fifers' set list

[ThehosGendar]

Re: fifers' set list

Hear, hear Eric and Joe.

There are so many variables in the field music world that it's well nigh impossible to pinpoint things. In the end, beside from the required duty call, additional tune choice probably comes down to where you come from, skill, and personal taste. If I were a fifer in the war, and had access to B&E, it'd be possible that I would play Governor's Island over someone from Illinois, because I'm from the New York area and know what Governor's Island is. Someone from Illinois might not.

I know this drives all of us crazy. The O.R.s, decriptions of parades in the New York Times, and any search of Governor's Island and Newport Barracks in the New York Times, Google Books, Making of America, and the O.R.s comes up with nothing to help figure out period repetoire. Augustus Meyers only mentions "Girl I Left Behind Me" by name in Ten Years in the Ranks. Specific mentions of tunes are a scarcity, so while the AVF listing is a nice help, I'm sure we'd all be driven crazy by playing the same 30 tunes over and over again, so, again, taste, region, and skill, I think, will be the determining factors in choosing repetoire from the period manuals available to us.

[33rdaladrummer]

Re: fifers' set list

We have to dig pretty deep to find tunes that were definitely played during the war, but it is not impossible. Delevan Miller's books are a good resource. There are some tunes in Samuel Bayard's books, Hill Country Tunes and March to the Fife, Dance to the Fiddle, that were known to have been played by CW veteran fifers. We can also research tunes in the manuals and collections we do have, and if they appear in several other sources, we can deduce that they were commonly known. A good resource for this is the index, Early American Secular Music and its European Sources. Also Bayard has done much of this work already. As a matter of fact, his indexes even contain some tunes from B&E and the AVF. After doing this research, we can determine that some manuals contain mostly common tunes, like Howe's and Nevins. Others like Draper's contain mostly rare stuff. I have found many tunes in Bruce and Emmett that date back much farther than the war, and some tunes that seem to make their very first appearance in B&E. The same can be said about the AVF, but I have been able to date the majority of tunes in the AVF as pre-war. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but at least half of the B&E tunes can be found nowhere else. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that the reprotoire of the living historian should first include what is documented as having been played, then the commonly-known pieces, and then the rarities. I could make such a list, but to the dismay of many, Hell on the Wabash and Fireman's Q.S. wouldn't make the top 40 or even the top 100.

Will Chappell

[ThehosGendar]

Re: fifers' set list

Bayard's books are quite good, but now we're getting into the territory of region. For March to the Fife, Dance to the Fiddle, he collected those tunes from a certain region of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Those tunes, and that stylistic version can very well be very different than what a fifer from upstate New York, tidewater Virginia, or deep Georgia would play.

I think it's impossible to try to tally a "top 20" list of CW field music tunes. Much the same way you couldn't do that with traditional Irish music. There are thousands of tunes, and certain tunes are more popular in certain regions, just as very likely certain disparate tunes were more popular in certain bands from regiments from certain regions. From looking through B&E, and Howe's, and Ashworths, and Aird's, and all the fife and drum manuals, we see that field music drew from traditional Irish sources, too, as does Bayard's collections.

Such is the problem of an aural tradition.

I think, just what Mr. Korber said, we should be open to all sources, not just one definitive list. Keep researching, digging for cool documented nuggets, and playing tunes. Pick the ones you like out of period manuals, if you find a rare one that's mentioned in a diary or something, play that, too. Although standardisation was the point these manuals tried to put across, we all shouldn't sound the same, save for duty calls and such, because we each have different musical and regional backgrounds, just like the original bands.

[Smokey Toes]

Re: fifers' set list

"Pick the ones you like out of period manuals, if you find a rare one that's mentioned in a diary or something, play that, too. Although standardisation was the point these manuals tried to put across, we all shouldn't sound the same, save for duty calls and such, because we each have different musical and regional backgrounds, just like the original bands."

I couldn't agree more....

Where is the fun if everyone sounds similar?

Variety is the spice of life...

[33rdaladrummer]

Re: fifers' set list

I don't think anyone who has compared the manuals, read the diaries, and seen and heard the audio and video footage of CW vets would disagee with my claim that every CW living history fifer should know:

The Girl I Left Behind Me
Road to Boston
Turkey in the Straw/Ole Zip Coon
Yankee Doodle
White Cockade
Campbells are Coming
Dixie
Jefferson and Liberty
Soldier's Joy
Old Dan Tucker
Cuckoo's Nest

Those should all be on the top 20.

