American Revolution Music Questions

Subject: Amer. Rev. Music Questions
From: Vixen
Date: 13 Apr 05 - 09:04 PM

D'Cats--

Reynaud and I will be playing an American Revolution re-enactment next month. We'll be playing fiddle, hammered dulcimer, guitar, pennywhistle and recorder. We've got a mess of tunes, and we've got some questions...

1) Is the Gaspe Reel of the right vintage to be played at this kind of event?

2) A list of appropriate tunes included The Foggy Dew, but we're wondering if it's the one about the Wild Goose Rebellion or the one about the "bachelor airy and young"--can somebody tell us which?

3)We're playing civilian entertainers, not military--so any suggestions you might have about instruments/music would be helpful.

As always, Mudcats are the best!

Thanks,
V 'n' R

Subject: RE: Amer. Rev. Music Questions
From: Gypsy
Date: 13 Apr 05 - 09:49 PM

Stick Ashokan in there, too. Not vintage, but people will like it, and i STILL have patrons insist that it dates to the war.

Subject: RE: Amer. Rev. Music Questions
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 Apr 05 - 09:57 PM

Reel de Gaspé is French-Canadian; don't know if it is suited or not. There are two with the title. Can't find a date. In Ceolas. Newer?, but it could be based on an older tune.

Subject: RE: Amer. Rev. Music Questions
From: Rapparee
Date: 13 Apr 05 - 09:57 PM

Yankee Doodle, of course. And "The World Turned Upside Down" was played by the British during the Yorktown surrender.

Subject: RE: Amer. Rev. Music Questions
From: GUEST,Allen
Date: 14 Apr 05 - 03:56 AM

Actualy, nobody knows if they played it.

Over the Hills and Far Away.
Why Soldiers Why?
The Bold Soldier.
On the Banks of the Dee.
The British Grenadier (lots of different words fitted to this tune by both sides including Free America).
What A Court Hath Old England (tune Down Derry Down).
Hearts of Oak.
Chester.
The Battle of Saratoga (tune Brennan on the Moor).
Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier.
How Happy the Soldier.
My Days Have Been So Wonderous Free.

Subject: RE: Amer. Rev. Music Questions
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 14 Apr 05 - 05:47 AM

Hi, Vicki! I'm doing a unit on music of the colonial era/revolutionary war for my 5th graders right now.
Yankee Doodle tops the list.
Are you dancing, singing, entertaining? English country dances would have been appropriate for the peried. Also Money Musk, Chorus jig, - the good old New England contras. Hmmm - when I get to school I'll see what else I can come up with!

Allison

Subject: RE: Amer. Rev. Music Questions
From: pavane
Date: 14 Apr 05 - 07:03 AM

Note on Yankee Doodle:

Around 1800, the term 'Maccaroni' was equivalent to Dandy, or fashionably dressed man. (See the song The Knowing Maccaroni Outwitted, in the Bodley collection)

It looks as if Yankee Doodle thought that sticking a feather in his cap made him well-dressed.

Subject: RE: Amer. Rev. Music Questions
From: Leadfingers
Date: 14 Apr 05 - 08:13 AM

I dont know a Foggy Dew that ties in with Wild Geese - The Irish one I know is from the 1916 uprising .

Subject: RE: Amer. Rev. Music Questions
From: Vixen
Date: 14 Apr 05 - 10:04 AM

Wow! Thanks for all the input...

Allen's list has some tunes on it we hadn't found yet.

Leadfingers...1916 is right, but I thought it was Wild Geese because of:

"'Twas England bade our wild geese go
That small nations might be free.
Their lonely graves are by Suvla's waves
On the fringe of the grey North Sea.

Animaterra--Thank you much--anything you can turn up will be helpful, I'm sure. Reynaud was disappointed to learn that the concertina was invented in 1820!

Pavane--Thanks for the costume idea--I'll pick up a couple of quills for our hats!

Mudcats are amazing!

V 'n' R

Subject: RE: Amer. Rev. Music Questions
From: GUEST,Chanteyranger
Date: 14 Apr 05 - 12:28 PM

I believe "Hail Columbia" is period. There's a nice set of books of period music and dance edited by Kate Van Winkle Keller;

Songs from the American Revolution
Fiddle Tunes from the American Revolution
Social Dances of the American Revolution, (Charles Cyril Hendrickson & KVW Keller).

Check your local library for these.

Chanteyranger

Subject: RE: Amer. Rev. Music Questions
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Apr 05 - 12:34 PM

'Hail columbia' - 1798 - so 20 years post Revolutionary

Subject: RE: Amer. Rev. Music Questions
From: GUEST,Chanteyranger
Date: 14 Apr 05 - 12:58 PM

The date I have for the song Hail Columbia is 1789, six years after the end of the American revolution (1776-1783).

