Welcome Home Again

[Alan Lloyd]

Friends

Does anyone have printed, period source for Welcome Home Again?

It seems to be commonly thought to be an 18th century tune, but I can't find a published source.

[JKfifer119]

Re: Welcome Home Again

hello Alan

If you mean welcome here again, I have this link I found on fiddle tune sources

http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/WEL_WEZ.htm

its a start

[eric marten]

Re: Welcome Home Again

Alan:

If, as the previous post suggests, you mean Welcome Here Again, there is an excellent transcription in William Litten's Fiddle Tunes 1800-1802. I believe an alternate name (obviously later than that version) is Old 1812.

[cprljohnivey]

Re: Welcome Home Again

The new BAR (Brigade of American Revolution) book has the song in there. In the back of the book is documentation on each song, when written and where can be found. If I remember when I get home tonight... I will look it up for you.

[33rdaladrummer]

Re: Welcome Home Again

I wonder how the 1812 title became associated with this tune. Maybe the compilers of the American Veteran Fifer couldn't remember the name. They also called "Will the Weaver" "Old '76 Stop March."

Brad,

Can you look in the BAR book and tell me if Capt. Thompson's Quick Step is in there? It is in the 1776 Nixon fife book, and someone once told me that it is the same tune as Adam Bell's March. I don't have a copy of Nixon or the BAR book.

[cprljohnivey]

Re: Welcome Home Again

Sorry folks... got home late last night and forgot to grab my BAR book. I won't get home tonight until after 10PM so no promises but I will try to grab the book and take it to work with me tomorrow to answer these quesitons.

Will... will you be comming to the Brigade dinner and meeting with Paul next weekend?

Brad

[eric marten]

Re: Welcome Home Again

The tune is known by so many names, Welcome Home Again, Welcome Here Again, Old 1812, Duncan Davidson, etc.

It is such a beautiful, and durable tune, can be performed as a march, reel, or strathspey (because of its simplicity and beauty, it is one of the first fiddle tunes I teach to classical violin students wanting to learn traditional music). It can be found in several of the late eighteenth century collections by the Scottish fiddler Neil Gow, (interestingly, in the key of E major), also published in the mid-nineteenth century, by Elias Howe, and in Ryan's Mammoth Collection is printed twice, as a reel, as Welcome Here Again, and as a strathspey, Duncan Davidson, all in the key of D major, as well as William Litten's Fiddle Tunes (1800-1802). I don't know how, or when it acquired the Old 1812 name.

At Old Bethpage Village Restoration, we frequently began a ball with this tune as a Grand March.

[cprljohnivey]

Re: Welcome Home Again

I thought OLD 1812 was an entirely different song all togheter.

[cprljohnivey]

Re: Welcome Home Again

Welcome Here Again: http://trillian.mit.edu/~jc/cgi/abc/...1_webready.abc

Old 1812: http://trillian.mit.edu/~jc/cgi/abc/...1_webready.abc

[JKfifer119]

Re: Welcome Home Again

I thought OLD 1812 was an entirely different song all togheter.

There is a school of thought that 1812 is simply a tricked out version of welcome here again, understandably so . I guess it depends on where you stand

[cprljohnivey]

Re: Welcome Home Again

They are very similar and sound great when played together.

[33rdaladrummer]

Re: Welcome Home Again

Old 1812 and Welcome Here Again are just variations of the same tune. That's why I think it is ridiculous to play them back to back in a medley in a living history setting, as is commonly done by fife and drum corps. Seems rather contrived.

Sounds good on a CD or whatever, but what fifer in 1861 would know two versions of the same tune, one from 1800 or so, and the other from 1905?

[cprljohnivey]

Re: Welcome Home Again

Will,

Is "Old 1812" from 1905?

[33rdaladrummer]

Re: Welcome Home Again

Yep. Earliest source for a tune named Old 1812 is The American Veteran Fifer (1905).

But I would be of the same opinion on this particular medley of Welcome Here Again/Old 1812 if Old 1812 was found in a book from 1861.

Imagine a typical drum corps from the war. Say they know ten tunes, and TWO of them are Welcome Here Again. Doesn't make much sense does it?

If you went back in time and played Old 1812 for a fifer and asked him, "what is the name of this tune?," he would probably say "Welcome Here Again."

Go back in time with a couple of modern drummers and fifers and play a medley of Welcome Here Again/Old 1812 and try to play along with a drummer from 1861 and he would say "hey, why did you change up the drumbeat in the middle of the tune?!"

[cprljohnivey]

Re: Welcome Home Again

From the BAR book on Welcome Here Again

Welcome Here Again - 1773 This tune first appears as a country dance called "you be Welcome here again" in Thompson's Complete Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances. Vol. 3 in 1773. This melody quickly became popular with American fifers in the mid 1770's as it is found in many early (c. 1775-1776) American Fifer's manuscripts, including the copy book of Henry Blake, William Williams, and William Morris. Oliver White also included "Welcome Here Again" in his copy book of popular airs in 1775 (Behind the Bush MS). The tune appears in James Aird's collection [1782] as "Gentle Ann," and John Fife recorded the tune simply as "A Quick Step" in his British fife manuscript. Our source is John Greenwood's manuscript. This tune is the basis for a 19th century tune, "1812" which continued in popularity through the American Civil War.

-P. 110 BAR's Military Music of the American Revolution