Lord MacDonald reel

This is the Scottish version. Pretty much the same as what is in Hunter Collection give or take a note or two.

steer clear of this if you’re looking for the matt Malloy and Liam O’Flynn version on the CD of After the Break. There is a version which is closer (but still way off) listed as Lord McDonald

If you want the setting Michael’s on about go here https://thesession.org/tunes/507/comments#comment200845.

I’m a bit puzzled by the octave jump up from the low G at the end of the 4th bar of the B part. I’d expect it to stay low. Is that just a typo or actually part of the setting?

catriona macdonalds a version just like this on her album "bold" - isn’t it a shetland variant?

Yep the downward movement is right.

This is used in a ballet - La Sylphide - composed by Lovenskojld!

sorry - my first abc format entry. That g was a typo and should be low. I fixed it in the abc format (I hope I did it correctly) but don’t know if that will get updated. This is pretty much standard scottish version as far as I know.

I would say the "standard" Scottish version is in A - certainly is in "Kerr’s". Shetland version is known as "Slanty Gard" - "Boys Of The Lough"’s first album. Gary Peterson and the lads from "Hom Bru" used to have a variation where the tune dipped out of G into F for about 2 bars. I’ll post it sometime.

no - look in Kerr’s book 1 and its in there in G - pretty much the same as its written here it if that g note got fixed.

Kenny, I’m surprised to hear you saying the standard Scots version is in A - I’ve only ever heard it in G. Perhaps it’s a geographic difference?

Sorry lads, my mistake. I had it in my mind that I’d seen it in A but Kerr’s does indeed have it in G. Highland pipers seem to play a version of it in { I suppose } A mixolydian. I looked up the Atholl Collection and the octave jump GaryAMartin refers also appears there, although it could be a 150 year old typo., I suppose.

The version that Matt Cunningham plays on the second volume of his Dance Music of Ireland series (it’s the first tune on the High Cauled Cap set), and which we had the pleasure of playing in a session in Bristol last night, is as follows:
T: Lord MacDonald’s
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Gmaj
G2BG dGBG | cGBG AGEG | G2BG dGBG | DEDC B,G,G,2 |
G2BG dGBG | cGBG AGEG | BdBA GFGE |DEGA BGG2 ||
Bdde dBGA | Bdeg aged | BddB dege | dBAd BGGd |
Bdde dBGA | Bdeg aged | Bdef gage | dBAd BGGB ||
dgbg agbg | dgbg ageg | dgbg abge | dBAd BGGB |
dgbg agbg | dgbg ageg | bagf gage | dega bgg2 ||
Bdde dBGA | Bdeg aged | Bd (3ddd Bdge | dBAd BGGd |
Bdde dBGA | Bdeg aged | Bdef gage | dBAd BGGF ||

It is very similar (i.e. almost identical) to the tune in https://thesession.org/tunes/507, which is confusingly called Lord McDonald’s.

The tune, in the Matt Cunningham version, is a 4-part tune in the slightly unusual format ABCB (note that Matt Cunningham makes a slight variation in bar 3 of part B on its second occurrence).

Here is the (bagpipe) A version taken from ‘Angus Mackay’s Piper’s Assistant’ published in 1844