The Fiddle in Strathspey
by Bill Saddler
B&F June 2016
The Strathspey or ‘Sprathspey Reel’ originated, it is said, from Strathspey, that broad Strath of the River Spey, north of the Cairngorm mountains. It was originally written for the fiddle and used for dancing. It is actually a slow and stylised form of reel while the standard reel was known as an ‘Atholl Reel’.
It is the music of nature ”The voice of the storm reverberant along the mountain tops, the soughing of the wind through forests of pine, the patter of summer rain on birch leaves, the ripping murmur of a highland burn, and the louder music of the silvery Spey….”
The fiddle, of course, may not be Scotland’s oldest musical instrument though some form of bowed stringed instruments have been around in Scotland since Celtic times. The fiddle in the Highlands only grew in popularity in the late 17th century. It was not however unanimously popular with traditional harpists. Roderick Morrison, a harper-poet, allegedly declared (in Gaelic) “If fiddling be music, we’ve had enough of it!” Nevertheless in the 1690’s Aberdeen University professor James Garden wrote to John Aubrey that groups of women entertainers used to go from place to place with a fiddler who accompanied them both in dancing and singing. Another such fiddler was the legendary cateran James Macpherson, hanged at Banff in November 1700 and whose companion Peter Brown was possibly of the family of Browns of Kincardine who were later considered the originators of the Strathspey style.
“According to the tradition of the Country, the first who played them (Strathspey Reels) were the Browns of Kincardin: to whom are ascribed a few of the most ancient tunes. After these men, the Cummings of Freuchie, now Castle-Grant, were in the highest estimation of their knowledge and execution in Strathspey music; and most of the tunes handed down to us are certainly of their composing.”
The earliest Seafield reference to this family of hereditary pipers / musicians is possibly a 1653 “Letter of Pension, by which James Grant of Freuquhy becomes bound to cause his chamberlain on Inverallan to pay and deliver yearly to Alexander Cumming, his piper and violer (fiddler), twenty merks Scots money……” Alexander was succeeded as the Laird’s piper by William Cumming whose famous 1715 Richard Waitt portrait now hangs in the National Museum of Scotland. He was followed by John and then Angus Cumming both of whom had been out in the Forty-Five. Angus settled in Old Grantown and then in a house built for him in 1767/8 in the New Town. This was the first house built on the ‘South Side’ and was on the site of what is now the Claymore Bar. Angus Cumming’s ‘Collection of Strathspey or Old highland Reels’ was published posthumously in Edinburgh in 1780, “a volume of which is still of the highest authority.”
The Cumming tradition of composing Strathspeys was carried on by William Marshall (12748 – 1833) of Speyside who is described as “the most influential composer of the area” and “the most brilliant and prolific composer of reels and Strathspeys that Scotland has produced.” Through Marshall’s probably pupil, Charles Grant, Schoolmaster of Aberlour (1807-1892), something of his style of playing may have passed on to James Scott Skinner (1843-1927) ‘The Strathspey King.’ Meanwhile in Perthshire, fiddlers of the Athole Reel tradition such as Niel Gow (1727-1807) and Malcolm McDonald (b 1750) and many others in that golden age became well known, many of whom played regularly in Edinburgh.
At the time when Niel Gow was at the height of his popularity there were a great many talented fiddlers in Strathspey. One such was the father of the Rev. Peter Grant, Baptist minister in Grantown and composer of numerous Gaelic hymns. He wrote, “My father was a fiddler, a calling that was highly respected at the time and as he was the best in the country at it he was often called to marriages and to gentlemen’s houses for amusement to them, but when he began to hear the gospel faithfully stated, he began to be terrified that he should be the Ringleader in these vanities….” Like Luther, Peter Grant, also a talented fiddler, believed that the devil should not have all the good music and he used popular fiddle tunes as music for his psalms.
