Neil Gow's Wife
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Mandolin Tablature
legacy / English
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Daniel McLaren
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
"Niel Gow's Wife" is also known as "Athole Brose", "Loch Erroch Side”, "Mr. MacDonald of<br> Staffa's Strathspey", "Niel Gow's Second Wife" and “The Watchmaker” is a Scottish<br> strathspey in G Minor or A Minor. The parts are played AB, AAB or AA'BB. <br> Under the title "Mr. MacDonald of Staffa's Strathspey" the tune is earliest credited to<br> Daniel McLaren of Edinburgh, a native of Taymouth, Perthshire, who published it in<br> 1794 (unfortunately, little is known of him). Gow and sons published the tune as<br> “Niel Gow’s Wife” in their Complete Repository, Book 2 (1802) with composer credits to<br> Inver, Perthshire, fiddler-composer Niel Gow (1727-1807). Still later, in MacDonald’s<br> The Skye Collection (1887), it is credited to Duncan MacIntyre. The title has been<br> altered to insert the word “Second” to “Niel Gow’s Wife” to accommodate the apocryphal<br> story of his fiddle being the famous fiddler-composer’s ‘second wife’ in his affections.<br> Niel did, however, have two wives, the first of whom, Margaret Wiseman, bore him five sons;<br> his second, Margaret Urquhart, had no children. The association of instrument and intimate<br> bond has been made with other fiddlers as well and stems from the old saying that the<br> minstrel’s ‘second wife’ was his harp. Donal Hickey, in his 1999 book on Sliabh Luachra<br> musicians Stone Mad for Music, writes: “Pádraig (O’Keeffe) {1887-1963} remained single<br> and he used to call the fiddle ‘the missus’, declaring that it gave no bit of trouble<br> at all. He would say 'Just one stroke across the belly and she purrs'."<br> It was printed by<br> Gow's Complete Repository, Book 2 (1802),<br> Surenne's Dance Music of Scotland (1852),<br> Kerr's Merry Melodies, vol. 1 (c. 1875),<br> Ryan’s Mammoth Collection (1883),<br> James Stewart-Robertson's The Athole Collection (1884),<br> MacDonald's The Skye Collection (1887),<br> Honeyman's Strathspey, Reel and Hornpipe Tutor (1898),<br> Cole's 1000 Fiddle Tunes (1940),<br> Williamson's English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish Fiddle Tunes (1976),<br> Feldman & O’Doherty's Northern Fiddler (1979),<br> Carlin's The Gow Collection (1986).<br> It was recorded by Alasdair Fraser, Natalie Haas, Danny O'Donnell, Oisin McAuley,<br> Patrick Street and others.<br>
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