Annotation:DIrge of the Berlin Band

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 DIRGE OF THE BERLIN BAND. AKA and see "The Star of Bethlehem," "Bruce's March," "Caledonian March," "Loch Na Gar [1]," "An Comhra Donn" (The Brown Casket). American, March Air (slow). USA, southwestern Pa. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AA'. Bayard (1981) identifies this as Scottish in origin, but said it was "a little hard to trace satisfactorily" in the British Isles. He identified Irish sets printed by Breatnach (CRE I, 1963) as "An Comhra Donn/Brown Casket". The earliest set he found was printed by Elias Howe in Boston in his 1851 publication Howe's School for the Violin (p. 17), and he finds variants as the vehicle for shape-note hymns (as in Walker's Southern Harmony, 1835, p. 20).  Source for notated version: George Fisher (Somerset County, Pa., 1962; a member of the Berlin Martial Band) [Bayard].  Printed sources: Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 156G, p. 93.  Recorded sources:

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