Annotation:Soldier's dance after the battle
X:1 T:Soldier’s Dance after the Battle M:C L:1/8 R:Reel N:”from Oscar & Malvina.” B:Aird – Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 4 (1796, No. 46, p. 17) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:G e|dG (e/d/c/B/) dGGe|dBgB dAAB|dG (e/d/c/B/) dGBg|fefd g2 g:|| e|dBgB dgBg|dBgB dAAB|dBgB dgBg|fefd g2 ge| dG (e/d/c/B/) eGGe|dBgB dAAB|dG (e/d/c/B/) dG (d/b/a/g/)|fefd g2g||
SOLDIER'S DANCE AFTER THE BATTLE. English, Reel (whole time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. The melody is from composer William Reeve's (1757-1815) popular pantomime Oscar & Malvina (1791). 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, or, in the Scottish version, Fingal), while Malvina was Oscar's wife, and, after he died, the caretaker for the blind bard. Music for Oscar and Malvina was initially composed by the famous English theatrical composer William Shield, however, he abruptly left his position as Covent Garden's house composer in the autumn of 1791, and William Reeve completed the score (which borrowed in part from existing melodies). There are other airs from the pantomime, sometimes called "Oscar and Malvina" (see "Annotation:Leslie's March (1)"); Glasgow publisher James Aird printed six of them in his Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 4 (1796, pp. 16-17, see "Battle (The)," "Leslie's March (1)," "Groans of the Wounded," "Oscar and Malvina".
County Cork cleric and uilleann piper Canon James Goodman's "Kitty got her clinking" is a cognate melody, particularly in the second strain (the first is cognate as well, but a bit more distanced).