By the middle of the 19th century fiddle competitions were emerging as a platform for the performance of Scottish traditional music. There were, for example, competitions in Glasgow in 1855 with a prize of a gold medal and a purse of five guineas and in Edinburgh in 1856 with gold and silver medals “in order to impart a stimulus to the study and practical cultivation of our National Music….” Nevertheless as the Elgin Courant 24th February 1854 pointed out there was no shortage of talent in Strathspey. “the natives of Strathspey have long enjoyed world-wide fame for proficiency and skill in the music and dancing, and from the following it would appear that the palm is in no danger of being quickly transferred to any other part of the Highlands.” The writer goes on to outline a wedding in Carrbridge followed by dancing to no less than 14 fiddlers. Reference is made to another event, “in a certain hospitable mansion in Strathspey” at which to the astonishment of a lady visitor, a “fiddle was handed round to every gentleman present, and all were well skilled in its use.” The lady was assured that, had all the male population of Strathspey been present the result would have been exactly the same.”
Not everyone agreed. ‘Tullochgorum’ writing in the Inverness courier in august 1862 suggests that, “a portion of funds annually bestowed on pipe-playing….might be devoted to a prize for fiddle-playing of reels and Strathspeys, an art which…is now fast dying out.” Perhaps as an indirect consequence of this an annual violin competition was established in Grantown in 1883 and this ran for some years. In 1886, the Aberdeen Weekly Journal ran a story on the Grantown Violin Competition. “On Friday evening the annual violin competition in strathspeys and slow airs took place in the Public Hall, Grantown, in the presence of a very large audience. Mr Grant, Lethendry Lodge, Grantown, presided, and was supported on the platform by Major Grant, Glen-Urquhart.” One of the two judges was Charles Grant from Aberlour, former pupil of William Marshall and known locally as ‘Schooley’ Grant. First prize in each of the two categories was a gold medal with runners-up receiving 15/- and 10/-. By 1905 the competition had extended to “A violin and bagpipe competition and concert in the Strathspey Public Hall……..the proceeds of which are in aid of the fund being raised for the purpose of providing work for the unemployed, a large number of whom are now engaged levelling and forming a footpath on the old road leading from the town to the River Spey.” By 1907 the annual musical competitions “included singing, violin and bagpipe playing, and the playing of any musical instrument.” Again there was a large audience and there were 32 entries. During these latter years, whilst there were many local talented musicians, Grantown boasted one especially musical family. The Aberdeen Journal of September 30, 1905 reported: “The awards in the Helpers’ League competition, instituted some time ago by the proprietors of ‘The Musical Home Journal’ have just been announced, the first prize – a Brinsmead upright grand piano, valued at one hundred guineas going to Grantown-on-Spey. The competition was practically open to the whole world. Mr J. Howat, A.V.C., the winner, is well known in the north as a skilful violinist and pleasing vocalist. It deserves to be mentioned that Howat’s family – four in number – are also musical. His eldest – Master Joseph, a lad of 13 – has been before the public as a violinist since he was five years of age. In March 1903, master Howat came to Aberdeen and at a City concerts Competition – open to Scotland – carried off the gold medal for violin playing. Instrumentally the Howat family occupy an honoured position on the concert platform. The combination, in band form, includes violin, mandoline, cello and piano – the youngest performer being only seven years old.”
Through the first quarter of the twentieth century the tradition of Strathspey fiddlers was continued by many individuals. One such legendary character was James Macqueen (d1928), familiar for years on the Highland line south and east of Inverness. He both played at stations and on trains especially troop trains during the war years. He was considered to have few rivals in the north as an exponent of Strathspeys and reels.
The Grantown Strathspey and Reel Society was inaugurated in 1928 and by 1933 had 42 members. Many of the fiddlers no doubt took part in the competition for the Countess of Seafield’s Silver Cup for Strathspeys and Reels and which was competed for from the late 20’s to the late 30’s. It too was designed to give “impetus to the study and practice of Highland music, and particularly Strathspeys and Reels in the district from which they took their name. The competitions were held under the auspices of the Strathspey and Reels society. Contemporary newspapers leave no doubt about the popularity of these events. For example the Dundee Courier of April 1931 reported “From the appearance of Grantown streets it seemed like the while district was interested in the competition for the silver cup presented by Lady Seafield for violin playing of strathspeys and reels. Hundreds of people came to the town from rural areas.” The search is now on to find out what happened to the trophy
Music in Strathspey continues to thrive with help from enthusiastic teachers and supportive parents. In 2015 as part of Grantown’s sestercentennial celebrations a fiddle competition was reintroduced to the town. The Fiddler of Strathspey Festival was set up to celebrate the playing of Strathspeys, especially the work of Grantown’s own fiddler, Angus Cumming. The winner of the Fiddler of Strathspey Maggie Adamson trophy was Ailsa Hepburn from Carrbridge.
