DUKE OF YORK'S FAVOURITE. Scottish, March (2/4 time). B Flat Major (Watlen): G Major (Aird). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABAA. John Watlen, in his Celebrated Circus Tunes (Edinburgh, 1791) attributes the tune to composer Ignaz Pleyel (1757-1831), born in Austria, who became a French citizen around the beginning of the Republic, and who managed to negotiate those troubled times, even though accused at one time of being a Royalist agent. When the revolutionaries in France banned public concerts and music in church in 1791, Pleyel sought employment in London, where he stayed for a few years, leading concerts in that city (as did his old teacher, Joseph Haydn, with whom he remained cordial).
Ignaz Pleyel
Additional notes
Printed sources : - Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 4), 1796; No. 130, p. 50. Watlen (The Celebrated Circus Tunes), 1791; p. 30.
