James R Findlater, 19th Century Scottish Fiddler

[nigelgatherer]

James R Findlater was a fiddler who lived in Broughty Ferry, Dundee, during the 19th century. He composed strathspeys, reels, hornpipes and waltzes, and during the 1850s for some reason he sent copies of his tunes to a Donald McIntosh in Dundee. Somewhere along the line these hand-written tunes were bound, and the manuscript now is an the library in Perth, part of the fascinating Atholl Collection, compiled by Dorothea Ruggles-Brise.

In 1999 I spent some happy times in the library, studying the manuscript collection and making notes. I have now collected my copies of the pages, and also included my personal notes made at the time in a small notebook. There is a chance that others might be interested in this, so I have made it available to download from:

FindlatersMS.pdf

or

FindlatersMS.pdf

Any comments and insights welcome, and any problems with the download (18Mb), please let me know.

[Jack Campin]

There are some pretty interesting tunes in there.

I wonder if we could have a "Findlater Day" somewhere to get together and play them?

[Jack Campin]

There's something wrong with the PDF. I can only print the first 2 pages. Views on screen okay, but Findlater's writing wasn't that great, so I need it on paper.

[Jack Campin]

I have found a workaround, if you're patient and have a Mac. GraphicConverter will open and print the file. It's very very slow, probably because it's sending enormous bitmap images to the printer.

[Jack Campin]

Do you know for sure the guy was a fiddler?

He had an amazing fondness for flat keys. The tunes do fit the fiddle, but the key distribution looks much more like what a piano player would come up with.

[nigelgatherer]

No, I don't know for certain he was a fiddler. I do understand a fondness for flat keys, because once I'd conquered, say, B flat, I loved tunes in B flat and G minor.