John MacColl’s Farewell march

This march comes from a friend of mine, who is a great Cape Breton style fiddler. She played it in a gig last week, and I was instantly attracted to its melody. It sounds gorgeous on the fiddle, but it’s clearly written in the style of a Scottish pipe tune. A bit of research shows the tune was actually composed by a highland piper John MacColl, and it seems one of his students introduced it to Cape Breton musicians.

Lovely Slainte, one of my favourites…

first tune is this set: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hzTmwM_a1U

play video

This is Wendy MacIsaac’s version. We play it like this in our session. I like the dramatic beginning phrase.

I believe the correct title of this tune is “Second Regiment Scottish Horse”. “John MacColl’s Farewell to The Scottish Horse” is a 6/8 march in A. The tunes were mixed up in the Logan collection and this is perhaps where the Cape Breton name confusion arose. John MacColl also had a 6/8 march in Bm called “The Argyllshire Squadron Scottish Horse” whose A part is melodically very similar to the A part of the tune given here.

John McColl (Snr) was Pipe Major of the 2nd Regiment Scottish Horse from 1905 to 1908.
He was born in 1860 (Duror) and died in 1943 (Glasgow).
Aad