Chanteyranger

Subject: RE: Amer. Rev. Music Questions
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Apr 05 - 01:04 PM

whoops - sorry ; Music is 1789; lyrics added 1798

Subject: RE: Amer. Rev. Music Questions
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 14 Apr 05 - 01:23 PM

Early American Secular Music and Its European Sources, 1589–1839: An Index

Subject: RE: American Revolution Music Questions
From: Sorcha
Date: 14 Apr 05 - 01:27 PM

Soldiers Joy/Kings Head
Girl I Left Behind/Brighton Camp
French songs of the period...tie in with Layfayette

Subject: RE: American Revolution Music Questions
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 14 Apr 05 - 01:44 PM

Gypsy, I've never heard anyone (before your post) that suggested that Ashokan Farewell was related to the Revolutionary War.

Generally what confusion there is is because of the song's use in the TV series about the Civil War, and people get the impression it was actually from THAT period.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: American Revolution Music Questions
From: Vixen
Date: 14 Apr 05 - 01:47 PM

WOW! A meaningful thread name! Many thanks to whomever!

Malcolm Douglas--that looks like a very useful site...Thank you!

V 'n' R

Subject: RE: American Revolution Music Questions
From: GUEST,Chanteyranger
Date: 14 Apr 05 - 01:49 PM

Whoa, GUEST, you're right. Words came later.

Chanteyranger

Subject: RE: American Revolution Music Questions
From: Ernest
Date: 14 Apr 05 - 02:02 PM

An irishmans epistle - it is in the DT and played to the tune of irish washerwoman, which is frim that era, if I remember it correctly.
Regards
Ernest

Subject: RE: American Revolution Music Questions
From: GUEST,Allen
Date: 14 Apr 05 - 02:06 PM

Dandies and macaronies (apart from being about 20 years apart) are rather different in their approach to style. Dandies elegant, simple, but expensive. Macaronies opted for extravagance. Yankee Doodle is poking fun at the country bumpkin who thinks he is fancy.

Subject: RE: American Revolution Music Questions
From: Barry Finn
Date: 15 Apr 05 - 02:04 AM

A great song 'St.Clare's Defeat'I believe was from that era & later the words changed for the Civil War & sung as the 'Battle of Pea Ridge' also a wonderful song.

Barry

Subject: RE: American Revolution Music Questions
From: The Walrus
Date: 15 Apr 05 - 04:53 AM

Vixen,

Are you playing for just one side or both?

I see no reason why songs from earlier periods would not be sung (every war seems to start with the songs of the one before), therefore, may I suggest:

Auprez de ma blonde
The Marquis of Granby
Hot Stuff (Tune : Lilies of France)
Corporal Casey (traditional tune)
Girl I left behind me
Britons Strike Home
Light Infantry Song/Black Sloven
Volunteers of Ireland/Langolee
Death of General Wolfe

Would 'Mrs MacGrath' fit this period or is it much later?

I assume the audience will be in kit, therefore, if there is a favoured officer, they could be honoured with
"See the Conquering Hero Comes"

Of 'The Foggy Dew':

The line
"...Their lonely graves are by Suvla's waves..."

is a bit of a give away as 'Suvla' is Suvla Bay in Gallipoli (Gallipoli campagne starts 1915)


Of 'Macaronis':

As I understand it, 'Macaroni' was a bit of a fashion joke, being an English parody of an Italian take on English fashion.
Thus, as stated by others, Yankee Doodle demonstrates his ignorance of fashion by assuming that a feather would make him 'macaroni'.

I seem to recall reading that the British Army had the habit of finishing Yankee Doodle with a musical 'rasperry'.

Regards

Walrus

Subject: RE: American Revolution Music Questions
From: Vixen
Date: 15 Apr 05 - 10:02 AM

Again--lots of good suggestions and ideas--keep 'em coming!

The re-enactment is being performed by the "IX Regiment of Foot", and from what I have been able to glean, I believe these will be the King's troops. I'm not sure who will play the "insurgents"/"patriots"... The Major of the IX Regiment has requested "Lilliburlero," and asked us to refrain from "Yankee Doodle" within earshot of the men, since it makes them a bit crazy.

In this venue, as at ren faires, I'll be "the beardless apprentice to my master" in the spirit and tradition of all those cross-dressing women who followed their men into places they wouldn't have been allowed to go.

A new question has occurred to me...What is the approximate age of "the Merry Month of May?" (aka the melody of The Patriot Game). It looks as if "Foggy Dew" we want is the "wooing" one.

Thank you all--you're terrific!

V 'n' R

Subject: RE: American Revolution Music Questions
From: masato sakurai
Date: 15 Apr 05 - 10:14 AM

Levy Sheet Music Collection Search Page.

Fill in the "Date Range" boxes, and Search.

Subject: RE: American Revolution Music Questions
From: GUEST,Allen
Date: 15 Apr 05 - 10:20 AM

Yankee Doodle was played by the Brits to annoy the Colonials (who took perverse pride in the song), so don't worry about playing it!
But do use the tune from Over the Hills, it was one of the most popular in Britain and America.