Over the Moor Among the Heather
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
"Over the Moor among the Heather", also known as "Aldivalloch",<br> "O'er the Muir Amang the Heather", "My Laddie from Valenciennes", "The Rising of<br> the year 1715" or "Tha tighinn fodham eiridh" is a Scottish air, country dance<br> tune, reel or strathspey in G Major. The parts are played AAB (Gow, Lowe),<br> AABB (Bremner, Honeyman, Kerr, O'Farrell, Petrie, Vickers) or AABB' (Johnson).<br> The antiquarian Stenhouse had the opinion that "O'er the moor amang the heather"<br> was a modification of "Carle an' the King come", the air to a song in<br> Allan Ramsay's The Gentle Shepherd (1725). The melody appears in the Bodleian<br> Manuscript (in the Bodleian Library, Oxford), inscribed A Collection of the<br> Newest Country Dances Performed in Scotland written at Edinburgh by D.A. Young,<br> W.M., 1740. It also appears in Robert Bremner's 1757 collection and in the<br> [James] Gillespie Manuscript of Perth (1768). Cazden et al, (1982) identify the<br> melody as probably derived from the large "Boyne Water" family of tunes, on the<br> strength of the identifying motif in the second strain. Slow versions of the tune<br> sometimes go by the name "Aldavaloch." The melody was current as a reel in the<br> early 18th century, notes Johnson (1984), while the strathspey version he gives<br> appears to have been fashioned c. 1760.<br> This is not the same tune as the Irish "Over the Moor to Maggie".<br> Country dance versions of the melody and dance instructions were printed in<br> London by the Thompsons in the Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country<br> Dances, vol. 2 (1765), Longman and Broderip in their Compleat Collection of<br> 200 Favorite Country Dances (1781) and by Straight and Skillern in Two Hundred<br> and Four Favourite Country Dances, vol. 1 (1775). A different tune with the same<br> title appears in John Hinton's periodical The Universal Magazine of Knowledge and<br> Pleasure of 1758.<br> "Over the Moor Among the Heather" may be the ancestor of the American reel<br> "Yellow Barber". <br> It was printed in Bremner's Scots Reels (1757),<br> Carlin's The Gow Collection (1986),<br> Gow's Complete Repository, Part 3 (1806),<br> Honeyman's Strathspey, Reel and Hornpipe Tutor (1898),<br> Johnson's Scottish Fiddle Music in the 18th Century (1984),<br> Jones' Complete Tutor Violin (c. 1815),<br> Kerr's Merry Melodies, vol. 2 (c. 1880’s),<br> Laybourn's Köhler’s Violin Repository vol. 3 (1885),<br> Joseph Lowe's Lowe's Collection of Reels, Strathspeys and Jigs, book 4 (1844–1845),<br> O'Farrell's Pocket Companion, vol. III (c. 1808),<br> Petrie's Third Collection of Strathspey Reels (1802),<br> Ryan's Mammoth Collection (1883),<br> Seattle's Great Northern/William Vickers (1987),<br> Straight and Skillern's Two Hundred and Four Favourite Country Dances, vol. 1<br> (c. 1775),<br> Thompson's Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 2 (1765),<br> Wilson's Companion to the Ball Room (1816).<br> It was recorded by Natalie MacMaster on Fit as a Fiddle (1993),<br> Bill Lamey on From Cape Breton to Boston and Back: Classic House Sessions of<br> Traditional Cape Breton Music 1956-1977 (2000),<br> John L. MacDonald on Formerly of Foot Cape Road: Scottish Fiddle Music in the<br> Classic Inverness County Style (2005) and Jerry Holland on Parlor Music (2005).<br>
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