That Rochester Fusilier/Bold Fusilier

Subject: That Rochester Fusilier
From: Rozza
Date: 07 Nov 24 - 05:18 AM

Just wondering in which magazine Pete Coe saw the verse of the Bold/Gay Fusilier, with directions as to the tune, which he used for his song. Could it have been this one from 1965? Anyone know their source? Chappell?

https://www.lookandlearn.com/blog/22633/how-the-bold-fusilier-became-the-jolly-swagman/

Subject: RE: That Rochester Fusilier
From: Rozza
Date: 07 Nov 24 - 05:19 AM

Blue Clicky:
https://www.lookandlearn.com/blog/22633/how-the-bold-fusilier-became-the-jolly-swagman/

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(added by Joe Offer)

This edited article about popular song originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 201 published on 20 November 1965.

Queen Anne was on the throne when Marlborough led his men to war, and the Kentish men sang a song as they marched through the streets of Rochester, known as The Bold Fusilier.

A gay Fusilier was marching down through Rochester,
Bound for the war in the Low Countree.
And he cried as he tramped through the dear streets of Rochester,
Who’d be a sol’jer for Marlboro’ with me?

Who’d be a so’jer, who’d be a so’jer, who’d be a so’jer for Marlboro’ with me?
And he cried as he tramped through the dear streets of Rochester
Who’d be a so’jer for Marlboro’ with me?

The Bold Fusilier slipped out of memory and years went by until one afternoon in 1894, at Dagooth Central, in Queensland, the melody was revived, never to die again.

There had been a homely party and a fine spread with good meat pies, kangaroo soup, jellies and home-made cakes. Afterwards the guests were all sitting round in the bright sunshine in the garden. It was then that Christine Macpherson, the daughter of the house, brought out her autoharp, and began to sing.

She wanted her friends to hear a tune she had just heard at Victoria races. It was catchy, it was fun. Later this was identified as the army march known as Craigielea, arranged from an old Scottish ballad, The Bonnie Wood of Craigielea and adapted from The Bold Fusilier, the song that Marlborough’s soldiers had sung when marching off to war.

Andrew Paterson – pet name “Bob” – was enchanted by the melody. He wanted to make it truly Australian, and put his own words to it.

“But what about?” Christine asked him.

His inspiration was a story her father had once told him. He and a policeman out riding came across a swagman (a seasonal workman walking to a new job) who had camped under a coolibah tree, beside Combo waterhole. The man had killed a sheep, and was eating some of it, but had tried to conceal the theft by putting back the skin over the dead sheep. Horrified by the appearance of strangers who might recognize his crime, he dived into the waterhole. Here he was dragged down by his clothes, and drowned.

As Bob Paterson told the girl the story, John Carter, the overseer, came up, and he said that he had seen a couple of swagmen “waltzing Matilda” down by the water hole. The phrase inspired Bob.

“I’ll call my song Waltzing Matilda,” he told Christine.

“What is Waltzing Matilda?” Christine asked. He told her that a matilda was the blanket roll in which a swagman tied up all his worldly goods. Waltzing Matilda meant carrying your swagbag with you.

Before long Bob Paterson had written the words to fit in with the tune of Craigielle. He got Christine to play it for him, and she was delighted. All the boys and girls went crazy about it, for it was one of those songs that you could not stop singing, and dancing to it was a real delight.

The first time Waltzing Matilda was sung in public was at the North Gregory Hotel, Winton, where today there is a plaque hanging to commemorate the event. The mayor said, “They sang it here. They went home singing it. And if you asks me they’re still singing it.”

No song ever met with a more rousing reception, and the band was worn out with having continuously to play it.

Waltzing Matilda led the Aussies through the battlefields of two grim wars. Sir Winston Churchill once said that it was one of the most inspired songs that had ever been written.

In Australia you cannot go very far without catching up with the echo of it, and naturally enough, swagmen sing it on their walks. They will not accept a lift, but go everywhere on their feet and all of them carry their Waltzing Matilda with them.

Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong
Under the shade of a coolibah tree
And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled
“You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.”

CHORUS
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda,
You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me.
And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled,
You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.

Subject: RE: That Rochester Fusilier
From: Robert B. Waltz
Date: 07 Nov 24 - 05:55 AM

There are two problems with all the attempts to link "The Bold Fusilier" with "Waltzing Matilda." First, despite what everyone claims, there is no firm evidence of the existence of "Fusilier" before 1941, and the fragment we have (it's only a fragment) doesn't really sound like it comes from the reign of Queen Anne.

Second, although the version everyone sings of "Waltzing Matilda" appears to be that of "Fusilier," the common version was reinterpreted by Marie Cowan, and is not the same as the tune supplied by Christina MacPherson. MacPherson's tune is supposed to be "The Bonnie Woods of Cragilie," misremembered. I can't really speak to that. I do sort of wonder if Cowan had the "Fusilier" tune in her head, and corrected MacPherson's tune to get it right, but I can't prove it. We have no evidence.

I will not say that the "Fusilier" is a red herring in the history of "Waltzing Matilda" -- I genuinely think Cowan may have known it -- but I don't think either Banjo Paterson or Christina MacPherson did.

