Annotation:Royal Deux-Ponts

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X:0 T: No Score C: The Traditional Tune Archive M: K: x

ROYAL DEUX-PONTS. English, March (6/8 and 4/4 time). A Major (‘A’ and ‘B’ parts) & D Major (‘C’ and ‘D’ parts). Standard tuning (fiddle). ABCD. The first two parts are in 6/8 time, the second in 4/4. It was originally set in ‘C’ major. The Royal Deux-Ponts [1] were a crack French regiment dispatched by King Louis XVI as part of a French expeditionary force to America in 1780. They united with Washington at White Plains and took part in the Battle of Yorktown in 1781. Although they fought under the French banner, the Deux-Ponts were recruited primarily from the lands of the Duke Christian IV of Zweibrucken (Zweibrucken translates as ‘two bridges’, or, in French, deux ponts). Thus, it is interesting to note that German mercenaries fought not only for the British (as did conscripts from Hesse), but also for the American cause.

Additional notes

Source for notated version: - General John Reid’s Marches, A Collection (London, 1795) [Miller]. John Reid (1721-1807) was the 15th Baron Reid, a general in the British army, amateur composer, and founder of the chair of music at the University of Edinburgh.

Printed sources : - Miller (Fiddler’s Throne), 2004; No. 94, p. 66 (appears as “Royal Deux-Ports”).

Recorded sources: -