Annotation:Delvin Side (2)
X:1 T:Delvin Side [2] M:C| L:1/8 R:Strathspey B:Robert Ross – Choice Collection of Scots Reels or Country Dances B:& Strathspeys (Edinburgh, 1780, p. 15) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:Emin E<B(B>A) BE B>A|E<(BB)^c dD B/A/G/F/|E(BTB>)A B>EBg|f/g/a/f/ e/f/g/e/ dD B/A/G/F/:| |:eEBE dETB>A|eEBE dD B/A/G/F/|eEBE dEBg|f/g/a/f/ e/f/g/e/ dD B/A/G/F/:|
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.