fifers' set list

[joewhitney]

Re: fifers' set list

"I was actually talking about "bass drum solos", i.e. beats where the snare drummers rest and the bass drummer wails away. I don't think those are in the manuals."

You're right. The only kind of period drumming where you would see that style, bass drum playing with the snare tacit, is band drumming, as with the percussion section of a band, such as where the bass drum would play the downbeat and the snare the remainder of the measure.

For Civil War rudimental bass drumming, there is only one surviving example, and that is those bass drum parts from Hart's manual I mentioned above. It is basically standard rudimental bass drumming as we know it today, with the exception of 15 stroke rolls at the beginning of the B parts. Today, the bass beats once on the snare flam before the downbeat, once on the snare flam downbeat, and at the end of the 15, which is the beginning of the next measure. In Hart's style, the bass drum also beats three extra times through the middle of the 15 stroke roll, which probably helped soldiers marching with the music to maintain their step while the snare was rolling.

That's about all that is known about Civil War bass drumming, other than photos of the drummers themselves. By the way, there is no evidence of any bass drums in the ranks of regimental drummers during the Revolution. However, there are illustrations of some in marching bands, especially in Jannisary bands.

Joe Whitney
2d SC String Band
Md Line Field Music

[markj]

Re: fifers' set list

We can only wonder how this turned out:

New York Times, 15 December 1862, p.2

DRUMMERS ATTEND.--Col. HART, a drummer by nature and culture desires to do something for his country, and advertises in our columns for 200 young men and boys who would like gratutiously to learn the science of drumming, to meet him at HALL's music-store No. 543 Broadway, to-day or to-morrow, at 10 A.M. and 4 P.M.


Regards,

Mark Jaeger

[joewhitney]

Re: fifers' set list

Being held only a few blocks from where Matthew Brady's horrific exhibit "The Dead of Antietam" was being displayed to the public, maybe not so great.

Joe Whitney
2d SC String Band
Md Line Field Music

[Knapsack Matt]

Re: fifers' set list

Everything that I have read on this post has been very informational and has been very intresting.

Matt

[markj]

Re: fifers' set list

Being held only a few blocks from where Matthew Brady's horrific exhibit "The Dead of Antietam" was being displayed to the public, maybe not so great.

Joe Whitney
2d SC String Band
Md Line Field Music

Difficult to say. However, I find it more interesting to note that the "Hall" mentioned was undoubtedly William Hall of "Firth, Pond & Hall" instrument-producing and music publishing fame. By the 1860's, Hall had broken his business ties to Messrs. Firth & Pond, but he was located only a few doors up from his former associates who were located at 547 Broadway. I own an original Firth, Pond & Co. marked "547 BROADWAY NEW YORK," which dates it to c.1861-1863.

http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/Firth&c.htm

http://www.oldmusicproject.com/JERRY/20050626-hall.html

http://www.peelerfifes.com/fifes/firthandpond/index.shtml

Interesting, huh? This all raises the possibility that Col. Hart obtained his drums from either Hall's firm, or Firth & Pond's firm, or both.

Regards,

Mark Jaeger

[33rdaladrummer]

Re: fifers' set list

Here are those photos Pete Emerick kindly provided me. The NACWM photos are of the CW vets from the National Association of Civil War Musicians. Check out the bass drummer with the two beaters in the smaller group. The bass drum beaters are enormous campared to the ones used today. I am not sure about the date of the Sparhawk photo, but one of the bass drummers is using the Rumrille and Holton method -- one covered beater and a smaller solid wood beater. Also in Hart's, the paradiddles in the bass drum part for the common time are to be played with double accents -- RLrr LRll, but there is more information: The right hand plays hard accents whereas the left hand plays moderate accents. Perhaps this is because the right hand beater is supposed to be larger than the left....This is clearly evident in the photo of the 30th PA drum corps, but you have to download the high resolution image here and zoom in:

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/pphome.html

search for "30th pennsylvania drum corps"

[pjdrums96]

Re: fifers' set list

I really love the Sparhawk picture. If you look at the second snare drummer from the left, you'll notice that he is carrying an Eli Brown drum. You can clearly see the tack design on the from of the drum around the vent hole. I have seen this picture before and I can't get enough of it.

Patrick Jones
Camp Chase Fife and Drums

[33rdaladrummer]

Re: fifers' set list

Some more great quotes, courtesy of Pete Emerick:

from “The Colour Guard” by James K. Hosmer, 1863

“I lean against the tent-pole, having just given Ives his bath, and quieted the man with the measles with a pill; and, therefore, am at leisure. Along comes Cripps, the drummer, with a gridiron of blue tape on his breast, jumping over the puddles, then stopping for a little chat. I take an interest in the music. It used to be none too good, and, according to a sharp friend of mine, was the original cause of the dysentery in the camp; but there has been an improvement. I ask Cripps about a certain little musician in whom I take an interest; there is so much grace and sprightly rattle to his rub-a-dub-dub as he marches in the line of drummers up and down before the regiment at dress-parade. Cripps thinks this individual is a "nice boy," though lately he has come to grief; having kicked out against authority, and come to the shame of the "barrel" before the whole regiment. In Cripps's opinion, however, this youth, nimbly as he brandishes his drum-sticks, is not the first artist in his line in the regiment: the tenor-drum is a good deal of an instrument, and "Hodge is the man who takes the rag rather. Now, Hodge alone can make as much noise as all the rest of us put together. Its astonishin', but some of these fellers can't strike right. 'Taint no drummin' to hit with the sticks all over the head: you ought to hit right in the middle. A tip-top drummer won't vary more'n two or three inches from both his sticks, hittin' right in the middle of the head." I know Hodge well enough, -- a stout, straight boy. I have noticed the fine rhythm of his almost invisible sticks, and the measured, vigorous cadence of his feet as he beats time. There is poetry about old Tyrtaeus, who, six centuries before Christ, marched with his Dorian flute at the head of the war-like Spartan bands. I believe honestly too, that Cripps and Hodge in their every-day uniforms, seen through the haze of a few centuries, might be transformed into somewhat romantic characters. Cripps says about the fifers, "Some on 'em play plain, and some on 'em put in the fancy touches; but I kind o' hate to see a man flourish. Why can't he play straight, without fillin' up his tunes?" There is practical information about music.”

"....The bands of the division are playing now at "tattoo". They have been playing during the evening with great vigor, particularly one bass-drum. The drummer, I believe, had to fall out to-day, on account of his ponderous instrument; and to-night is wreaking vengeance upon it, until it bellows through the camps far and wide. Bivins, who sits just the other side of the candle from me, believes "the boys are killing pigs, and have hired the bands to play to drown the squealing."


These days the fifers are always telling the drummers to not play so loud. I imagine in those days it was near impossible for a group of drummers to play quietly, especially with unmuffled drums, and it seems a loud drummer was considered to be a good drummer, as the above quote about Hodge, the loudest and best drummer in Cripps's opinion, illustrates. Also, in Drum Taps in Dixie, Miller talks about how a Massachusetts drum corps, comprised of grown men, used to try and drown out the boys of the 2nd N.Y.H.A. when the two regiments shared the same parade ground.