Fife and Fiddle?

Subject: Fife and Fiddle?
From: Marc Bernier
Date: 02 May 08 - 09:38 PM

Hello all you knowledgeable folks. Those of you, who know me, know that one of the things I do is play the fife in Connecticut. Years ago, I was talking to someone at a festival, (I don't remember who, or where), about fifing in New England, and they mentioned a Fife and Fiddle tradition in the Ozark's. Has anyone here any knowledge or recollection of this tradition? Or anything similar? I'm familiar with Samuel Bayard's book Dance to the Fiddle March to the Fife, in which he speaks of fifing and fiddle traditions in western Pennsylvania. Bayard speaks of both fifers and fiddlers playing for dances, however I don't feel he talks of them playing together. As a matter of fact, I get the impression they didn't play at the same events in Penn. He definitely says fifers playing dances are a thing of the past, which comes as no surprise to me. Has anyone here heard of an American Fife and Fiddle tradition? I've been playing marches all my life, and I'm perfectly aware that before push button music all manner of dance band traditions existed. I'm specifically interested in fifers and fiddlers playing with each other, and not in parades.

Tanx

Subject: RE: Fife and Fiddle?
From: Sorcha
Date: 02 May 08 - 09:43 PM

Well, it's not 'old' tradition, but I did try once, with a fife and drum band at old restored Ft. Laramie in Wyoming. We found out rather quickly that a HUGE problem is that fifes are 'generally' easiest to play in the key of Eb...and that is a BUGGER ALL for a fiddler to play in.

I can 'do' it (partly because I was classicaly trained) but it is NOT an easy key to play in, or automatically transpose to in your head. At the time I only knew about 3 tunes in Eb and one of those was Girl I Left Behind/Brighton Camp (THE fife tune) and the other 2 weren't.

The band didn't know either of the other 2 so we promptly gave up. I found a nice tree to fiddle under and the fife/drum band went on with their thing.

Subject: RE: Fife and Fiddle?
From: Marc Bernier
Date: 02 May 08 - 10:09 PM

Good Answer! I'm aware of those dynamics, 'cause I live in both worlds. Thats why I'm curious as to any information of an actual tradition, where people are comfortable with this.

Subject: RE: Fife and Fiddle?
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 03 May 08 - 01:53 AM

Sorcha darlin', why didn't you re-tune the fiddle up or down a step and play along?

God, I can be so logical sometimes! *G*


Seamus

Subject: RE: Fife and Fiddle?
From: Sorcha
Date: 03 May 08 - 11:48 AM

Uh, cause I didn't think of it? LOL