Annotation:Oscar and Malvina

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OSCAR AND MALVINA. English, Slow Air (4/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCCDDEEFF. O'Farrell directs "very slow" and says his tune is "set for the pipes," indicating it perhaps was originally written in another key and was transposed to 'G' major to better fit the uilleann pipes. Although little is known about O'Farrell, it is ascertained that he was a piper who performed in the London production of the pantomime Oscar and Malvina (1791) at the end of the 18th century, as advertising playbills confirm. Oscar and Malvina were characters in the story of the bard Ossian; Oscar was Ossian's son (and the grandson of Irish hero Finn McCool), while Malvina was Oscar's wife, and, after he died, the caretaker for the blind bard.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: O'Farrell (Pocket Companion, vol. II), c. 1806; pp. 134-135.

Recorded sources:

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