Origins: Bonaparte's Retreat Medley

Subject: Origins: Bonaparte's Retreat Medley
From: SeaCanary
Date: 14 Apr 12 - 08:30 PM

On the recording Bonaparte's Retreat by The Chieftains there is a cut called "Bonaparte's Retreat" which, in turn, is a medley of tunes and Delores Keene's singing. What, please, are the names of each piece of music, in order, in that medley?

Subject: RE: Origins: Bonaparte's Retreat Medley
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 15 Apr 12 - 02:22 AM

I have that album, and the liner notes are still in it.

The Wild Geese
a verse from 'The Green Linnet' sung by Dolores Keane
The Bonny Bunch of Roses - don't know if sung or instrumental
a distant echo of the 'Marseillaise'
Madam Bonaparte, 'a contemporary set dance'
finale from Bochsa's* Harp Concerto no. 1 in Dm, opus 15
'The March to Victory' by Paddy Maloney
'Bonaparte's Retreat,' an Irish set dance
another verse from 'the bonny bunch of roses'
'The Downfall of Paris,' a set dance
another verse from 'the green linnet'

*Bochsa was harper to Napoleon.

SeaCanary, are you doing a radio show?

Subject: RE: Origins: Bonaparte's Retreat Medley
From: SeaCanary
Date: 15 Apr 12 - 02:42 AM

HA !! I wish. :)

Actually I'm collecting tunes and songs from around the time of the American War of 1812. Might I know what made you think I was doing a radio show?

I am much obliged for the help GUEST,leenia.

Subject: RE: Origins: Bonaparte's Retreat Medley
From: SeaCanary
Date: 15 Apr 12 - 03:00 AM

BTW here's a link to the medley for your trouble and listening pleasure.

Subject: RE: Origins: Bonaparte's Retreat Medley
From: Greg B
Date: 15 Apr 12 - 09:24 AM

I've forgotten, is that the "long dance" tune entitled "Bonaparte's Retreat?"

Subject: RE: Origins: Bonaparte's Retreat Medley
From: SeaCanary
Date: 15 Apr 12 - 06:26 PM

Greg B -- I don't understand your question. I would have thought the above link would have answered it. What am I missing unless you are trying to make a distinction between the medley on the recording called Bonaparte's Retreat and the tune within the medley called "Bonaparte's Retreat"?

Perhaps if you could supply a hyper-link to the tune you are thinking of? Could it be this:

http://grooveshark.com/s/Bonaparte+s+Retreat/3Qq28s?src=5

Subject: RE: Origins: Bonaparte's Retreat Medley
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 15 Apr 12 - 07:32 PM

It's only a guess, but he may be referring to the tune in the "long dance" section of O'Neill's which goes by that name. In which case, yes, it's basically the same one, though O'Neill's version varies a bit, especially in the third part. But it's recognisably the same tune.

Grooveshark's nifty, SC - thanks for turning me on to it.

PS: Being Napoleon's harpist was the least of Bochsa's adventures: he later had to flee France, having been sentenced to imprisonment and branding for committing forgery. He went to England, became the first harp professor at the Royal Academy, got into more trouble for fraud, ran off with the wife of the guy who wrote Home Sweet Home and ended up dying in Australia. (His paramour's husband only outlived him by three months, leaving her free to marry a New York diamond merchant.)

Subject: RE: Origins: Bonaparte's Retreat Medley
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 15 Apr 12 - 07:49 PM

Interesting... I just looked that tune up in the other O'Neill's, and see that in 1001 Gems (which is what I was using above) it's in a major key and sounds pretty much like the clip. But in the bigger, slightly earlier O'Neill's 1850 Tunes, it's in a minor key. Still the same basic melodic shape, but in a minor instead of a major key. Both versions work, though.

Subject: RE: Origins: Bonaparte's Retreat Medley
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 15 Apr 12 - 09:01 PM

What SeeCanary asked about is a composition, almost an orchestral suite, of traditional Irish tunes and dances. The Chieftains combined them into a 15-minute piece which they called 'Bonaparte's Retreat.' It made an entire side of a vinyl LP of the same name.

