In My
Hands ...
Natalie MacMaster
tune information,
links and notation
Track 7
Space
Ceilidh
The Night We Had The
Goats (Traditional)
The Fairy Dance (Nathaniel Gow)
- The Night We
Had The Goats
is a popular tune amongst Inverness county fiddlers. It's
difficult to say if it arrived due to the written tradition (The
Athole Collection,1884) or if it came in the aural tradition via
early pipers. Natalie's setting (below) uses high B notes not
available to the highland pipes.
- The Fairy Dance was
written by the Nathaniel Gow, the son of Niel. Basic two part
settings are given in both the Skye and O'Neill's. The current
multi part version evolved from Skinner's set in the Harp and
Claymore. Winston
Fitzgerald's setting is
close the way Natalie plays it

The variation above (written outside
the melody in smaller type) is typical of the way a fiddler might
have fun a tune ... instead of improvising on the entire meoldy (a
well constucted melody is easily spoiled) or on the chord structure
(as in jazz, rock or bluegrass ... idioms with a different sense of
aesthetics) one phrase might be varied subtley ... or substituted
into another position within the melody.
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Cranford Publications
8/24/99