The Ballindalloch manuscript, written by the Donald MacKay, nephew of Angus MacKay, has now been added to the website. It contains 23 tunes, and is a significant addition to our collection, complimenting the manuscript written by John Smith, around the same time.
Both manuscript show mainly the style of Angus MacKay, but there are differences. For example, the start of His Fathers Lament for Donald MacKenzie and the crunluath variation of MacCrimmon’s Sweetheart in the Ballindalloch MS.
- Jack Taylor
When compared with the settings of “His Father’s Lament” in Ronald MacKenzie’s ms and David Glen, Donald MacKay’s setting appears off kilter. I’m not the expert that Jack Taylor is, but Donald MacKay’s setting of the tune is how I would imagine Angus MacKay to set the tune if he had. Putting the “1” beat on the cadence ‘e’ when it clearly goes on the ‘c’ is characteristic of Angus MacKay, and many who followed him. I’d paste a jpg of the setting in Ronald MacKenzie’s ms but for some reason this program won’t let me paste any images. At any rate, it would be difficult for Donald MacKay’s setting to differ from Angus MacKay’s setting of the tune because Angus MacKay died four years before it was composed.