6/8 Quickstep

Kerr’s Caledonian, 4; Logan’s Complete Tutor (1963), 24; 6/8 Pipe March SGSS 78 # 181 (A); Kerr’s Merry Melodies III 29 (G)[Atholl Gathering] Allan’s Reels 29 (A); [Atholl Gathering] Marr 17 (A); [Duke of Atholl’s Reel] RSCDS 16, 3 (A) [s–smd/smdrmf].

This is often called The Athole Gathering; but in the Cox MS., 164, as Duke of Atholes Pibroach. In that MS., 9, occurs The Atholl Highlanders March (4/4), a different tune entirely. [key A, 4/4: s,/d m-d s m-d/l s-s s ms/l- s fm rd/m r-r r s etc.]

 [Fiddler’s Companion:]

Musically, the tune contains a characteristic melodic cliché in Scottish music in which a figure is followed by the same or a related figure on the triad one tone below or above (Emmerson Rantin’ Pipe, 1971 [210]). The original Athole Highlanders (and the ones associated with the tune) were the old 77th Highland Regiment, raised in 1778 and commanded by Colonel James Murray. The 77th served in Ireland and was not engaged in active service, though its garrison services were apparently useful in freeing other units for the conflicts with America and France. They were disbanded in 1783 after those conflicts ended (although the disbanding may have come about because of a mutiny). The tune was later taken up as a march past by the 2nd Battalion of the Cameronians, the 90th Light Infantry, who over the years had shed their Scottish origins. However, when pipers were introduced in 1881 they recollected their Perthshire origins and chose to play “The Atholl Highlanders” (also known in pipe literature as “The Gathering of the Grahams”). The tune is associated in modern times with the dance called The Duke of Gordon’s Reel, so much so that Scottish dance musicians will sometimes call “Atholl Highlanders” by the name “Duke of Gordon’s Reel” (despite the fact that “Atholl Highlanders” is a jig). See also the early printing of the tune in Morison’s Highland Airs and Quicksteps, vol. 1 (No. 19), where it appears as “Duke of Atholl’s March”. Brody “Fiddler’s Fakebook” (1983), 27; Kerr “Merry Melodies” III, 29 (no. 265).