Annotation:Heights of Dargai (The)

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HEIGHTS OF DARGAI. Scottish, Retreat March (9/8 time). A Major. Standard or ADae tuning (fiddle). AABB. The heights of Dargai are a promontory in India, the site in 1897 of a charge by massed Highlanders. A famous military anecdote has it that one of the Scots pipers continued to play to inspire his comrades, though shot through both legs [1]. The march was composed by J. Wallace. "The retreat march is not necessarily a march time tune which would be marched to," explains Stuart Eydmann; rather, "as often as not it was played as part of the evening ritual in military camps as day duties gave way to night ones. It was not linked to the military manoeuvre of retreating in or from battle but was linked to the idea of refuge and safety in the camp."

Source for notated version: Dan Hughie MacEachern (Cape Breton) [Jody Stecher, Fiddler Magazine, vol. 8, No. 2, Spring 2001; p. 41].

Printed sources: Fiddler Magazine, vol. 8, No. 2, Spring 2001; p. 41. Graham & MacRae (The Gordon Highlanders: Pipe Music Collection, vol. 1), 1983; p. 180. Martin (Ceol na Fidhle, vol. 1), 1991; p. 49.

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