February Tunes - 2026

Three tunes in Flat Keys

Click the tune name for the notation

- YouTube Music audio links are separate (just wait for the ads to be over, or leaving the site and returning sometimes skips them!)

The Beauty of the North is a nice slow strathspey, in E flat major, often played in competitions to showcase a violinist’s ability. 

Composed by Captain Simon Fraser, it was first published in 1816 in his ‘Knockie Collection’.

The pace of the tune varies widely from musician to musician:

Compare these renditions on YouTube music:   

Patsy Reid ,     Maxwell Quartet,    Alasdair Fraser, and  Ron Gonnella,   

(Patsy’s is my favorite ;=) )

The Bee’s Wing  is a hornpipe in B flat major composed by James Hill (1813-1853).  Hill was born in Dundee and lived most of his life near Newcastle-on-Tyne, Northumberland. He wrote the tune in honor of a famous race horse, Beeswing (1833–1854), a thoroughbred mare from the north of England. She had her hey-day in the 1830's and 1840's, winning 51 races and 25 Gold Cups including the coveted Ascot Gold Cup of 1842.
 Hill apparently liked horse racing and/or horses, for several of his tunes are named for them e.g The Flying Dutchman and Underhand. The Flying Dutchman sired one of Beeswing's foals.

Listen to these quite different versions of the hornpipe on the YouTube music site: Mary Laplant,  Paul Anderson, Fiddlin’ Johnny,  and  Jonny Conolly

(I like the way Mary makes the tune her own)

The third tune is a great G minor jig Lady Elizabeth Coles Reel  by Robert Mackintosh. We already have the tune in our repertoire (SRS 13.1). Sylvia presented it on the same page with Loch Ruan, when she began her position as music director in September 2000.

This version fixes a typo in the 5th measure (Eb-C-Eb, instead of F-C-F) and includes a different take on the accompaniment chords in this Ian Muir arrangement.

Ian, an accordionist, is the current music director for the RSCDS in Scotland. Here is a sheet of practice measures that he gave out at a class I attended. Notice that he uses a different ‘slash chord’ notation, putting the bass note first on these pages.

Here are the YouTube music selections for Lady Elizabeth Cole’s Reel: Spirit Fiddler,   Melinda Crawford (at 1:01),   Stringfire

(My vote here is for Stringfire’s bouncy jig)

I hope you enjoy these tunes, and play them the way that gives you joy!

Stay warm, and take care of your instruments.