I spent months studying this. Most of my conclusions (8000 words of them) are in the Ballad Index entry on "Waltzing Matilda", http://balladindex.org/Ballads/PBB119.html, but there is also a bit in the notes on "The Bold Fusilier": http://balladindex.org/Ballads/DTcombso.html.

Subject: RE: That Rochester Fusilier
From: GUEST,threelegsoman
Date: 07 Nov 24 - 11:05 AM

I received an email from a gentleman, Brian White, from Brisbane, Australia, who wrote: Would you please do Australians a favour and add to your collection of songs the original version of Waltzing Matilda as it was played when Christina Macpherson and Banjo Paterson collaborated in the composition of Waltzing Matilda in the Winton area of Queensland in 1895. In 1895 Winton was very remote and pianos were scarce. Christina played a zither/autoharp by ear while Waltzing Matilda was being composed. Would you please demonstrate how Waltzing Matilda would have sounded on zither/auto harp. Brian continued with a comprehensive history of the origins of the words and music: In 1900 Paterson sold the rights to some of his poems, including Waltzing Matilda, to the publishing company, Angus and Robertson. Very soon after, the rights were acquired by the Inglis Tea Company. James Inglis, the owner, commissioned Marie Cowan, the wife of of one of the managers to turn Christina's version into an advertising jingle for Billy Tea. Marie Cowan changed both the words and the music to make it simpler, smoother and more contemporary. Although its origin is clear, only one bar (bar 10) is note for note from Barr's song. This version quickly became the accepted version and the original version which was never published, died out. Brian then sent me copies of Christina's own handwritten manuscript which included "Banjo" Paterson's original words, and it is from this manuscript and a PDF copy from Brian that I have attempted to reproduce the original song. Because I am much more familiar with the Marie Cowan version of the song, I think I may have tended to slip into that melody at times, but have tried to be true to the original Christina Macpherson melody as much as possible. Although in my playing, I only use three chords, G, C and D7 to pick out the melody, the chords I have shown in the annotations are the ones Brian included in his PDF copy and can be used to strum along with my playing.

Waltzing Matilda (Original version)

Subject: RE: That Rochester Fusilier
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 Nov 24 - 01:13 PM

Dick Holdstock calls it "The Bold Fusilier." Here's his 1988 performance with Allan MacLeod. I've heard them sing it many times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOVQWjW-R64

Dick's notes:
Dick Holdstock of (Holdstock and Macleod) sings an early 1700s song about army recruitment in Rochester Kent, for the Marlborough Wars. Pete Coe chose the melody for Waltzing Matililda for this partial Broadside Ballad. Recorded at KIXE Redding in 1988 on Stage 9.

Subject: RE: That Rochester Fusilier
From: Robert B. Waltz
Date: 07 Nov 24 - 02:05 PM

Joe Offer wrote: "Dick Holdstock calls it 'The Bold Fusilier.'"

That's pretty much the standard title, and the one used in the Ballad Index. It's an assigned title, though, because the field collections are so fragmentary.

John Meredith talked to people who thought they had heard it before the Marie Cowan publication of "Waltzing Matilda," but that was so much later that the informants' memories are hardly to be trusted. It is important to note that the earliest records of the song seem to be from 1941 -- the very time when Australian soldiers were spreading "Waltzing Matilda" around the world, and it was being heavily parodied.

The flip side is, why would anyone make up a song about the War of the Spanish Succession in the twentieth century?

I repeat, this has been heavily, heavily debated. Australians tend to be fanatics about this. But the evidence is quite strong:

Christina MacPherson certainly did not know the Fusilier text (though it's barely possible that she had heard the tune and forgotten it).

Banjo Paterson almost certainly did not know the Fusilier text, at least consciously (although it's barely possible that some memory might have caused him to use the same verse form).

Marie Cowan may have known "Fusilier," or at least the tune, and adapted MacPherson's tune toward it. This is the one reasonable assumption in the sequence, but even it can't be proved.

It's worth noting that most of the people who assume "Fusilier" is the ancestor of "Waltzing Matilda" ignore the fact that the common tune is Marie Cowan's (significant) modification of Christina MacPherson's tune, not MacPherson's remembered version of "The Bonnie Woods of Craigilie."

It might also be worth pointing out that, while chorded zithers existed in MacPherson's time and she did play one, they were much less capable instruments then (fewer chord bars) and the techniques of autoharp playing used by, say, the Carter Family and brought to a high pitch by Bryan Bowers, had not been developed at the time. MacPherson's autoharp playing would have been much more limited than what one could do today. It probably could not play the ninth chord that many people use on "Waltzing Matilda" today, e.g., and it was not a melody instrument.

When I started researching "Waltzing Matilda," I felt quite sure that it was a parody of "Fusilier." After doing all the work, I am now convinced that at most, "Fusilier" influenced the Marie Cowan tune, and I'm not sure of that.

Subject: RE: That Rochester Fusilier/Bold Fusilier
From: GUEST,Rozza
Date: 08 Nov 24 - 04:51 AM

In Mainly Norfolk it mentions a Bold Fusilier text printed in 1900. If it is true, where was it published and has it survived?

Subject: RE: That Rochester Fusilier/Bold Fusilier
From: Reinhard
Date: 08 Nov 24 - 05:05 AM

Rozza, that's an old, outdated quotation from Wikipedia. Must fix it.