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Daniel Dow

Scottish musician and composer

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 30, 2025
Entity authorityQ5216992
Source-derived summary

Daniel Dow (1732 – 1783) was a traditional Scottish fiddler, composer, teacher and concert organizer and one of the first musicians to publish music specifically for bagpipes. He is credited as both Daniel and Donald, both acceptable translations for the Gaelic name of 'Domhnull'.

Life

Dow was born 1732 in Kirkmichael, Perthshire, Scotland and became a music teacher in Edinburgh where he taught, among other instruments, the guitar. In December 1774 at Kirmichael, Perthshire he married Susanna Small of Dirnanean. The couple had four children. Dow died of a fever on 20 January 1783 and is buried in Canongate Church, Edinburgh, Scotland.

A concert to benefit his widow and children was given shortly after his death in St. Mary's Hall, Niddry's Wynd, where Dow had often given his own concerts over the years. His son John also became a fiddler.

Works

About 1775 he issued a collection of "Twenty Minuets and Sixteen Reels".

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Daniel Dow” as scottish musician and composer. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Daniel, Scottish and musician.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1732, 1783, 1774, 1775—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1732-01-01. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Daniel, Scottish and musician providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Daniel Dow”, the useful work is to connect “scottish musician and composer” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 30, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q5216992. VIAF identifies the subject as 204144647693083055679. The Library of Congress control number is no2015132433. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1732, 1783, 1774 and 1775.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Daniel Dow”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Daniel Dow primary sources, Daniel Dow archive and Daniel research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Daniel Dow”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Daniel Dow” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.