Primary Sources
C2 Sophia Eskie C2.15: 38
CK Subbie Eskie CK.3
Dj Subieskie Dj.13: 10
K1 Failte Subiaski / Subiaski’s Salute K1.50: 113
SC Failte Sobeaski SC.12
Notes on Gaelic Title
Fàilte Sobieski Sophia Eskie C2; Subbie Eskie CK; Subieskie Dj; Failte Subiaski / Subiaski’s Salute K1; Failte Sobeaski SC. Conventionally ‘Sobieski’s Salute’. In K1, Angus MacKay identifies the individual as ‘Charles Edward Stuart’s Mother’, the Old Pretender’s wife, Maria Clementina Sobieska. This would suggest composition in 1719, the date of her marriage, but there are two problems here. First, the ending “-ski” rather than “-ska” points to a male; and second, in all other instances, titled ladies are given their titles, e.g. Fàilte Lady Margaret (PS 196) in contrast to Moladh Màiri (PS 67). The piece possibly celebrates her grandfather, Jan III Sobieski, king of Lithuania, who was widely celebrated for his victory over the Turks at the Battle of Vienna in 1683. It would appear that Colin Campbell misinterpreted the name in C2, though his spelling in CK suggests that he heard it correctly to begin with. Although it is a late copy, CK evidently derives from a manuscript compiled earlier than C2 (see F. Buisman ‘From chant to script. Some evidences of chronology in Colin Campbell’s adaptation of canntaireachd,’ Piping Times 39, No. 7 (1987) pp. 44–49).
Roderick Cannon (2009), rev. Barnaby Brown 2016