Howe's Drum & Fife Instructor (1862) Questions

[HangarFlying]

Hello All,

I have just received my copy of Howe's Drum & Fife Instructor (1862) and I have a few questions for those of you who have experience using this manual. I (the fifer) and my drummer friend are going to use this manual to play the Camp Duties.

1) Regarding Reveille: At what tempo are the songs to be played?
2) Three Camps: Is there a tempo change between the first part and the second part? Holy Cow, when you get to the second part it feels like it gets REALLY SLOOOOW when compared to the first part.
3) At the end of the second part of the Three Camps, there is a repeat. Does this repeat go all the way to the beginning and you repeat the 1st part and 2nd part again or is there one of those "infamous misprints" and there is a repeat sign missing at the beginning of the 2nd part.
4) Slow Scotch: If I can read the fuzzy writing it is played in a AABBAABBAA format.
5) The Austrian: Played in a AABA format
6) Page 20, Between "The General" and "Church Call": There is a note that states: "End with first part of Three Camps". I can't tell, but is this note for "The General" or for "Church Call".

Hmmmm..this is all I can think of right now. I'm sure I'll have more as we get into it.

Thanks!

[33rdaladrummer]

Re: Howe's Drum & Fife Instructor (1862) Questions

Howe's Three Camps has a few errors. The "Second Camp" in Howe is really the 3rd camp. Howe got the ordering mixed up. Another error (which you caught) is that the "Second Camp" has quarter notes which should be eighth notes and eighth notes which should be sixteenth notes. If played as written, the section you mentioned would be played at half the normal speed. This is indeed an error/misprint.

Rather than correcting these errors, you can simply look at the version of the 3 camps in the American Veteran Fifer, which, along with the other camp duty tunes, is based on Howe.

Nevins' manual, available online at fifedrum.org, has the beats per minute listed for the reveille tunes, but some of them may not be all that accurate.

I have a pdf file of the reville tunes which have the errors corrected, which I will post as soon as I find it. They are taken mostly from Howe.

Even the most clealy written manual from the period, Bruce and Emmett, has some misprints, so it is often difficult to interpret the music in the manuals if you have never heard it played correctly. Sadly, this is one of the reasons certain tunes/beats are never played.

I will try and dig up those files on my computer so I can post them.

[33rdaladrummer]

Re: Howe's Drum & Fife Instructor (1862) Questions

I couldn't find the pdf file with the complete reveille, but here are some of the individual tunes. Most of these were created by cutting and pasting from the B&E notation, but are modified from what is actually in B&E.

[Campjacksonboy]

Re: Howe's Drum & Fife Instructor (1862) Questions

Sorry to crash the discussion but how does Howe's compare with Bruce & Emmetts? I've been able to scrounge up a few manuals over the years but B&E seems to be the only one that lays out the calls and when they are played.
Also are there any other field calls on the drum? I don't have my copy of B&E in front of me (my son has it - trying to pass the torch) There's only about a half dozen listed in B&E. I was surprised to find that Scott's Tactics lists so few of them. But I have found a "Deploy as Skirmishers" by the drum from a mysterious version of scotts (Not the Steve Abolt copy).
Frank Aufmuth

[33rdaladrummer]

Re: Howe's Drum & Fife Instructor (1862) Questions

Howe's has quite a few calls that are not in B&E: Field Officers' Call, All Officers' Call, Serjeants' Call, Corporals' Call, To Arms or Quarters, Water Call, Wood Call. Also it even has multiple versions of First Call, Fatigue Call, and many others. There is a schedule of calls for the entire day's duty, from reville at 6 A.M. through Tattoo at 10 o'clock in the evening titled "Extract of Camp Regulations, Head-Quarters First Brigade, First Division, M.V.M. Long Island, Boston Harbor, May 11, 1861". In general, the camp duties and calls in Howe are easier than B&E and will sound cleaner when you get several drummers playing them together. They also represent the most commonly known versions of the duty that would have been heard during the war, some identical to those laid down in 1812 and earlier. They also conform more closely to Scott's and the other tactics manuals. Proof of the calls found in Howes's being used during the War is evidenced by the fact that the entire camp duty in the American Veteran Fifer, published by CW veteran musicians in 1905, is nearly identical to Howe's.

[El Dorado]

Re: Howe's Drum & Fife Instructor (1862) Questions

From "Gold Rush Performers" by Helene Wickham Koon......................

Miller, Charles Robert - Infant prodigy. San Francisco, February 1863, San Francisco Minstrels, age six, "although but little taller than the spirit-stirring tambour, his drumsticks fall so patly as he rolls out the reveille and tatto, that the auditor...is inclined to think he is listening to the veritable `Dummer-Boy of Marble-head' himself."

Chris Ownby