Neil Gow's Lament

Link: #1096

Some songs can change your life! I'd like to share with you all that changed mine... "Neil Gow's Lament for His Second Wife."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2PQDiJyHg0
Neil Gow was a musician/...

Some songs can change your life! I'd like to share with you all that changed mine... "Neil Gow's Lament for His Second Wife."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2PQDiJyHg0
Neil Gow was a musician/composer in 18c. Scotland. He played for all the landed gentry in the Perth area. This particular song, however, is not for country dancing... it is a true lament as only the Scots can do.
I purchased a CD, whose description promised an authentic recording of 18c. Scottish music performed without manipulation of sound room device in Blair Castle and also performed on Gow's actual fiddle. Tract #15 was Gow's Lament for his Second Wife, who was obviously the love of his life. He never gave it a proper name (he couldn't bear it) and he composed it for one fiddle and one cello (Gow played the violin and his brother played the cello).
In a word, the piece is "haunting." You will hear of course Gow's deep grief but you will also be met by a part in the song where you feel him indulge in the many happy memories he has of his wife and the married life they shared, only to return to deep mourning again as he realizes he was lost in song....
How did this song change my life? I bought a fiddle! and I learned how to play this song, and in doing so, it sparked a fire in me to learn about roots so deeply anchored in myself that I would quest for why I was moved so by 18c. Scottish music and histories. Because of this song, I would travel to Scotland to investigate some of the instincts that were awakening in myself. One trip would take me to Perth, were I would visit the home where Gow and his beloved Margaret lived and loved together(they were married in Perth in 1768.) While in Perth I stayed at Dougie MacLean's Music Bar and had a lesson from Pete Clark who produced the CD that had wakened me to the rich rewards in finding out who we are and why we love and hate the things we do...that was 15 years ago...
I still play the fiddle; the laments will always be my favorite pieces.... I will never be a great fiddler, but never-the-less, the companionship of that wee spruce box and strings as well as the music and the stories transports me sometimes so that I feel like a queen...
God Bless and Keep you All...
Thanks for the space and time to revisit happy memories ~A

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Neil Gow's Lament

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Angela McKay

Link: #1096