Leaving Lerwick Harbour reel

Isn’t life a b**** - a series of trade-offs?

This is a haunting SLOW AIR in Bb major. Only way my brain could think to post it this morning, given the alcohol/caffeine mix. Should print and play OK, hopefully, after adjusting the tempo. Written by the late Willie Hunter and not ashamed to say it’s one of my favourites. Inspired by watching the departure of the ferry carrying his aunt back home to New Zealand following a brief visit back to her birthplace. Think you’ve got a good fiddle/fiddle set-up? (Technique taken for granted of course!) You’ve got to try this. I’ll guarantee that if you make it sing and there’s a Shetlander (and many non-Shetlanders) in the house there’ll be a moistness in their eyes - I don’t care how macho they are.

(No more for the present Jeremy - I promise!)

I love this tune! One of his most popular and best compositions out of all of them. Willie, himself, didn’t actually play this slow air until his last recording that he made just a few weeks before he, sadly, passed away. If he was asked to play it, he would say, "I’m not ready to play it yet." It’s a very sad story.
I have been told that I can make my fiddle sing when I’m playing this slow air, and I have been known to bring a tear or two to my mum’s eye’s before whilst playing it.

Also at the end of the tune to finish it of, instead of playing a C and then a B, you can play an A to a B an octave higher.

I didn’t make a very good job of it, but if your interested, I just posted this tune on YouTube.
I’m playing it on my recently acquired Wheatstone Aeola Baritone Concertina, so it sounds suitably mellow.
However, I still have to learn to play S L O W L Y on it! 🙁

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=pyFu2L09Nfc

play video

Cheers
Dick

Definitely a fiddle tune. I was on a gig with Ian Lowthian and Catriona Macdonald (I keep very good musical company) and Cat had just been told of Willie’s passing, by her Mum. It was expected news but still very sad. Can’t believe it is already so long ago.

Here’s a grand performance by Kristan Harvey with Nicola Benedetti, no less, both resplendent in posh evening dresses…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH3ZUd7b0Zg

play video

as Played by Nigel Gatherer of Edinburgh Scotland

If ever there was a more potent argument for adding "Slow Air" to the list of tune type choices, this is the one! Reel…. OMG, never ever! I sincerely hope that no-one ever EVER tries to play it as such! Beautiful playing by Kristan Harvey and Nicola Benedetti!

Just read the comments by shoz from 11 years ago. It’s his comments that are a very sad story, as I heard Willie play the tune on many occasions!

Definitely a slow air rather than a reel.

I have the good fortune to know Willie Hunter’s niece who it was on that boat (rather than his aunt) - The St Clair was the name of the boat. Her whole family had come to wave her off.

Lovely tune!