Annotation:Quick Step 17th Regiment (1)
X:1 T:Quick Step 17th Regiment [1] M:6/8 L:1/8 R:March S:James Aird - Selections of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 1 (1782, No. 7, p. 3) K:G D|G2B ABc|B2G FED|G2B ABc|d3 D2D| G2B ABc|B2G FED|EFG AFD|G3 G2:| |:D|G2g f2e|d2c B2A|G2g f2g|g3 d2d| G2g f2e|dcB ABc|B2G AFD|G3 G2:|]
QUICK STEP 17th REGIMENT. English, March (6/8 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The 17th Regiment of Foot [1] was a unit of the British Army from 1751, when it received its warrant under that name. It’s origins, however, were in regiments formed in 1688, which over the years were called after the names of the various Colonels in command, as was the custom. The 17th traces its history into the mid-20th century through successive reorganizations, particularly as the Royal Leicestershire Regiment, before it was finally disbanded. At the time that Glasgow publisher James Aird printed the march (1782), the 17th had been in service in America during the Revolutionary War (landing in Boston in 1776, later removing to Nova Scotia), and had just been re-named the 17th (Leicestershire) Regiment of Foot. This new designation was the result of a royal warrant of August, 1782, that bestowed county titles on all regiments of foot that did not already have a special designation, "to cultivate a connection with the County which might at all times be useful towards recruiting".
The melody also appears in the American period music copybook of Edward Murphy (Newport, R.I.?), c. 1790 (now in the Library of Congress). Later, County Cork uilleann piper and Church of Ireland cleric wikipedia:James_Goodman_(musiologist) (1828-1896) entered it into Book 2 of his large mid-19th century music manuscript collection, copied from Aird's 1782 volume albeit with a mistake in the regimental number in the title.
