The Shetland Violinist

The Gideon Stove Tune Book will be for many readers, like echoes from the past, containing some well remembered tunes such as: Fort Charlotte March, Da Guizers March, Carnival March, Da Bonxie Reel and Reested Mutton Reel, all of which became even better known after I gave permission for them to be printed and recorded. Other tunes in the book may not be so well known, because Gideon kept some of his best compositions out of sight with the intention of releasing them in a publication like the present volume. It had always been his intention to publish, whenever he could raise the money to cover the printing costs. However, with the increasing demands of bringing up a family of thee boys and sending one of them to Aberdeen University, albeit with the aid of bursaries, he never did manage to raise the cost of publishing, and circumstances conspired to keep his cherished goal just out of reach and frustrate his desire to see his tunes in print … …I feel now that I have kept the promises to publish that I made to Gideon Stove enthusiasts, some of them in far corners of the Earth, and I hope that the present volume will help to keep his name alive and give pleasure to many.– Magnus J. Stove, February 1986.