> Does anyone know whom Skinner is referencing in the title [The Warrior > o' Persie]? Was he a contemporary (i.e. Victorian) military figure?
Persie is unknown to my Scottish gazetteer. Which collection was this from? When? Skinner was usally topical with his dedications. If "Persie" is Persia, the tune is probably post-WW1 and the dedicatee would most likely be the pro-British Shah Reza Pahlavi, who rose to power between 1921 and 1926. I recommend the scathing description of his regime a few years later in Robert Byron's "The Road to Oxiana" - one of the funniest pieces of travel writing I know (Reza is codenamed "Marjoribanks" throughout, as it was unsafe to talk about him by name in case his spies reported something derogatary, and Byron had already used "Mr Smith" for Mussolini for the same reason). I don't think Reza visited Britain in Skinner's lifetime, though. There was a British invasion of Persia in 1915 but it was hardly a major campaign and I don't know the name of the general in charge of it. The tune is a recycled 18th century reel but I can't remember the original title. =================== <http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/> =================== Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