Will Chappell

[33rdaladrummer]

Re: fifers' set list

Jason and Eric,

Please note that "bands" were something completely different than the type of musicians we have been discussing. The period terminology for fifers and drummers is either "the drum corps" or "field music", although the brass bands did have a drum or two and occasionally a fifer. Anyway, I've enjoyed the discussion and think that everyone has made some valid points. I agree with what you all have said and think that all of the available resources we have should be used appropriately. But I think we should be thinking less about our personal preferences and opinions and considering what their favorite tunes were based on the evidence.

Will Chappell

[ThehosGendar]

Re: fifers' set list

Will,

I'm quite aware of that, thanks. The same philosophy behind the choice of repetore (personal preference, manuals, cultural influence, and geographical location) are determining factors for both drum corps and bands, thus, I used the term "band" once at the end of my last post.

[Smokey Toes]

Re: fifers' set list

One time at band camp.....

[Smokey Toes]

Re: fifers' set list

HEADQUARTERS, May 8, 1862.
Major-General HALLECK:
A furious beating of bass drums is kept up in the right and left corps. It can be heard a distance of 4 or 5 miles; of course betrays our position and progress, and ought to be suppressed. Bass drums are not used with field music in my command at all.
D. C. BUELL
OR Series 1, Volume 10, Part 2, page 625.

One minute your the man just hammering away on your bass....

HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
In the Field, Snake Creek Gap, May 12, 1864.
Major General GEORGE H. THOMAS,
Commanding Army of the Cumberland:
GENERAL: The general commanding is desirous that as much silence shall be preserved in the army as possible, and in order that this end may be attained he wishes the use of the bass drum entirely discontinued, also the practice or use of any band music or field music save the usual bugle calls. All cheering of bodies of men, except in battle, should also be dispensed with. You will please give the necessary orders in your command to continue in force until further orders,
I am, general, very respectfully, yours, &c.,
L. M. DAYTON,
Aide-de-Camp.
OR Series 1, Volume 38, Part 4, page 147

The next thing you know your just manual labor....

I'm working on my 64-65 disgruntled unemployed bass drummer impression....

[33rdaladrummer]

Re: fifers' set list

P. 294 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY OHIO

On July 11th they crossed into Canada, Colonel Cass claiming the honor of being the first man, who, in the war of 1812, stepped in arms upon British soil. He also commanded, in a skirmish on the seventeenth, in which the first blood was shed; the British being driven from a bridge across Aux Canarde river.

The Licking volunteers were included in the surrender of General Hull; and Colonel Cass was so stung with mortification, it is said, that he would not deliver his sword, but broke the blade and threw it away. The Ohio troops were dismissed on their parole not to serve again until they were exchanged. Colonel Cass was exchanged in January, 1813, and about the same time was commissioned as a colonel in the regular army. Hull's surrender occurred on the sixteenth day of August, 1812, and, as stated before, the Ohio troops having been paroled, they returned to their homes as best they could.

Of those who were conspicuous from Licking county, in this war, may be mentioned: Major Jeremiah R. Munson, who was elected major of Colonel Lewis Cass' Third Ohio regiment. He was a man of fine soldierly bearing and attainments. He was surrendered with the army under Hull, at Detroit, but afterwards entered the service. While near Detroit he was accidentally shot by David Messenger, and so severely wounded that he barely survived the journey home.

There existed among the officers of the Third regiment an ill-feeling towards Colonel Cass, by reason of an imaginary or real belief in his partiality, or his disposition to court favors from the government authorities, to the detriment of the officers of the regiment. Major Munson shared this dislike with his brother officers, and there existed a coolness between the major and the colonel during their term of service, but it can be said to the credit of Colonel Cass, and as evidence of the appreciated worth of Major Munson, that when Cass was solicited by Governor Meigs to recommend some worthy officers for promotion, he wrote a letter to the governor speaking of his personal dislike to Munson, but said for the good of the service, he recommended his promotion,

It is related that one of the Munsons, at the surrender, was asked by the British general the use made of the large drum carried by the Yankee boys, when Munson replied-"that is a bass drum, you d-d old fool."

Will Chappell

[ThehosGendar]

Re: fifers' set list

I've always loved those anti-bass drum rants in the ORs. I can imagine Buell hearing a bass drum rocking out in the distance as he's trying to do some paperwork, throwing his pencil down in a rage, storming out of his tent, and screaming, "WHADDAYA DOING?!? SHUT UP!!!!"

