Highland Collections

A beautiful new book (in excess of 170 pages) published by the Highland Music Trust, featuring the music of seven 18th and 19th century fiddler-composers from the Highlands of Scotland.

Extract from Publishers' Note: Today's players and scholars have a hunger for good tunes from Scotland's past, to which they can give new life by letting them be heard again. Much of this valuable music has for long been available only in a small number of surviving copies of the originals, to be found in private hands or by patient research in libraries. Our group of fiddler/composers is linked by a geographical thread, but their music, spanning a century, shows a variety of style, both in the original compositions and in the other dance tunes of the times which formed part of the compilers' repertoire.

The Collectors (each with indexes)
William Christie (1778 - 1849): Dancing-master and fiddler-composer of Cuminestown, near Turriff, Aberdeenshire.
Isaac Cooper (c1755 - 1820): A fiddler-composer and dancing-master in Banff.
Angus Cumming (c1750 - c1800): followed the profession of his forefathers..for many generations, musicians in Strathspey.
Charles Grant, M.A. (1807 - 1892): For 30 years a schoolmaster in Aberlour, where he was much admired for his music.
Donald Grant (c1760 - c1835): Fiddler-composer and dancing-master born in Elgin.
James Henry (1860 - 1914): Born in Garmond Aberdeenshire, Henry was leader of the Aberdeen Strathspey and Reel Society.
William Morrison (c1780 - after 1825) A native of Culloden, by Inverness, he published a collection of Highland Music..