Annotation:Bata Bharra
X:1 T:Bata Bharra C:Alexander Mackay S:Alexander Mackay, A collection of Reels, Strathspeys and Slow Tunes S:(Glasgow, ca. 1822) M:9/8 L:1/8 K:A e|:cBA AEA AEA|cBA AEA fga|cBA AEA Adc|dBG GAB d2e:| cde eca ecA|cde ece fga|cde eca ece|dBG GAB d2e| cde eca ecA|cde ece efg|agf ged cec|dBG GAB d2e|]
BATA BHARRA. AKA and see "Highway to Greenvale (The)." Scottish, Slip Jig (9/8 time). The tune is similar to (particularly in the first strain), and perhaps cognate with, "Wellington's Coming" printed by piper O'Farrell in his Pocket Companion for the Union Pipes, vol. 4 (London, 1810). The exact dating of Islay fiddler-composer Alexander Mackay's volume is unknown, and varies from c. 1802 (Charles Gore) to c. 1822 (John Glen), to c. 1832 (the date of a watermark on one published volume, as J. Murdoch Henderson found). "Bata Bharra" is not one of the tunes Mackay claimed composition for, and, in fact, it appears to be a composition of Ayrshire fiddler-composer John Riddell under the title "Highway to Greenvale (The)," published in 1782.
