Key signature: Gmajor
Submitted on March 12th 2007 by Falkbeer.
This tune has been added to 4 tunebooks.
Recordings of a tune by this name:
X: 1
T: Duncan Gray
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Gmaj
"G"DG FG | "D7"ABF2 | "G"G2"Am"A>c |1 "G"BGG2 :|2 "G"BG Gd ||
"G"Bd dc/B/ | "C"ccc2 | "Am"cB AG | "D7"F/G/A/F/ D2 |
"G"dB"Am"cA |"G"BG"D7"A2 | "G"G2"Am"A>c | "G"BGG2 |]
Duncan Gray
I think this is a great tune, and I play it myself a lot on the tin whistle. I´ve transcribed it from the 1965 LP "I love Scotland" with Rob Gordon. This transcription is very close to Gordons own playing. He plays Duncan Gray in a session with two other tunes. (He calles the whole session General Stuart´s reel)
"General Stuart´s reel"
1. The Stuart´s rant
2. There was a lad born in Kyle
3. Duncan Gray
(4. The Stuart´s rant - da capo ad lib)
This is a scottish reel, which is generally not played as fast as the traditional irish reel.
Who was Duncan Gray?
# Posted on March 12th 2007 by Falkbeer
Duncan Gray
Duncan Gray was a carter in Glasgow during the early 18th century, and is supposed to have composed the tune; the story goes that the tune was written down from his whistling by a Glasgow musician, and later appeared in Oswald's Caledonian Pocket Companion.
In the 1790s Burns added words to the tune, and the song has been popular in Scotland for many a long year.
Duncan Gray cam' here to woo,
Ha, ha, the wooing o't,
On blythe Yule-night when we were fu', [fu' = drunk
Ha, ha, the wooing o't,
Maggie coost her head fu' heigh, [coost = cast
Look'd asklent and unco skeigh, [askance; unco = very; skeigh = proud, saucy
Gart poor Duncan stand abeigh; [gart = made; abeigh = at a shy distance
Ha, ha, the wooing o't.
# Posted on March 13th 2007 by nigelg