With such fiddle competitions, the work of the schools, good local interest and the support of the Feis movement, the music of the Spey is in good hands.
It is the music of nature ”The voice of the storm reverberant along the mountain tops, the soughing of the wind through forests of pine, the patter of summer rain on birch leaves, the ripping murmur of a highland burn, and the louder music of the silvery Spey….”
The fiddle, of course, may not be Scotland’s oldest musical instrument though some form of bowed stringed instruments have been around in Scotland since Celtic times. The fiddle in the Highlands only grew in popularity in the late 17th century. It was not however unanimously popular with traditional harpists. Roderick Morrison, a harper-poet, allegedly declared (in Gaelic) “If fiddling be music, we’ve had enough of it!” Nevertheless in the 1690’s Aberdeen University professor James Garden wrote to John Aubrey that groups of women entertainers used to go from place to place with a fiddler who accompanied them both in dancing and singing. Another such fiddler was the legendary cateran James Macpherson, hanged at Banff in November 1700 and whose companion Peter Brown was possibly of the family of Browns of Kincardine who were later considered the originators of the Strathspey style.
“According to the tradition of the Country, the first who played them (Strathspey Reels) were the Browns of Kincardin: to whom are ascribed a few of the most ancient tunes. After these men, the Cummings of Freuchie, now Castle-Grant, were in the highest estimation of their knowledge and execution in Strathspey music; and most of the tunes handed down to us are certainly of their composing.”
The earliest Seafield reference to this family of hereditary pipers / musicians is possibly a 1653 “Letter of Pension, by which James Grant of Freuquhy becomes bound to cause his chamberlain on Inverallan to pay and deliver yearly to Alexander Cumming, his piper and violer (fiddler), twenty merks Scots money……” Alexander was succeeded as the Laird’s piper by William Cumming whose famous 1715 Richard Waitt portrait now hangs in the National Museum of Scotland. He was followed by John and then Angus Cumming both of whom had been out in the Forty-Five. Angus settled in Old Grantown and then in a house built for him in 1767/8 in the New Town. This was the first house built on the ‘South Side’ and was on the site of what is now the Claymore Bar. Angus Cumming’s ‘Collection of Strathspey or Old highland Reels’ was published posthumously in Edinburgh in 1780, “a volume of which is still of the highest authority.”
The Cumming tradition of composing Strathspeys was carried on by William Marshall (12748 – 1833) of Speyside who is described as “the most influential composer of the area” and “the most brilliant and prolific composer of reels and Strathspeys that Scotland has produced.” Through Marshall’s probably pupil, Charles Grant, Schoolmaster of Aberlour (1807-1892), something of his style of playing may have passed on to James Scott Skinner (1843-1927) ‘The Strathspey King.’ Meanwhile in Perthshire, fiddlers of the Athole Reel tradition such as Niel Gow (1727-1807) and Malcolm McDonald (b 1750) and many others in that golden age became well known, many of whom played regularly in Edinburgh.
At the time when Niel Gow was at the height of his popularity there were a great many talented fiddlers in Strathspey. One such was the father of the Rev. Peter Grant, Baptist minister in Grantown and composer of numerous Gaelic hymns. He wrote, “My father was a fiddler, a calling that was highly respected at the time and as he was the best in the country at it he was often called to marriages and to gentlemen’s houses for amusement to them, but when he began to hear the gospel faithfully stated, he began to be terrified that he should be the Ringleader in these vanities….” Like Luther, Peter Grant, also a talented fiddler, believed that the devil should not have all the good music and he used popular fiddle tunes as music for his psalms.
By the middle of the 19th century fiddle competitions were emerging as a platform for the performance of Scottish traditional music. There were, for example, competitions in Glasgow in 1855 with a prize of a gold medal and a purse of five guineas and in Edinburgh in 1856 with gold and silver medals “in order to impart a stimulus to the study and practical cultivation of our National Music….” Nevertheless as the Elgin Courant 24th February 1854 pointed out there was no shortage of talent in Strathspey. “the natives of Strathspey have long enjoyed world-wide fame for proficiency and skill in the music and dancing, and from the following it would appear that the palm is in no danger of being quickly transferred to any other part of the Highlands.” The writer goes on to outline a wedding in Carrbridge followed by dancing to no less than 14 fiddlers. Reference is made to another event, “in a certain hospitable mansion in Strathspey” at which to the astonishment of a lady visitor, a “fiddle was handed round to every gentleman present, and all were well skilled in its use.” The lady was assured that, had all the male population of Strathspey been present the result would have been exactly the same.”
