Robert Mackintosh: Edinburgh fiddler and composer of dance tunes

About Robert Mackintosh

Mackintosh was born at Tullymet, near Pitlochry in Perthshire, about 1745. By 1773 he was living in Skinner's Close off Edinburgh's High Street, teaching music and playing in the orchestra of the Edinburgh Musical Society. From 1785 to 1788 he was in Aberdeen, leading the Gentleman's Concerts, and he later moved to London, where he died in 1807. The nickname Red Rob came from his hair.

His first collection appeared in 1783 with 54 pieces, 17 of them reels. A second followed in Edinburgh in 1793 with 73 pieces, a third in 1796 with 117, and a fourth in London in 1804 with 113 more. The titles mix strathspeys, reels and jigs with minuets and gavottes, the dance forms that filled Scottish assembly rooms. Modern recordings include Concerto Caledonia's Airs, Minuets, Gavotts and Reels (2013) and Pete Clark's Mackintosh at Murthly (2004).

The 91 scores come to about 102 minutes and 19,754 notated notes, all without lyrics. Difficulty is almost uniform: 89 entries sit at complexity index 1 and two at index 0, which reflects the short, single-line character of the tunes rather than easy reading. Titles carry the composer's name as a prefix, spelled both Mackintosh and MacKintosh, and a few add tags such as '(C)' or extra spacing that have no musical meaning.

Listening and playing notes

Expect a single melody line with a bass, not a full four-part texture. Strathspeys need the Scotch snap, a short-long pair that gives the dance its lift; reels run in even quavers and should stay metronomic so the dancers can trust the pulse. Ornaments such as cuts and strikes are rarely written in, so add them where the line repeats. If the score is a keyboard arrangement, the melody sits in the right hand and the left hand supplies the bass.

Selected scores

1. Mr. John Trotter's Hornpipe

   A hornpipe from the collections and one of the two most-viewed Mackintosh scores here.

2. Mrs. Grant's Fancy

   A short dance air with a descriptive rather than a formal title, one of several 'fancies' in the catalogue.

3. Miss Barbara Cunningham

   A tune named for a woman of the Cunningham family, the usual dedication practice in Scottish tune books.

4. Mrs Russell of Blackhall

   Named for a landed family; Blackhall lies near Aberdeen, where he directed the Gentleman's Concerts in the late 1780s.

5. Miss Jane Wedderburn's Reel

   A reel in the Scots manner, four beats to the bar with the weight on the first and third.

6. Miss Ogilvie's Fancy

   One of several 'fancy' titles in the catalogue, shorter and less formal than the named strathspeys.

7. Lord Elcho

   A tune carrying a noble title, the kind of dedication that helped sell subscription collections.

8. Miss Stewart's Reel

   A reel built on short repeated phrases, the shape that makes Scottish dance tunes easy to pick up by ear.

9. Miss Grant of Grant's Reel

   The doubled name is a Highland title: 'Grant of Grant' designates the clan chief, and 'Miss' his daughter.

10. Miss Campbell of Saddell's Strathspey

    A strathspey named for the Campbell family of Saddell in Argyll; the catalogue spells the place with one 'd' and adds an unexplained '(C)'.