Annotation:Wellington's Coming
X:1 T:Wellington's Coming M:9/8 L:1/8 R:Slip Jig S:O’Farrell – Pocket Companion, vol. IV (1810) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:G c | BAG GDE G2c | BAG GBd efg | BAG GDG dBG | AEA ABd e2 :| || f | (b/a/)ge dBB dBB | (g/a/)ge dBB e2f | (g/a/)ge dBB dBG | ABA ABd e2f | (g/a/)ge dBB dBB | (g/a/)ge dBB e2f | gbg ege dcB | ABA ABd e2 ||
WELLINGTON’S COMING. Irish, Slip Jig. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. One of the few tune O’Farrell put his name to (as ‘Farrell’), so presumably he is the composer. Irish uilleann piper O’Farrell was apparently based in London for much of twenty years, starting from the 1790’s, as indicated by his name on various playbills during that time. Dublin-born Arthur Wellesley [1], the Duke of Wellington, was in command of the English armies facing Napoleon during the Peninsular Campaign at the end of the first decade of the 19th century, and was beginning to be regarded as England’s pre-eminent commander at the time O’Farrell’s volume was published.
The tune is similar to, and probably cognate with, "Bata Bharra" from Alexander Mackay's c. 1822 Collection of Reels, Strathspeys and Slow Airs (Glasgow).
