Caledonian Hunt's Delight - Banks & Braes
Source:
Allen Ash Manuscript
Composer:
Trad.
Region:
South Central
Circa:
1800-1849
Year:
1840
Transcribed by Ian Bell
The Caledonian Hunt's Delight (aka "Ye Banks and Braes...") Played by Saskia Tomkins
This is a setting of a piece that is found in The Second Collection of Niel Gow's Reels, 1788. In that source it is in the key of D. It is the tune Robert Burns adapted for his song, "Ye Banks and Braes of Bonnie Doon".
This tune has been preserved as a waltz-clog in Quebecois traditional music. I can't offer any suggestion about how to approach the great flourishes of gracenotes, although they might suggest that the tune wasn't played too quickly by Mr. Ash.
Baltimore, Ontario - Allen Ash's home town.
A page from the Ash MS.
