and though the Shetland versions are usually asymmetrical and the Scottish is not. He says: The tune was danced in Whalsay (the tune is also known on that island as "General Howe") during this century, where I was told that to perform it they had to do a 'double dancing turn' (i.e. dance for twice as long).It was printed in Anderson's Ringing Strings (1983), Brody's Fiddler's Fakebook (1983) and Cooke's The Fiddle Tradition of the Shetland Isles (1986). It was recorded by Tom Anderson and Aly Bain on The Silver Bow (1993). |