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Annotation:Rover's Return (The)
X:1 T:Rover’s Return, The M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Jig B:McDermott – Allan’s Irish Fiddler (c. 1920’s, No. 27) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:Amix (g/f/)|ecA fed|ecA A2f|ecA gfe|dBG G2 (g/f/)| ecA fed|ecA A2f|gag gfe|dBG G2:| |:(A/B/)|A2a aea|aea ae^c|A^ce agf|gdB GAB| A2a aea|aea aef|gag gfe|dBG G2:|]
ROVER'S RETURN, THE. AKA and see "Any Auld Thing at all," "Big Ned," "Donald of the Isles," “Haugh's Jig,” "Herlihy's Rant," “Inverness Jig (2) (The),” "John Doherty's Jig (2)," "King Billy's March," "King William's Rambles," "MacDonald of the Isles," "MacDonald of the Isles March to Harlaw," “MacGregor Jig,” “Mac's Fancy,” “March of Donald Lord of the Isles to the Battle of Harlaw (1411),” “O'Reilly's Jig (1),” "Paddy Lyons',"“Victor's Return (The).” Scottish, Irish, Canadian; Jig (6/8 time). Canada, Cape Breton. A Mixolydian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (Allan’s, Dunlay & Reich): AABBA’A’B’B’ (Dunlay & Greenberg): AABBCCDD (Cranford). A tune of unknown provenance, battered about Britain, Ireland and North America like a ping-pong ball. Old printed versions of the jig can be found in MacLachlan's pipe collection (c. 1854), and, as "O'Reilly's Jig (1)" in Peter Milne's 1870 collection published in Scotland by Middleton's. Highland pipers play the tune as a pipe march under the "MacDonald of the Isles" (and variant titles), but it was picked up by County Donegal fiddlers and played as "King Billy's March" and "King William's Rambles." Francis O'Neill included it in his Music of Ireland (1903) as "Victor's Return (The)", perhaps an oblique refernce to the Scottish "MacDonald of the Isles" or "King William" titles, but O'Neill's title for the tune seems never to have caught on. A jig version was published in the 1920's in McDermott's Allan's Irish Fiddler as "Rover's Return," and that is the name for the tune that is the most frequent among Cape Breton musicians (along with the occasional "MacGregor's Jig" or "Inverness Jig").
