Annotation:Captain White 73rd Regt. Strathspey
X:1 T:Capt. White 73rd Regt. Strathspey M:C L:1/8 R:Strathspey B:Gow & Shepherd - Collection of entirely original strathspey, reels, marches, quicksteps etc. (1796, pp. 12-13) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:F c|AF/F/ F2 C<F TA>F|c<FTA>F B>GE>c|AF/F/ F2 C<F TA>F| c<f B>G A<FF:|f|a<fTf>c A>fa>f|A>af>a g>bTa>g| a<fTf>c A>fa>A|B<g TB>G A<FFf|a<fTf>c A>fa>f| A>af>a g>bTa>g|a<fb>g f<cTa>A|B<g B>G A<FF||
CAPTAIN WHITE 73rd REGT. STRATHSPEY. Scottish, Strathspey (whole time). F Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. The tune (as "Mr. Macbean of Roaring Rivie's Strathspey") was published by the Edinburgh music publishing firm of Nathaniel Gow and William Shepherd in a volume entitled A Collection of Entirely Original Strathspey Reels, Marches, Quick Steps &c., "by Ladies resident in a remote part of the Highlands of Scotland, as corrected by Nath. Gow." Unfortunately, the composers names are not given. The Leeds antiquarian Frank Kidson (1854–1926) penciled a note in his copy of the volume that the composers were, or included, “the Misses Whyte,” and modern researcher Charles Gore thinks “the Misses Whyte” may possibly be a Miss White and a Miss Brocky, of Morayshire, east Highlands.
If the attribution to a Miss White/Miss Whyte is correct, then Captain White may have been a relative. The 73rd (Perthshire) Regiment of Foot was raised as a Second Battalion of the 42nd Regiment (The Black Watch), in 1780. It was sent to India the next year where it remained until 1806, seeing action in a number of disputes including the Second Anglo-Mysore War, the Third Anglo-Mysore War, the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, and the French Revolutionary Wars and the capture of the Dutch settlements in Ceylon in 1795.