Peter Milne
by Dr Paul Anderson MBE
As a fiddler from Tarland I've had an interest in Peter Milne and his music for about as long as I can remember. Before I could play, the handsome memorial stone overlooking the square was an almost daily reminder that Peter Milne had been a great man who had not only been a fiddler but a fiddler from Tarland!
Even before I'd started fiddle lessons at the age of nine, much of the music I listened to as I grew up was Scottish but at that time the name of Peter Milne meant little to me - it was merely the name of the man on the stone - but over time and with greater experience I came to understand his true genius and great contribution to our national music.
The fiddle music of Scotland is one of our great national treasures and Peter Milne was one of its greatest exponents and composers. His famous reel "John MacNeil" (John MacNeil was a champion Highland dancer from Edinburgh) is one of Scottish fiddle music's great standards which is equally well known in North America as it is here in Scotland. In fact on several occasions I've met Americans and Canadians who were convinced that it was North American as it was so much part of their local fiddle traditions.
James Scott Skinner, not just a pupil but also a life-long friend, said of Peter:
Photo Source: Paul Anderson
"I went into the employment of Peter Milne, who in my opinion was one of the grandest Strathspey players that ever graced Scotland, and probably, the finest native musician of any Country in the world"
Photo Source: Paul Anderson
It's often crossed my mind whilst in either of Tarland's two pubs that Milne and Skinner had probably stood near where I've stood on many an occasion, talking about fiddle music and having a few drams.
Peter Milne's life of triumph and tragedy would make for a compelling movie script. He was born at Kincardine O Neil in 1824 but moved to Tarland as a boy to live with an aunt and uncle. He attended Tarland School and worked as a cattle herd on the nearby Muir of Gellan.
He's said to have started learning the fiddle at the age of 13 and received a handful of lessons from a colleague or pupil of Niel Gow - this is impossible to verify at the moment. What is certain is that in a district renowned for its fiddle players he rapidly became regarded as the best, earning the title "The Tarland Minstrel”.
Peter was soon regarded as one of the leading musicians in the North East of Scotland and as well as playing regularly at dances for the Marquis of Huntly he was invited to play for Queen Victoria at Balmoral Castle. She was said to be much moved by his playing and gave him a gold medal for his efforts.
After a career as an itinerant fiddler which saw him amongst other things leading orchestras in Aberdeen, Leith, Edinburgh and Manchester, Peter moved back to the North East where he eked out a living playing for dances and teaching the fiddle.
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Tragically, while socialising with friends in a bar in Aberdeen, Peter's chair was pulled out from behind him, as a joke, as he went to sit down. The injury left Peter bedridden for the last ten years of his life and unable to provide for himself.
As a musician I feel I have a fair idea of what Peter must have felt like being unable to play his beloved fiddle, he was fond of saying:
​“I'm that fond o' ma fiddle a could sit inside it an look oot”
He died in the Old Mill poorhouse on the 11th of March 1908 and was buried in a pauper's grave in Nellfield Cemetery on Great Western Road in Aberdeen. That might have been the end of Peter Milne's story but thanks to fact that he not only played traditional music but was also a notable composer his memory lives on yet.
In 2005 his memory was honoured by the Glenfiddich Scottish Fiddle Championship which was held in Blair Castle each November and at the time was the most prestigious fiddle championship in Scotland.
Peter Milne was buried in Nellfield cemetery on the 13th of March 1908, lair 14 of section 3, his unmarked grave containing another eleven bodies. Permission to erect a suitable memorial at the grave was granted and a fundraising concert in December 2006 raised more than enough money to pay for it.
On the 11th of March 2007 (the 99th anniversary of his death) Angus Farquharson the Lord Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire unveiled, to the sound of the pipes, a simple granite stone which reads:
In this pauper's grave lies Peter Milne "The Tarland Minstrel" A famous violinist and composer of Scottish music 1824-1908.