String Ensemble,String Trio Cello,Violin - Level 3 - Digital Download
SKU: A0.961701
Arranged by Gary Arrington. Celtic,Folk. Score and parts. 4 pages. Gary Hobart Arrington #6063387. Published by Gary Hobart Arrington (A0.961701).
The story of the song is largely true. James MacPherson was an outlaw in the North East of Scotland, one of the travelling people and the leader of a band of robbers.
MacPherson was caught in Keith and hanged at the Cross of Banff on 16 November 1700.
MacPherson was a fine fiddler, and he composed this tune the night before he was hanged and played it on the scaffold. Then he offered to give his fiddle to anyone who would play the tune at his wake. No-one would, so he smashed the fiddle. Anyone who had accepted it would have shown themselves to be a relative or friend of his and so liable to arrest themselves.
The song is also known as 'MacPherson's Farewell'. Robert Burns rewrote the song, but these are the traditional lyrics. The tune is very popular amongst Scottish fiddlers.
The pieces of MacPherson’s fiddle are displayed in the MacPherson Clan House Museum in Newtonmore.
