Highlander's Farewell: A Song History
The old-time "Highlander's Farewell" is known from the repertoire of Emmett Lundy (1864–1953), a fiddler from Grayson County in southwestern Virginia, who indicated that he had learned it from his mentor, the fiddler Green Leonard.[1] Alan and Elizabeth Lomax recorded Lundy at Galax, Virginia, in August 1941 for the Library of Congress's Archive of Folk Song, and his "Highlander's Farewell" was among the performances issued in 1977 on the String Records LP Fiddle Tunes From Grayson County, Virginia.[2] On the recording Lundy gave his own account of the tune: in his story, a Highlander leaving the Lowlands is allowed only a short time to take leave of his sweetheart there, and the low part of the tune stands for him while the high part stands for her.[1]
Winslow Homer, The Seventy Ninth Regiment (Highlanders), New York State Militia, wood engraving from Harper's Weekly, May 25, 1861. A kilted New York regiment, shown for the tune's title; it has no connection to the tune.
The Traditional Tune Archive classes Lundy's tune as an American reel in A Dorian and identifies it as a variant of the Scottish "Highlander's Farewell to Ireland."[1] The Archive describes that older tune as a Scottish fiddle strathspey meant to sound like the pipes; it cites John Glen (1891) as finding its earliest printing in Neil Stewart's 1761 collection, and it lists Robert Ross's 1780 Edinburgh collection, where the tune appears as "The Highlander's Farewell."[3]
The tune has since been recorded by revival players, among them Malcolm Dalglish and Grey Larsen on Thunderhead (1982) and Andy Cahan on Old Time Friends (1987), and it was printed in the first volume of Phillips's Traditional American Fiddle Tunes in 1994.[1] Phyllis Gaskins includes it among the A tunes in Galax Dulcimer: A Job Of Journey Work, a book of songs, instruction and history for the Galax-style dulcimer, with all strings tuned to D, published by Fingers Of Steel.[4]
Sources
- The Traditional Tune Archive: "Highlander's Farewell (4)".
- Mainly Norfolk: "Emmett W. Lundy: Fiddle Tunes From Grayson County, Virginia".
- The Traditional Tune Archive: "Highlander's Farewell to Ireland (1) (The)".
- Fingers Of Steel: "Phyllis Gaskins, Galax Dulcimer: A Job Of Journey Work".
- Image: Winslow Homer, The Seventy Ninth Regiment (Highlanders), New York State Militia, wood engraving from Harper's Weekly, May 25, 1861. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.