Some Edinburgh Worthies and a round-up of the Gow Collections
by Charlie Gore
Probably not everyone in the world of Scottish traditional music is aware that the Gow family (which principally means Nathaniel Gow) published 19 full-scale printed volumes of dance and listening music. These range in date from 1784 to 1837, by which time Nathaniel himself was dead. One of the Edinburgh contemporaries of the Gows was William Shepherd (c1760-1812) Nathaniel’s partner in the music-selling venture, Gow and Shepherd. He composed some excellent music which he published in two volumes dated 1793 and 1800, the first published under his own name alone, the second by the partnership.
Another was John Pringle, born about 1770, possibly with Borders connections. His two volumes (published around 1801) contain 115 tunes of which only about 40 are not his own compositions. One or two rare gems include ‘The Bonniest Lass in a’ the Warld’ (surely Burns could not have resisted it if it had been around in his day).
Daniel Dow was born in 1732 and died (of plague) in 1783 a year before the Dows began to publish their collections. He lived in Kirkmichael (Perthshire), moved to Edinburgh about 1765 and taught music, notably the guitar. Some of his music is standard repertoire, ‘Monymusk’ (he published it as ‘Sir Archibald Grant of Monemusk’s Reel’; the Gows changed the title), ‘The Bonnie Lass of Fisherrow’ and ‘Donald Dow’ (he called it ‘Lady Charlotte Murray’s Reel’). Dow published four collections of tunes from 1773. All available at NLS etc.
Alexander ‘King’ MacGlashan (1740-97) was an Edinburgh bandleader, so named because of his ‘stately and dressy’ appearance (Glen). But he is now remembered for three hefty collections of music (probably 1778, ‘81 and ‘86), most if not all gathered from old and contemporary sources rather than his own compositions. One of them is entitled ‘A Collection of Reels, consisting chiefly of Strathspeys, Athole Reels….’ An expression not found elsewhere. They can be seen at NLS and in other library collections.
Coming on to the Gows, the six volumes of ‘Gows Reels’ span the years 1784 to 1822 (fifteen years after Niel’s death). Nathaniel (accordion to Glen, the fourth son on Niel) masterminded the family’s music publishing and went on to produce ‘The Repository’ (4 volumes) and ‘The Beauties of Niel Gow’ (3 volumes) as well as six volumes on his own account - a book of marches, one of ‘Allamandes’ (waltzes) and two of random dance music. The book he assembled of his son Neil Gow Junior’s compositions (he died in his late twenties) contains some real delights and should be better known. So should the ‘Sixth Book of Gow’s Reels’ which doesn’t appear to have been reprinted and was ignored by the 19th century compilers presumably because it contained a lot of ‘Slow Tunes’. Some of these very beautiful and, like all the Gow collections, it’s easy to unearth in most of the principal libraries.
Box and Fiddle
August 2002
Another was John Pringle, born about 1770, possibly with Borders connections. His two volumes (published around 1801) contain 115 tunes of which only about 40 are not his own compositions. One or two rare gems include ‘The Bonniest Lass in a’ the Warld’ (surely Burns could not have resisted it if it had been around in his day).
Daniel Dow was born in 1732 and died (of plague) in 1783 a year before the Dows began to publish their collections. He lived in Kirkmichael (Perthshire), moved to Edinburgh about 1765 and taught music, notably the guitar. Some of his music is standard repertoire, ‘Monymusk’ (he published it as ‘Sir Archibald Grant of Monemusk’s Reel’; the Gows changed the title), ‘The Bonnie Lass of Fisherrow’ and ‘Donald Dow’ (he called it ‘Lady Charlotte Murray’s Reel’). Dow published four collections of tunes from 1773. All available at NLS etc.
Alexander ‘King’ MacGlashan (1740-97) was an Edinburgh bandleader, so named because of his ‘stately and dressy’ appearance (Glen). But he is now remembered for three hefty collections of music (probably 1778, ‘81 and ‘86), most if not all gathered from old and contemporary sources rather than his own compositions. One of them is entitled ‘A Collection of Reels, consisting chiefly of Strathspeys, Athole Reels….’ An expression not found elsewhere. They can be seen at NLS and in other library collections.
Coming on to the Gows, the six volumes of ‘Gows Reels’ span the years 1784 to 1822 (fifteen years after Niel’s death). Nathaniel (accordion to Glen, the fourth son on Niel) masterminded the family’s music publishing and went on to produce ‘The Repository’ (4 volumes) and ‘The Beauties of Niel Gow’ (3 volumes) as well as six volumes on his own account - a book of marches, one of ‘Allamandes’ (waltzes) and two of random dance music. The book he assembled of his son Neil Gow Junior’s compositions (he died in his late twenties) contains some real delights and should be better known. So should the ‘Sixth Book of Gow’s Reels’ which doesn’t appear to have been reprinted and was ignored by the 19th century compilers presumably because it contained a lot of ‘Slow Tunes’. Some of these very beautiful and, like all the Gow collections, it’s easy to unearth in most of the principal libraries.
Box and Fiddle
August 2002