Cuba March (The)
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CUBA MARCH, THE. AKA and see "Mill Oh (The)." American, March (6/8 time). E Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. A 6/8 time version of "Mill Oh (The)." See also note for "Blue Eyed Stranger (1) (The)." The name Cuba is derived from a native word, Colba, of unknown meaning. Christoper Columbus named the island Juana (in honor of Prince Juan of Castille), but the native name stuck (Matthews, 1972). The melody appears in the music manuscript book of Giles Gibbs (b. 1760), of Ellington, Connecticutt. Gibbs was a fifer in the American Revolution from 1777 to 1780, until he was captured and subsequently killed in Royalton, Vermont, by a British raiding party. While the appearance of the melody in Gibbs' commonplace book is one of the earliest appearances of the tune under this name, it subsequently appears in several martial musicians' copybooks and in fife and drum manuscripts through the early 19th century (see EASMES ). Thomas Calvert's "Cubie March" is perhaps a variant (published by Neil Stewart, 1790, Edinburgh, in Collection of Marches & Quick Steps Strathspeys & Reels). A variant of the first strain is used for the Shaker air "Pleasant Walk (The)."
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Kate Keller (Giles Gibbs Jr. His Book for the Fife...1777), 1974; p. 29. Miller (Fiddler's Throne), 2004; No. 27, p. 28.