Statue of fiddle legend Niel Gow taking shape
Bronze work is being cast in Edinburgh this week
A life size bronze statue of fiddle player Niel Gow is being cast this week at an Edinburgh foundry.
The memorial to Gow (17271807) will go up later this year in Dunkeld, a stone’s throw from Inver where the musician once lived.
Organisers of the Niel Gow Annual Scottish Fiddle Festival, held around March 22 since 2004, have worked to raise the £40-£50,000 needed to commission and install a permanent memorial to one of the county’s most famous personalities.
The likeness of Gow has been made by sculptor David A Annand, the artist who made the popular pair of figures enclosed in a hoop on Perth High Street and the diving duck on Tay Street, known as ‘Singing Tide’.
For this latest work, David made his just-larger-than-life model of Gow in clay at his home in Kilmany, Fife which was then taken for casting in bronze.
In a technique called ‘lost wax,’ the clay figure gets covered in wax and when this melts in the fire, liquid bronze is poured into its place.
David has worked from the portrait of Niel originally painted by the society painter Sir Henry Raeburn and kept at Blair Castle.
For the signature fiddle, David made a wax cast of a real one passed on to him by Pete Clark, the Dunkeld-based fiddle player who has worked so hard to promote Gow’s enduring memory through being a longterm organiser of the festival.
Pete, who initially considered a giant fiddle as the tribute, is such a fan of Niel Gow that he helped get the clothing right for the sculpture by modelling a tweed suit that a friend ran up for him, based on the Raeburn portrait.
He said “I like David Annand’s statues because they were at ground level where people can interact with them and these days, get in a selfie. It’s so much more friendly than someone high up on a plinth.
“Niel Gow was a man of the people so it’s fitting we’ll be able to put an arm around him and stand close.”
The statue is ready to be installed, but planning permission may not be granted in time for the Niel Gow Festival on March 21 and 22, when it was hoped to see it placed on a grass triangle near The Royal School of Dunkeld and Dunkeld Bridge.
Pete told the PA he hopes a special separate celebration can be held in the summer to unveil the statue, put up in the year that marks the 293rd anniversary of Gow’s birth.
Having achieved the goal of the Niel Gow Festival - to fundraise enough to get a memorial for the musician - Pete does not think there is any reason to stop the annual gathering.
“I hope the fiddle festival will continue in Dunkeld and Birnam in March for many years to come.”
Niel was a child prodigy, becoming widely known for his fiddle playing while still a boy.
He won a contest aged 18 and this brought the weaver’s son to the attention of James Murray, 2nd Duke of Atholl, who became a patron, employing him to play at balls and other events held at Blair Castle.
Niel became established as Perthshire’s best fiddler and his compositions were celebrated.
Despite his fame, Niel did not move away from his humble cottage (still there across the A9 and the railway at Inver).
Tickets for the 2020 Niel Gow Festival are available from February 3. The line-up is at https://www.birnamarts.com/ niel-gow-festival-2017/