[markj]

Re: fifers' set list

I passed on this cite to Jason Wickersty a while back, and I'll toss it onto this thread as well:

February 7, [1863], Saturday
"The music in [the] 6th Ala[bama regiment] gave us some good perform[ance]. tonight. Kettle drum, bass [drum] & a fife, best drummer I ever heard. Play[e]d Devils dream as fast as a fiddler & splendidly."

The above is extracted from the wartime diary of Samuel Pickens, Company D (Greensboro Guards), 5th Alabama Infantry, Army of Northern Virginia. Pickens was eventually captured at Petersburg VA, in early April 1865, spent several months in a POW camp, and survived the war.

Here's the citation: Hubbs, G. Ward (ed.). Voices from Company D: Diaries by the Greensboro Guards, Fifth Alabama Infantry Regiment, Army of Northern Virginia. Athens GA and London: The University of Georgia Press, 2003, p. 145.

Faithfully yours, &c.,

Mark Jaeger

[Horton]

Re: fifers' set list

hey guys I hope I am not to far out in suggesting this but what if some fifers "made up there own songs". I am definatly not trying to say everyone did it or even some people but is that totally out of the question? Anyone who knows the fife knows that it is not that hard especially on a long boring day. I have looked for accounts of this but have come up unlucky. I mean it has to be considered at least a little bit. I am also not reccomend that we start doing this today but someone had to do it. I know I would
jus mi 2 cent

[33rdaladrummer]

Re: fifers' set list

"Sam Waggle was a gunsmith by calling, and had been a fifer in the Civil War, where he had lost one of his legs. A wooden leg, however, did not prevent his marching in all the parades and other demonstrations where the music of his old rosewood fife might be required. He and S. W. Devan (see above) often marched and played together in parades, but Waggle, easily tired because of his age and disability, would have to fall out and sit by the roadside to recover breath. Pete Provance used to haunt his gunsmith's shop in Dunbar, in order to hear the old man play; and certain of his tunes have been preserved because of this circumstance (see tunes No. 44, 87.) Pete would beg him to play, and Waggle, highly flattered, would become excited and fussy. He would drop his stone-bowled, wooden-stemmed pipe, spit fine and say, "All right, now, me boy -- all right, now, you jest wait till I get me fife and me leg? Sally, where's me leg? Damn, Sally, where in Hell is me fife?" -- and so forth. When fully equipped, he would go out to the main street of Dunbar and there march up and down playing continually until he had "blowed hisself clean out." There were many other fifers like him in southwestern Pennsylvania once, and nearly all of them are just memories today. But we can rejoice in the knowledge that some of their music, at least, has been rescued from oblivion."

-Samuel Bayard, Hill Country Tunes

Will Chappell

[Jim Moffet]

Re: fifers' set list

I've really enjoyed reading all the posts here - thanks for the insight and sources cited - very informative.

I would love to see the purchase records from some of the camps of instruction in the various states to see it any particular booklets were acquired to train field musicians. State Adjutant General Records might have the data.....I'll have to go back over the the Minnesota Historical Society!

The notion of regional tastes is fascinating, but as I try and focus on the Minnesota troops, well, all of them were transplants from elsewhere (mostly New England...but plenty of Germans, some Scandinavians...and one can guess that they knew a whole set of popular tunes that didn't make the standard set list!) We have a photo of the Second Minnesota at Fort Snelling in the early autumn of '61: 1 bass drum (possibly later to be unemployed....) 2 snares and 2 fifes: Lord only knows what they were playing. The argument that a given manual was published for regional consumption doesn't fit here on the Upper Mississippi (I'm not convinced that it fits regionally, either). Some of the musicians MAY have had previous 'service' with militia companies, or other fife & drum experience, but there is precious little data to go on there.

Fifers have always figured how to play a tune without sheet music.....(not that I'm proud of it, but I once marched into our camp after filming a rev war movie w/ 15 musicians playing the Mickey Mouse Club March!) So it seems to me that units brigaded together ended up cross-pollinating one another's playlist - with or without sheet music.

On the bass drum issue, the ORs do have such rants, but we have photos of mid/late war Federal regiments w/ bass drums.

And am I mistaken, or is not one of the training tunes at the front of the fife turorial in B&E not "Oh Lassie aren't thou Sleeping Yet?" - "My Love is but a Lassie Yet?" That would make 3!

Jim Moffet
Co. A, Minnesota First