SeaCanary, I asked about a possible radio show because it seemed tactless to ask "Why do you want to know?" But I was still interested, and I like to talk to people about their musical endeavors.

Subject: RE: Origins: Bonaparte's Retreat Medley
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 15 Apr 12 - 09:06 PM

Here's a video of Aly Bain and others doing a very good job on the tune:

B's R

Subject: RE: Origins: Bonaparte's Retreat Medley
From: Greg B
Date: 15 Apr 12 - 09:38 PM

Joe Burke recorded a sparkling version of the long dance tune.

Subject: RE: Origins: Bonaparte's Retreat Medley
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 16 Apr 12 - 03:36 AM

Leeneia, that is the American tune of the same name it's not played in the Chieftains recording.[ great tune mind ]

Dave H

Subject: RE: Origins: Bonaparte's Retreat Medley
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 16 Apr 12 - 03:52 AM

It made an entire side of a vinyl LP of the same name.


Let's make that 2/3.

Subject: RE: Origins: Bonaparte's Retreat Medley
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 16 Apr 12 - 04:09 AM

Wow, Leeneia, thanks for posting that Aly Bain recording! He's one classy player.

It's not the same tune as the one I was referring to in O'Neill's, tho - which I based on listening to the Joe Burke clip. But I'm going to learn it. (Are there any alternative names for the Bain tune?)

Subject: RE: Origins: Bonaparte's Retreat Medley
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 16 Apr 12 - 04:21 AM

PS: The minor-key version I spoke of above seems to be better known as "Bonaparte's Defeat", so I think O'Neill just mis-named it. It also appears elsewhere in his collection under its proper name, but in A minor instead of E minor. The two tunes make a great pair anyway.

One of the O'Neill books also gives the notes of the set dance "Madame Bonaparte" under the title of Bonaparte's-Something-Or-Other (can't remember & too lazy to dig it out) but Madame appears in another section under her rightful title as well. So there's a bit of confusion in the names, but B's Retreat does seem to be the major-key version.

Subject: RE: Origins: Bonaparte's Retreat Medley
From: Greg B
Date: 16 Apr 12 - 08:49 AM

The version that Joe Burke plays isn't in O'Neill's I don't think, at least not by that name. It is, however, in the Roche Collection.

Subject: RE: Origins: Bonaparte's Retreat Medley
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Apr 12 - 09:01 AM

Bonnie, I remember reading somewhere (possibly in one of John Cullinane's publications) that another name for "Madame Bonaparte" is "Bonaparte's Advance".

Don

Subject: RE: Origins: Bonaparte's Retreat Medley
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 16 Apr 12 - 09:02 AM

It's in O'Neill's 1001 Gems, Tune no. 980.

Subject: RE: Origins: Bonaparte's Retreat Medley
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 16 Apr 12 - 09:03 AM

Sorry, cross-posted - mine was in answer to Greg.

Subject: RE: Origins: Bonaparte's Retreat Medley
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 16 Apr 12 - 10:31 AM

Sorry about the confusion. I was pleased to help SeaCanary out, but I have no intention of actually listening to the thing.

Just to add to the wealth of data here: the Fiddler's Fakebook offers the following:

Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine
Bonaparte Crossing the Rocky Mountains
Bonaparte's Retreat - this has only two chords, D and A.

Subject: RE: Origins: Bonaparte's Retreat Medley
From: clueless don
Date: 17 Apr 12 - 08:28 AM

Sorry - the message from GUEST on 16 Apr 12 - 09:01 AM was from me. I didn't realize that I had lost my cookie.

Don

Subject: RE: Origins: Bonaparte's Retreat Medley
From: Lighter
Date: 01 Jan 22 - 02:55 PM

Chaeles Fenno Hoffman,"A Winter in the West" (1834) [ref. to Kentucky in 1826]:

"[The condemned man] was...set up, on his coffin, in the cart. He asked for water, and requested that while a messenger was gone for it, the music would play Bonaparte's Retreat from Moscow."

W. H. Stepp, who recorded the now "standard" version of "Bonaparte's Retreat" for Alan Lomax in 1937, was also a Kentuckian.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hamilton_Stepp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yeQucos9-M