Sitting In The Stern Of A Boat strathspey

Yeah, okay, this is a slow air, not a strathspey, although I’ve heard this played uptempo with a bit of snap, which I hope can qualify it for inclusion here. Bit of a stretch, I’ll admit, but I love this tune and thought it should be in the database. My friends and I like to play it both ways. It’s a tribute to the melody that it can be heartachingly sweet played slowly, and still sound wonderful played at a jauntier pace.

Composed by the Rev. William McLeod in the late 1700s when he was assigned to a parish in Argyll and had to leave his native Bracadale on the Isle of Skye.

Played on Fiddle, Whistle, English Concertina & Hammered Dulcimer.

The photos were taken around the coast of north Antrim.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJSTuMPOn2Y

play video

Cheers,
Dick

This is a really lovely tune. 422 play it well.

Composed in 1766.

That’s really cool. I wonder if there were lyrics in the original.

This tune was also recorded in tracks #7, 12, and 26 on the CD “Lewis & Clark, The Journey of the Corps of Discovery”, original soundtrack recordings, produced by Ken Burns, Dayton Duncan, and Erik Ewers, by BMG Entertainment, 1840 Broadway, New York, NY, 1997. It is interesting to note that a different combination of instruments, and different tempos were used in each of the tracks, to evoke quite different emotions.

In answer to Whimbrel, no, the author was a fiddle player from Struan in Skye and wrote the tune sitting in the stern of a boat as he sailed out of Loch Bracadale on his way to Argyll.

I’ve often heard the d in the first bar of the second part played as d#. I’m not saying it’s any better or more correct than in the setting given here, but to my ear it works equally well, especially as there’s another d# later in the same part.