Annie Laurie

[nigelgatherer]

Anna “Annie” Laurie (1682-1764) has been immortalised in a song supposed to stem from a frustrated romance with Captain William Douglas. Although its original authorship is in question, it was developed by Lady John Scott, and the song became popular all over the word. Instumental versions are common: in Ireland it is played as a polka (The Scartaglen Polka), while in the United States as a waltz. My setting here is based on a version by Oregon fiddler Vivian Williams, who includes it as part of her “Songs from the Civil War” show. You can see her playing it in the video below. In the meantime, to download the mandolin music, click on this sheet:

[John Kelly]

Interesting arrangement, Nigel. I really like the double stops she uses as the tune progresses.

Thanks for posting - it's been a bit quiet around here for a while.

[JAJ]

Lovely.

I'd never thought of it as being the same tune as The Scartaglen Polka  but you're right.

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John.

Yes, very quiet around here. I think everyone's on Facebook these days but I don't like that at all. I use it very sparingly as it's far too easy for people to find out about your business. It's not good for discussion or debate either and is more of an "echo chamber".

I miss the activity on forums such as these.

[John Kelly]

Hello JAJ.  Always glad to see another Facebook rebel!  I noticed that Alcluith had also noted the lack of activity when he posted in the Flanders thread.  Maybe since the forum was down last year people have gone elsewhere;  I notice we have fewer signed-up members nowadays, and it was difficult to get signed up again after the crash.  I would hate not to have this site as it has so much to offer and not just for mandolins, and one does tend to meet a better class of person around here!  

[Jack Campin]

Facebook does some things well (notably the Messenger, which really is good), but there are a few things special purpose forums do much better:

- maintaining a discussion over the long term so it can be updated

- knowing exactly who's going to see what you write (rather than worry about exposing too much, I'm more often concerned about spending too much time writing something hardly anyone will see)

- searchability: I first heard about Martin Boland's death yesterday on Mudcat, and the person who announced it said there were hundreds of posts on Facebook about it, but can I find them? There seems to be no way to do a Google-like search for any posts on FB that mentioned him recently.

[Alcluith]

I have also stopped using Facebook and closed all Google email accounts, they are both very intrusive. I use "DUCKDUCKGO" as my search engine and I have managed to stop about 90% of my junk mail and assorted scamware, so these companies need to do a lot better before I would consider going back to them.

This site is one of the best on the internet for music and as a budding mandolin player, with a lot of help from Nigel, I only wish the forum was used much more.
Like John I use Musescore 2 and find it invaluable for writing TABS and with the ABC plugin it opens a terrific source of tunes. I have a vast list of Tabbed music in PDF, just wish I could do them justice, but getting there slowly.

Alcluith

[Trish Santer]

I can never hear "Annie Laurie" without remembering my parents' story of their courting days, back in the early 1940s. So if you'll forgive a bit of family folklore....Mum and Dad were out walking somewhere in rural Renfrewshire when Mum felt the need to answer "a call of nature". As she retreated into the bushes, she instructed Dad to whistle "Annie Laurie" if anyone came by: so Dad stood guard and someone DID come by, but he then forgot the tune! No idea if he whistled anything else or just froze!
Apologies for a non-serious-musical post!