John Murray Of Lochee reel

Popular Scottish reel. I believe it was composed by a J. Hastings but I don’t know much about him(or her). It is played by Irish musicians too.

This is outwith the bagpipe scale. Should be “up a string” in D.

Maybe, but many fiddlers play it in A.
You obviously recognise it as a pipe tune, Kenny. Have you any more info re the composer?

To confound matters, I’ve just played the Kevin MacLeod version from the CD. He does it in “G”
🙂

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVuzzBmFBzE&feature=player_embedded

play video

Hope the link works - it came from a discussion on Simon Thoumire’s “Footstompin’” website. That programme would I think have been recorded in the late 1970s, at the time of the band’s “Old Woman’s Dance” recording. “John Murray of Lochee” is the opening tune. The hornpipe after it is a Donald MacLeod composition, “Pipe Major George Allan”, one of my favourite tunes ever.

The original title of this tune was probably John Murray of Lochiel, as given in this obituary in The Scotsman of the composer, Johnnie Hastings. If so the dedicatee makes a sudden move from Dundee to the North West.
http://www.scotsman.com/news/obituaries/obituary-john-hastings-scottish-country-dance-musician-and-composer-1-2945167
As he led his Caledonian dance band playing the accordian, there is no reason to assume that this tune is a pipe tune or derived from one. Having said that, it is a truly great tune with the compass of a single octave. We play it in G major and the range is from D to d, in abc terms. This is one octave tune and can be played on the pipes in the key of D major. I’d love to hear that. The version above X:1 has a second part that goes above the single octave range. Our version in G is a single octave tune. It’s brilliant but I am not sure where we got it from.

This is the 2nd tune on the 3rd track of Tannahill Weavers Capernaum album. They play it in Eb,
but that’s kind of painful for most folks (myself included) so here it is in D, low where they play it,
and high, again for handy whistle playing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z01XGpMulBw

play video

The first setting here (in A) is more like this, but this is in G
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQ-hE6HhNDo

play video

Why were the videos removed?

……I am not a great musician but I was brought up in a family of musicians, some made it their living. I started late in life learning to play and a piece of advice given to me as I was learning was to remember that “music is for sharing. It is God’s gift to you and meant to be shared.”

Just sayin…..

The video’s are still there when I view them, perhaps cookies or caching thing is going so
that I’m not able repeat your result. Nice sentiment about music sharing.

This really is a pleasant tune. I like both settings, but I’ll have to figure out how to keep them straight in my head.

I still can’t get them to open up, here or on youtube. It says the video is not available. Maybe in my country….type of thing…

This is the G major setting mentioned by Philip W, above - almost identical to the (X:2) D major setting, except for one note and a few extra semiquavers.

A discussion last night led to me looking more closely into this tune and its composer.
This link will take you to details from an EP by Johnnie Hastings And His Caledonian Dance Band (sic!). So the spelling of the tune’s name and the composer’s are no longer in doubt.
https://www.45cat.com/45_record_cover.php?r=mgep6012

The link I gave above, seven years ago, was to an obituary in the Scotsman, which is no longer available. It was however the basis for me believing that the real location of the dedicatee was Lochiel in the West Highlands.

I have no further information about the composer or his band. Following the above link will take you to:a thumbnail of the EP cover. The photo tells you quite a lot.