Annotation:Donald is Gone to the Wars

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DONALD IS GONE TO THE WARS. Scottish, Pipe Quickstep (6/8 time). A Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB'. The melody appears in the music manuscript collection of Highland piper Robert Millar (1789-1861), who started his work in 1820. In the frontispice Millar notes he is from the "Forfar Reg. and Piper to the Aberdeen Highland Society." His regiment was a militia regiment. In 1836 there was this entry in the Edinburgh Courant:

HIGHLAND BAGPIPE Mr. Robert Millar of Montrose, the celebrated performer on the Northumbrian, Union and Great Highland Bagpipes, now in Dundee, has made an improvement on our noble national instrument, the bagpipe, well worthy of public notice. He has added a horn to the lower end of the chanter and by perforating various holes which he works by means of keys, he has added three notes to the diatonic scale--one above and two below. He has also introduced semitones which render the instrument so harmonious that it has been accompanied by a violin and violincello with excelent effect.

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