Annotation:Delvin Side (2)
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DELVIN SIDE [2]. AKA - "Delvine Side." Scottish, Strathspey. E Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Surenne): AAB (most versions): AABB (Ross): AABB' (Kerr): AABBCCD (Campbell). John Glen (1891) finds the earliest printing of the tune in Alexander McGlashan's 1780 collection (p. 30), although it appears soon after several period publications, including Philadelphia publisher B. Carr's Caledonian Muse (1798) and Gow's Complete Repository (1799). It appears as well in the John Fife music manuscript book of c. 1780-1804. Fife was evidently a seaman whose home may have been in Perthshire (Keller), and his manuscript seems to have been written at sea as well as at home (it contains references to battles in the Caribbean and Mediterranean).
The Shetland reel "Deltingside" has decided similarities and may be a distant cousin, or the Shetland tune may be a distanced derivative.
Source for notated version: a c. 1847 music manuscript by Ellis Knowles, a musician from Radcliffe, Lancashire, England [Plain Brown]; "From McGlashan's Collection" [Johnson, Skinner].
Printed sources: Anonymous (A Companion to the reticule), 1833; p. 12. Joshua Campbell (A Collection of New Reels & Highland Strathspeys), Glasgow, 1789; p. 16. Doyle (Plain Brown Tune Book), 1997; p. 55. Gow (Complete Repository, Part 1), 1799; p. 15. Johnson (A Twenty Year Anniversary Collection), 2003; p. 12. Kerr (Merry Melodies, vol. 1), c. 1880; Set 7, No. 3, p. 6. J. Kenyon Lees (Balmoral Reel Book), c. 1910; p. 2. MacDonald (The Skye Collection), 1887; p. 83. Robert Ross (Choice Collection of Scots Reels or Country Dances & Strathspeys), Edinburgh, 1780; p. 15. Skinner (Harp and Claymore), 1904; pp. 62-63 (includes numerous variation sets). Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; p. 246. Surenne (Dance Music of Scotland), 1852; pp. 106-107.
Recorded sources: Marquis 81245-2, David Greenberg - "Tunes Until Dawn" (2000). See also listings at: Alan Snyder's Cape Breton Fiddle Recording Index [1].