Fife tunes from Bruce and Emmett (and nowhere else?)

[joewhitney]

Re: Fife tunes from Bruce and Emmett (and nowhere else?)

I could understand Blatchley having composed tunes attributed to him, such as Blatchley's Banter, but I'm having a hard time believing Hopkins composed that one, and others attributed to other musicians. some of the no namers maybe, like Corn Cob Clog. if so, he writes one hell of a good fife tune!

Do you know what year George Carroll's B&E is? He showed me it once, but I can't remember.

As for the whole "authors copying other authors' plates" thing, are we talking about copying entire pages from other people's manuals, or are you saying they had individual engraved plates of each tune/beat, and later publishers got ahold of these hundreds of little plates and arranged them into new manuals?

I really don't think anyone had a need to "copy" from any manual. Musicians who can read music, especially veterans who played the music all the time for many years, only need a pen and paper to write down the scores of tunes and beats which, except for a fairly small percentage, is basically really easy music. We're not talking Beethoven's 9th here.

As for AVF Three Camps being a "corrected" version of Howe's, if they were copying other manuals, using their plates, why correct it, and how do you correct an engraved plate? Or was it more likely just a different version agreed upon by the compilers from those submitted? Maybe most variations between manuals aren't "mistakes", just different versions different people knew. If Col. Hart for example, made mistakes on some of his duty beats and tunes in his 1862 manual, he certainly could have corrected them in the later two editions of it he put out during the war. He made some changes, but I don't recall he made actual corrections (Sue could fill us in).

Hopefully more research will shine a better light on whether the manuals played a significant role in what Civil War musicians learned or not, or alternatively if they reflected what was being taught by rote in the field.

Joe Whitney

[33rdaladrummer]

Re: Fife tunes from Bruce and Emmett (and nowhere else?)

"I could understand Blatchley having composed tunes attributed to him, such as Blatchley's Banter, but I'm having a hard time believing Hopkins composed that one, and others attributed to other musicians."

It clearly says on page 12, "A.F. Hopkins Fife Major N.A. of C.W. M." Same with Major J.N. Bogart's Banquet. John Benjamin's Q.S. says "By A.F. Hopkins National Fife Major." Tom Brown's Burletta says "By A.F. Hopkins Co. A 154th O.V.I." There are many other "personalized" titles. For J N Hamberger's Q.S. he writes "To J.N. Hamberger 12th U.S. Inf. by A.F. Hopkins Fife Major." For B.F. Hillikers Q.S., he writes "To B.F. Hilliker Los Angeles Cal. Drummer Co. A. 8th Wi. Live Eagle Regt. by A.F. Hopkins"

Hopkins was not consistent with the "by" and "to" but puts his name by several tunes. It appears that he composed many of these tunes and dedicated them to people. If I were going to compose a tune in this style, I might call it "Joe Whitney's Jollification," for example.

"some of the no namers maybe, like Corn Cob Clog. if so, he writes one hell of a good fife tune!"

Corn Cob Clog actually says "By Dr. Wm. M. Haffner. Bass Drummer Co. A 154th O.V.I."

Hopkins was inconsistent so it's not always clear if "by" means someone composed it or just donated it. Other tunes he actually says "donated by."

Whatever the case may be, unless these unique tunes can be found in earlier sources, we have no choice but to assume they were composed after the war. Even if they weren't composed after the war, they probably weren't well-known during the war.

"As for the whole "authors copying other authors' plates" thing, are we talking about copying entire pages from other people's manuals, or are you saying they had individual engraved plates of each tune/beat, and later publishers got ahold of these hundreds of little plates and arranged them into new manuals?"

Look at RED, WHITE AND BLUE in Howe's United States Regulation Drum and Fife Instructor and Keach, Burditt, and Cassidy's Army Drum and Fife Book. That is just one example, but I think it clearly shows how there was copying going on. Also look in Howe's in the beginning where Common Time, 1st Mode. is described as "A seven and three light strokes with the right hand, a flam and three with the left..." These beats were taken verbatim from an early 19th century drum manual, one of the tutors were the beats were described using words and no music.

"I really don't think anyone had a need to "copy" from any manual."

See response in paragraph above. I don't know if they needed to, but they clearly did.

"Musicians who can read music, especially veterans who played the music all the time for many years, only need a pen and paper to write down the scores of tunes and beats which, except for a fairly small percentage, is basically really easy music. We're not talking Beethoven's 9th here."

Except in the AVF, it's not a small percentage. Many of the tunes are very difficult. It's not all just Oh Susanna.

I could give several more examples of authors of drum and fife manuals copying. Just compare Klinehanse to Nevins, side by side. Bruce and Emmett felt the need to copy verbatim the section "On Time" from an earlier manual (Robinson off the top of my head). Everybody did it, except for maybe a few like Hart.

"As for AVF Three Camps being a "corrected" version of Howe's, if they were copying other manuals, using their plates, why correct it, and how do you correct an engraved plate? Or was it more likely just a different version agreed upon by the compilers from those submitted? Maybe most variations between manuals aren't "mistakes", just different versions different people knew."

I didn't say Hopkins used older plates when compiling the AVF. I was saying that they consulted earlier manuals. Even if a J.L. knew how play Biddy Oats, why not transcribe it from B&E instead of writing it out from scratch?

Look at Howe's 3 Camps in his 1862 drum and fife manual. I think once you get to the 2nd or 3rd Camp the tempo essentially cuts in half because he used quarter notes instead of eighth notes, IIRC. That's an error, not a variation.