Annotation:Rover's Return (The)

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X:1 T:Rover’s Return, The M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Jig B:McDermott – Allan’s Irish Fiddler (c. 1920’s, No. 27) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:Amix (g/f/)|ecA fed|ecA A2f|ecA gfe|dBG G2 (g/f/)| ecA fed|ecA A2f|gag gfe|dBG G2:| |:(A/B/)|A2a aea|aea ae^c|A^ce agf|gdB GAB| A2a aea|aea aef|gag gfe|dBG G2:|]

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ROVER'S RETURN, THE. AKA and see "Any Auld Thing at all," "Big Ned," “Haugh's Jig,” "Herlihy's Rant," “Inverness Jig (2) (The),” "John Doherty's Jig (2)," "King Billy's March," "King William's Rambles," "MacDonald of the Isles," "MacDonald of the Isles March to Harlaw," “MacGregor Jig,” “Mac's Fancy,” “March of Donald Lord of the Isles to the Battle of Harlaw (1411),” “O'Reilly's Jig (1),” "Paddy Lyons',"“Victor's Return (The).” Scottish, Irish, Canadian; Jig (6/8 time). Canada, Cape Breton. A Mixolydian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (Allan’s, Dunlay & Reich): AABBA’A’B’B’ (Dunlay & Greenberg). A tune of unknown provenance, battered about Britain and Ireland like a ping-pong ball. The oldest printed version of the jig is "O'Reilly's Jig (1);" an Irish name, but appearing in Peter Milne's 1870 collection published in Scotland by Middleton's. Highland pipers play the tune as a pipe march under the "MacDonald of the Isles" (and variant titles), but it was picked up by County Donegal fiddlers and played as "King Billy's March" and "King William's Rambles." A jig version was published in the 1920's in McDermott's Allan's Irish Fiddler as "Rover's Return," and that is the name it is known by among most Cape Breton fiddlers.