Dan R. MacDonald

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Dan Rory MacDonald (1911 - 1976), born in Judique, Inverness County on Cape Breton Island, became one of Cape Breton's most prolific composers of fiddle tunes.

Usually known as "Dan R.", MacDonald took an early interest in music, encouraged by his fiddle-playing father. He made his first radio appearance in 1935 on station CJCB in Sydney. The next year he composed his first tune - a reel called The Red Shoes. He made his first recording in 1939, including one of his own compositions called Lassies of Campbell Street. Dan R. enlisted in the army in 1940, and saw service in Britain, France, Germany, and Belgium. While stationed at Abergeldie Castle in Scotland he played regularly on the BBC. He also met J. Murdoch Henderson, a noted Scottish composer and music critic. Impressed with Dan R.'s abilities, Henderson taught him some of the intricacies of the music, and had a considerable lasting influence on him. During his time in Scotland Dan R. composed Heather Hill, which he supposedly wrote down on a tree stump while working in the woods.

After his discharge in 1946 Dan R. moved first briefly to Boston, and then to Hamilton, Ontario, before spending eleven years in Windsor working in automotive plants. The Detroit-Windsor area had a large number of transplanted Cape Bretoners, and Dan R. became immersed in the local music scene. He became part of the group the Five MacDonald Fiddlers, organized by a fiddler named Johnnie Archie MacDonald. The group recorded two LPs.

In 1957, Dan R. left Windsor and moved to the mining town of Elliot Lake. However, he soon had to give up his job due to failing eyesight, and he moved back to Nova Scotia in 1959. He first settled in Sydney, where he recorded four LPs for Rodeo Records. He spent his remaining years living in various parts of Cape Breton. During the 1970s he became a regular performer on the CBC Television program Ceilidh. He made his final public performance in July 1976 at a concert at Broad Cove. He died on September 20, 1976 at Inverness, Nova Scotia.

Although Dan R. had a reputation as an outstanding fiddler, people remember him best for his composing - during his lifetime, Dan R. composed over a thousand tunes (some sources put the number at over two thousand). Many of his compositions have become part of the "standard" Cape Breton repertoire, and other musicians have frequently recorded them. In addition to the ones already mentioned, some of his best known tunes include Lime Hill, Tom Rae, The Boys of the Lake, The Trip to Windsor, and Reichwall Forest. Two published volumes of Dan R.'s compositions exist: The Heather Hill Collection and The Trip To Windsor Collection.

[edit] References

• Cameron, John Donald (2000), The Heather Hill Collection
• MacGillivray, Allister (1981), The Cape Breton Fiddler, College of Cape Breton Press. ISBN 0-920336-12-4.