Annotation:Downshire March

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DOWNSHIRE MARCH. AKA - "Downshire Quickstep," "Downshire Height's Quickstep." English, March (2/4 time). D Major (O'Farrell): G Major (Carlin). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (O'Farrell): AA'B (Carlin). An English march. Uilleann piper (and Irishman) O'Farrell, about whom little is known, is recorded as having played on the London stage for at least ten years, and there are tunes in his collection from England, Wales and Scotland as well as Ireland. "Downsire March" also appears in Thomas Calvert's A Collection of Marches & Quick Steps Strathspeys & Reels (Edinburgh, c. 1790, p. 20) as "The Downshire, Camperdown, Quickstep", and, in America, in John Paff's Gentleman's Amusement No. 2 (New York, c. 1812, p. 24). In manuscript, it can be found in Gloucester, Mass., musician John Beach's music copybook of 1801-1825, and in fifer John Miller's music manuscript of 1798-1801, complied in Strabane, County Tyrone, near the city of Derry/Londonderry.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Carlin (Master Collection of Dance Music for the Violin), 1984; No. 173, p. 101 (appears as "Downshire Height's Quickstep"). O'Farrell (Pocket Companion, vol. 1), c. 1805; pp. 44-45.

Recorded sources:

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