This one is from the LP "The Cape Breton Fiddle of Dan Joe MacInnis," with Marie MacLellan doubling the melody on piano a good deal. Much to my amazement this tune seems to be in no collection I can find searching for any parts of the ABC; the title isn’t in the James Stewart index either, the closest is "Miss Christy Stewart" in some RSCD tome, and that might just be a bunch of steps, too. Perhaps it was published in some other key? Just a marvelous melody, and I’m happy it’s available for others to enjoy now. Dan Joe was a terrific violinist all around, too. They follow this jig on the record with Lady Charlotte Murray, the Scottish equivalent of the jig known in Ireland as the Cat in the Corner.
The Miss Christy Stewart mentioned above is a reel by M McDonald and is printed in the Ashley Album by Nan Main; for the dance Miss Chirsty Stewart (8 x 32) published in Miss Milligan’s Miscellany, vol 2 (26).
NB note the different spelling Christy/Chirsty
ATBPJ
Miss Christina Stewart
Thanks for all that, Peter. The reason I didn’t get any relevant hits searching for the characteristic passage "def efg fed cba" was because that ABC from tunefinder has the chords notated - "| "D"def "A7"efg | "Bm"fed "F#m"cBA |" This is a limitation of the ABC format that can’t be worked around, it seems.
Miss Chirsty is in the James Stewart index, source "MMM," with no entry for this book in the bibliography, eventually I figured out that was likely Miss Milligan’s Miscellany. Is "8x32" etc a way of indicating dance figures? I’m assuming as much. Stewart doesn’t explain that in his notes, either. Minor quibbles when you look at all the work that went into his database.
Not surprised this is a Marshall tune, he had a great flair for melody.
Looks like the 3 in the third bar should be a 2.
Oops. I mean the 4th bar.
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