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Invercald’s Rant

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SMM 196 Tibbie, I hae seen the day
Invercald’s Rant
Alexander McGlashan A Collection of Strathspey Reels 1778

Invercald’s Rant appears in printed fiddle books as a strathspey and as a reel (Burns referred to it as a ‘reel’), but the repeated notes at the beginning and its quirky tonality clearly identify it as a rant. Before 1800, the basslines and accompaniments that appeared with the tune in print gave quite diverse interpretations of its shape, even disagreeing about what key the tune was in. This version by Alexander McGlashan draws out as much character from the tune as possible without imposing another musical identity on it.

David McGuinness, November 2016

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Invercald's Rant (317 downloads)

Shona McGregor, violin
Alison McGillivray, cello

Recorded by Matt Parkin
Produced by David McGuinness

From the album Nathaniel Gow’s Dance Band

Recordings ©2016 Concerto Caledonia

Licensed to University of Glasgow for non-commercial use by the Editing Robert Burns for the 21st Century project, and associated projects