The Earl of Dalhousie's Happy Return To Scotland (march)

This is a Scottish march, written by Neil Gow Jr (1795-1823), the grandson of Niel Gow and son of Nathaniel Gow. My recording is based on harmonies by Evelyn Tiffany-Castiglioni from her "Big Book For Mandolins For The Year 2017", available from Amazon (NFI, but highly recommended!).

The Earl in question was the 9th Earl, a soldier in India and Governor-General of Nova Scotia and later all of Canada. He founded Dalhousie University.

Mid-Missouri M-0W mandolin (x2)
Suzuki MC-815 mandocello
Vintage Viaten tenor guitar



Martin

Interesting arrangement on this Gow tune, Martin. Maybe takes it away from its Scottish origins a bit (?) but that is not a problem. It is a fine tune and you do your usual sterling job in bringing the parts together and finding suitable visuals.

Thanks, John. I found it a bit difficult to get a feel for how it would be played the "Scottish way", as for some reason just about all versions I found online were played with strange instrumentation -- cello seems popular, either single or multiple, and there is also a version on bowed double bass. Tempo seems to vary from funereal to fairly lively.

Would you be able to point me to a more idiomatic performance?

Martin

Thanks Martin! Nicely played. As to other online versions, I see what you mean about the cellos everywhere.

I did find these, but I have no clue if they're considered Scottish or derivative or what:

Cailyn MacAulay from Prince Edward Island in Canada - guess that explains why I thought it sounded like Cape Breton fiddling:


(or direct link)


Alasdair Fraser, fiddle but has cello too:


(or direct link)

And an Amazon track (has short preview sample), from a 1987 album "A Tribute To Niel Gow" recorded by Ron Gonnella. TheSession has this to say:

"Fiddler Ron Gonnella was originally from Dundee, and lived for many years in Crieff, Perthshire until his death in 1994. Gonnella's great grandfather was a Robert Dewar, who was a shepherd near Tulliemet in Perthshire. Ron Gonnella recorded at least fifteen albums and taught at Morrison's Academy in Crieff for many years. When he wasn't there he was travelling the world playing Scottish fiddle, recording albums, and performing on radio, stage and dance halls."

If I'm reading it right, TheSession also lists 3 other artists who've recorded this tune, but I haven't looked those up yet.

That's as far as I got with trying to find examples of this tune. Hoping that John can give us some pointers here.

JL, neither of those videos is available when I click on them, either on the YouTube itself or via your direct link. The Gows would include cello accompaniment in their music as the cello featured quite strongly at the time.

Martin, there is a good version of the tune played by the late Ron Gonnella on an album called A Tribute to Niel Gow (1978) on Lismor Records. He made the album in the ballroom of Blair Castle, where the Gows would have performed for the Dukes of Atholl in their day. Here is a link to the site which will give you more details of the record and its contents. The familiar face of Nigel Gatherer will greet you on this blog, as the MusicGatherer is Nigel!

http://themusicgatherer.blogspot.co....-gow-1978.html

How "Scottish" any version is will be open to debate; for such a small country Scotland has many distinct fiddle styles and close connections with other parts of the world, especially the Americas where so many Scots migrated to in the late 18th and 19th centuries.

John Kelly wrote: "JL, neither of those videos is available when I click on them, either on the YouTube itself or via your direct link. ..."

Hmm. Must be the YouTube geolocation copyright police or something. I didn't know the videos wouldn't show up in the U.K., or I wouldn't have posted them. I'm not aware of any way to test the availability prior to posting. Works here, though.

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John wrote: "... The Gows would include cello accompaniment in their music as the cello featured quite strongly at the time. ..."

Ah, that explains it! Thanks, I'd been wondering.

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John wrote: "... there is a good version of the tune played by the late Ron Gonnella on an album called A Tribute to Niel Gow (1978) ..."

I guess you didn't see that I'd mentioned that album (with link to Amazon) in my earlier post?

John wrote: "... Here is a link to the site which will give you more details of the record and its contents. The familiar face of Nigel Gatherer will greet you on this blog, as the MusicGatherer is Nigel! ..."

I notice that website you linked to, has a free download of a zip file containing mp3 audio files of what appears to be the entire album. Is that, um, legal? So, it's not copyrighted material? Guess it's not really any of my business, and what do I know, maybe it's all properly authorized...

Anyway, as linked to in my earlier post, the album is for sale at Amazon, which would tend to give one the impression that it's a commercial album rather than a freebie. But obviously I could be wrong (wouldn't be the first time lol).

In any case, it's very nice music.

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Martin Jonas wrote: "... My recording is based on harmonies by Evelyn Tiffany-Castiglioni from her "Big Book For Mandolins For The Year 2017", available from Amazon ..."

Martin, I like your version and would like to learn to play it someday.

Is there any chance you could talk Evelyn into somehow making Kindle versions of her books available for sale on Amazon? I don't buy paper/printed books anymore, but Kindle books are quite convenient for use on my tablet. I've bought over a dozen Kindle music books and Kindle "fake books" etc over the past year or so, and I'm willing to buy more Kindle books when I find ones that are interesting.

But I have no clue what's required to *create* a Kindle book, it might be complicated or require special technical stuff or something...

JL -- thanks for the comments! I suggest you drop Evelyn a PM here on the Cafe. Her Cafe name is "harper".

Having now listened to Ron Gonnella, I understand why John was surprised at my take. Ron's version is played very fast, whereas all other versions I have heard take it as a slow march, most of them slower than my recording. It makes for a completely different feel to the tune.

Martin