Annotation:Prince Eugene's March
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PRINCE EUGENE'S MARCH. English, Scottish; March (cut time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The march appears in a great many English and Scottish publications throughout the 18th century, and was one of the most popular musical pieces of the period. In, fact, has retained some popularity to this day with fife-and-drum corps and early music ensembles. The tune’s origins lie in London publisher John Young’s Second Volume of the Dancing Master, 1710 (all the three subsequent editions, the last published in 1728), followed soon after in rival London publishers Walsh and Hare's Compleat Country Dancing Master vol. II, (1719). "Prince Eugene's March" can be found in a publication entitled St. Martini, Handel and Others, Warlike Music, Being a Choice Collection of Marches and Trumpet Tunes for a German Flute, Violin or Harpsichord, Book I (1760, p. 1), in Longman & Broderip’s Entire and Compleat Instructions for the Fife (London, 1767), and it is included in the Scottish Gillespie Manuscript of Perth (1768). Scarcely less popular in America, the melody can be found in over 25 sources from the colonial period, including Cushing Eells’ manuscript written in Norwich, Connecticut in 1789, and Deacon Justin Hitchcock’s manuscript written in Deerfield, Massachusetts in 1800. It also appears in the music manuscript copybook of Henry Livingston, Jr. Livingston purchased the estate of Locust Grove, Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1771 at the age of 23. In 1775 he was a Major in the 3rd New York Regiment, which participated in Montgomery’s invasion of Canada in a failed attempt to wrest Québec from British control. An important land-owner in the Hudson Valley, and a member of the powerful Livingston family, Henry was also a surveyor and real estate speculator, an illustrator and map-maker, and a Justice of the Peace for Dutchess County. He was also a poet and musician, and presumably a dancer, as he was elected a Manager for the New York Assembly’s dancing season of 1774-1775, along with his 3rd cousin, John Jay, later U.S. Chief Justice of Governor of New York.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Thompson (Compeat Tutor for the Fife), 1760; p. 19.
Recorded sources: