Annotation:Ross Castle
X:1 T:Ross Castle M:2/4 L:1/8 R:March S:Aird – Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. II (1785) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:G d/c/ | B2A2 | GG c/B/A/G/ | F/G/A/B/ A d/c/ | B2A2 | GG A/B/c/A/ | BGG :||: d/c/ | BGAD | GG c/B/A/G/ | F/G/A/B/ Ad/c/ | [GB]GAD | GG A/B/c/A/ | BGG :| |: (d/c/) | B/c/d/B/ A/B/c/B/ | GG c/B/A/G/ | F/G/A/B/ Ad/c/ | B/c/d/B/ A/B/c/A/ | GG A/B/c/A/ | BGG :|]
ROSS CASTLE. AKA - "Rose Castle." Scottish, March (2/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBBCC. The key is mistakenly given with two sharps in Glasgow musician James Aird's Selections of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 2 (1785). Interestingly, the same two-sharps mistake was entered into the c. 1776 music manuscript copybook of American War of Independence fifer Thomas Nixon (Danbury, Connecticut), who perhaps copied it from an original or copy of Aird's publication, although he wrote the title as "Rose Castle". Other period American fifers, Giles Gibbs (East Windsor, Connecticut) and Fife Major Nathaniel Brown (Verplancks Point, New York, and Durham, Connecticut) also entered it into their own music copybooks as "Rose Castle." Period fifer John Treat (1779), flute player Thomas Molyneaux (1788, Shelburne, Nova Scotia), and Abel Shattuck (c. 1781, Colrain, Massachusetts) all recorded it as "Ross Castle."