Annotation:Downshire March

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DOWNSHIRE MARCH. AKA - "Downshire Quickstep," "Downshire Height's Quickstep." AKA and see "Ffaniglen, "March of the Men of Devon," "Ymdaith Gwyr Dyfnaint," "Ulster Rondo." English, March (2/4 time). D Major (O'Farrell): G Major (Carlin). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (O'Farrell): AA'B (Carlin). An English march. Uilleann piper (and Irishman) O'Farrell, about whom little is known, is recorded as having played on the London stage for at least ten years, and there are tunes in his collection from England, Wales and Scotland as well as Ireland. "Downsire March" also appears in Thomas Calvert's A Collection of Marches & Quick Steps Strathspeys & Reels (Edinburgh, c. 1790, p. 20) as "The Downshire, Camperdown, Quickstep", and, in America, in John Paff's Gentleman's Amusement No. 2 (New York, c. 1812, p. 24). In manuscript, it can be found in Gloucester, Mass., musician John Beach's music copybook of 1801-1825, and in fifer John Miller's music manuscript of 1798-1801, complied in Strabane, County Tyrone, near the city of Derry/Londonderry. Shropshire musician John Moore's "Oldham's Quick Step" shares the first strain of the march.

The provenance of the tune may well be Welsh, as it appears under the titles "Ffaniglen" and "Ymdaith Gwyr Dyfnaint" (March of the Men of Devon). Uilleann piper O'Farrell printed it in 1804 as "Ulster Rondo."

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Carlin (Master Collection of Dance Music for the Violin), 1984; No. 173, p. 101 (appears as "Downshire Height's Quickstep"). O'Farrell (Pocket Companion, vol. 1), c. 1805; pp. 44-45.

Recorded sources:

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