Not everyone agreed. ‘Tullochgorum’ writing in the Inverness courier in august 1862 suggests that, “a portion of funds annually bestowed on pipe-playing….might be devoted to a prize for fiddle-playing of reels and Strathspeys, an art which…is now fast dying out.” Perhaps as an indirect consequence of this an annual violin competition was established in Grantown in 1883 and this ran for some years. In 1886, the Aberdeen Weekly Journal ran a story on the Grantown Violin Competition. “On Friday evening the annual violin competition in strathspeys and slow airs took place in the Public Hall, Grantown, in the presence of a very large audience. Mr Grant, Lethendry Lodge, Grantown, presided, and was supported on the platform by Major Grant, Glen-Urquhart.” One of the two judges was Charles Grant from Aberlour, former pupil of William Marshall and known locally as ‘Schooley’ Grant. First prize in each of the two categories was a gold medal with runners-up receiving 15/- and 10/-. By 1905 the competition had extended to “A violin and bagpipe competition and concert in the Strathspey Public Hall……..the proceeds of which are in aid of the fund being raised for the purpose of providing work for the unemployed, a large number of whom are now engaged levelling and forming a footpath on the old road leading from the town to the River Spey.” By 1907 the annual musical competitions “included singing, violin and bagpipe playing, and the playing of any musical instrument.” Again there was a large audience and there were 32 entries. During these latter years, whilst there were many local talented musicians, Grantown boasted one especially musical family. The Aberdeen Journal of September 30, 1905 reported: “The awards in the Helpers’ League competition, instituted some time ago by the proprietors of ‘The Musical Home Journal’ have just been announced, the first prize – a Brinsmead upright grand piano, valued at one hundred guineas going to Grantown-on-Spey. The competition was practically open to the whole world. Mr J. Howat, A.V.C., the winner, is well known in the north as a skilful violinist and pleasing vocalist. It deserves to be mentioned that Howat’s family – four in number – are also musical. His eldest – Master Joseph, a lad of 13 – has been before the public as a violinist since he was five years of age. In March 1903, master Howat came to Aberdeen and at a City concerts Competition – open to Scotland – carried off the gold medal for violin playing. Instrumentally the Howat family occupy an honoured position on the concert platform. The combination, in band form, includes violin, mandoline, cello and piano – the youngest performer being only seven years old.”
Through the first quarter of the twentieth century the tradition of Strathspey fiddlers was continued by many individuals. One such legendary character was James Macqueen (d1928), familiar for years on the Highland line south and east of Inverness. He both played at stations and on trains especially troop trains during the war years. He was considered to have few rivals in the north as an exponent of Strathspeys and reels.
The Grantown Strathspey and Reel Society was inaugurated in 1928 and by 1933 had 42 members. Many of the fiddlers no doubt took part in the competition for the Countess of Seafield’s Silver Cup for Strathspeys and Reels and which was competed for from the late 20’s to the late 30’s. It too was designed to give “impetus to the study and practice of Highland music, and particularly Strathspeys and Reels in the district from which they took their name. The competitions were held under the auspices of the Strathspey and Reels society. Contemporary newspapers leave no doubt about the popularity of these events. For example the Dundee Courier of April 1931 reported “From the appearance of Grantown streets it seemed like the while district was interested in the competition for the silver cup presented by Lady Seafield for violin playing of strathspeys and reels. Hundreds of people came to the town from rural areas.” The search is now on to find out what happened to the trophy
Music in Strathspey continues to thrive with help from enthusiastic teachers and supportive parents. In 2015 as part of Grantown’s sestercentennial celebrations a fiddle competition was reintroduced to the town. The Fiddler of Strathspey Festival was set up to celebrate the playing of Strathspeys, especially the work of Grantown’s own fiddler, Angus Cumming. The winner of the Fiddler of Strathspey Maggie Adamson trophy was Ailsa Hepburn from Carrbridge.
With such fiddle competitions, the work of the schools, good local interest and the support of the Feis movement, the music of the Spey is in good hands.