Annotation:Oscar and Malvina
X:2 T:Oscar and Malvina, or Kempshot Hunt M:C L:1/8 R:Country Dance B:Preston's Twenty Four Country Dances for the Year 1793 (No. 208, p. 84) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:A e2 ce (c/B/A) ce|c/B/A ce dB B2|ce (c/B/A) cee2|cedf eA A2:| |:(A/B/A) ec fdec|(A/B/A) ec dB B2|(A/B/A) ec fdec|cedf eA A2:| |:{g}a2 ec {g}a3 ec|{g}a3 ec dB B2|{g}a2 ec {g}a2 ec|cedf eA A2:|]
OSCAR AND MALVINA. AKA - "Malvina." AKA and see: "Kempshot Hunt/Kempshott Hunt." English, Slow Air or Country Dance (whole time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCCDDEEFF. O'Farrell directs "very slow" and says his tune is "set for the pipes," indicating it perhaps was originally written in another key and was transposed to 'G' major to better fit the uilleann pipes. Although little is known about O'Farrell, it is ascertained that he was a piper who performed in the London production of the ballet-pantomime Oscar and Malvina (1791) at the end of the 18th century, as advertising playbills confirm. 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 theatrical composer wikipedia: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). As with many composers for the stage of the period, Reeves not only composed his own music but frequently took existing melodies and adapted them to his purposes. The success of the stage production secured Reeve's place as the composer of many of the Covent Garden operas and pantomimes over a period of fifteen years.
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," "Soldier's dance after the battle".
A two-part version appears in the 1800-1802 music manuscript collection of ship's fiddler William Litten as "Courtney's Rando" identical to the "Courtney's Rondo" that was entered into the 1797-1799 music manuscript of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, flute player John Hoff (1776-1818). It was also entered (as "Malvina") in a c. 1847 music manuscript book by Ellis Knowles, a musician from Radcliffe, Lancashire, England [Doyle, Plain Brown Tune Book].
Thomas and John Preston fashioned a country dance from the one of the melodies in Oscar and Malvina (it appears as the second part of the medley of melodies printed by piper O'Farrell).
