strathspey@strathspey.org:45382

Steve Wyrick

Re: Braes of Mellinish was "Google has failed me"

May 26, 2006, 1:23 a.m. (Message 45382, in reply to message 45380)

On Thu, 25 May 2006 15:43:03 -0700
  xxxxxxx.xxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx.xxx wrote:

> Now does the Kentigern/Braes of Mellinish jig tune bear any relationship 
> to the Gow tune Major Graham that the RSCDS used for the dance? 
> Musicians??  And why is there no record in Dance Data of the use of any 
> tune under the names Kentigern Jig or The Braes of Mellinish? 

1) Not that I can tell!  2) Because it hasn't been used as a name tune or 
secondary tune in any recording for SCD indexed in Dance Data?  It's a 4-part 
pipe jig which wouldn't be the best of candidates for our dances but I'm 
pretty sure I've played it in a set for something...  Worse than not finding 
it in Dance Data, there's no information on that tune in any of my faithful 
internet tune resources, which almost always turn up something... Does anyone 
have the Gore Index available to check for a source?

I submit that the title "Kentigern Jig" (aka Kentigern's Jig) is a red herring 
here; it appears that the jig is called that because the band Kentigern 
recorded "The Braes of Mellinish" on their 1979 album and it somehow became 
associated with them (this happens a lot in the aural folk music tradition).

I still wonder about the strathspey/jig connection.  Did the Society collect a 
dance that they decided would work better as a strathspey than a jig, then 
come up with a nice old strathspey tune to fit it?  Just conjecture. -Steve
--
Steve Wyrick - Concord, California