Duchess Of Athole’s Favourite waltz

Supposedly a Neil Gow composition, but it isn’t listed as such in the Gow books: http://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Duchess_of_Athole’s_Favourite Bill Lamey recorded this on a house tape which was turned into the Full Circle CD, which should be heard by all, Scottish violin playing at its finest. Oddly enough this is listed in the Skye Collection as a “Slow Strathspey,” even though in 6/8 (e.g., the 6/8 Rustic Reel, etc); other sources seem to label it as an air, slow air, march, lament…as the notes at tunearch point out Gow or whoever composed it did so before the advent of the waltz in the first place, so this confusion is understandable.

This is in Book 2 of ‘The Beauties of Gow’ [1819] with no attribution, with your B part as its A part (and vice versa). Oh, and it’s in 6/8 - it really doesn’t work in 3/4.

I’ve just had a listen to Bill Lamey’s playing - wonderful! However, I think the recording comes in as he’s just finishing the A part, going into the B part, which would explain why you’ve got the parts reversed. I heard it slower in my head than Lamey’s rendition, but it’s still a great tune.

Hey Nigel,

Thanks for pointing that out, I forgot that Bill’s recording starts after the tape is rolling for some reason. Another interesting thing about that CD - supposedly the piano was in C#, and they sped up the tapes to D for the CD, hence the perhaps overbrisk tempos…I’ve a copy of “Fiddling to Fortune,” a very rare Dan R. MacDonald LP, and he starts on my B too.

As for the 3/4 the site shoehorns you into that time signature when you enter something as a waltz, so oh well. These notes will set anyone who wants to learn the tune straight.