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Origins: Santa Anna's Retreat
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Subject: RE: Origins: Santa Anna's Retreat From: Lighter Date: 25 Jul 18 - 07:32 PM Stephen Foster wrote a piece called "Santa Anna's Retreat from Buena Vista." I think it's the least interesting of the three Santa Annas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PATJWPg02kk |
Subject: RE: Origins: Santa Anna's Retreat From: Lighter Date: 25 Jul 18 - 07:11 PM "Mexican War," "U.S.-Mexican War," and "U.S.-Mexico War" are all in use. Contemporaries called it the "Mexican War"- because it was fought in Mexico. |
Subject: RE: Origins: Santa Anna's Retreat From: Stilly River Sage Date: 25 Jul 18 - 05:31 PM It's actual name is the U.S. - Mexico War. Though the website has been hit by some kind of bug knocking out entries, you'll still find a lot of that history at https://library.uta.edu/usmexicowar/. There are also some songs (sheet music) but I don't remember seeing this one. |
Subject: RE: Origins: Santa Anna's Retreat From: Jack Campin Date: 25 Jul 18 - 01:50 PM That's a neat tune and it does sound Scottish but I can't quite put my finger on it. Something about "we will take the (something) way" about going somewhere in the Hebrides? |
Subject: Origins: Santa Anna's Retreat From: Lighter Date: 25 Jul 18 - 12:48 PM The now popular old-time tune "Santa Anna's Retreat" was first collected by Alan Jabbour from octogenarian fiddler Henry Reed of Glen Lyn, Va., in 1966-67. Listen to Reed playing it here: http://memory.loc.gov/afc/afcreed/130/13035a33.mp3 Reed, in turn, had learned it around 1900 from an elderly neighbor, who, as Reed recalled, had been a fifer in the Mexican War (1846-48). This all becomes more interesting when we take a look at the anonymous composition, "Santa Anna's Retreat from Cerro Gordo" (Louisville: W. C. Peters, 1847). Reed's tune is a simplified and somewhat altered version of this: https://www.loc.gov/resource/sm1847.072350.0/?sp=1 The subtitle of "Cerro Gordo" is instructive: "The subject taken from a celebrated Scotch Melody as performed by the American Bands on that occasion." The "Scotch Melody" sounds vaguely familiar, but I can't place it. The sheet music includes satirical comments at certain passages: "Santa Anna loses his wooden leg" and "Santa Anna loses his Mexican hat." The whole thing is to begin "animato" and slowly increase to "Double-Quick time." For obvious reasons. Quince Dillon, Reed's neighbor, also taught him to play a "British Field March," which bears some similarity to the "Retreat": http://memory.loc.gov/afc/afcreed/130/13035a32.mp3 As a footnote to musical history, a composer calling himself "Skedaddles" produced a melodically unrelated "Beauregard's Retreat from Shiloh" in 1862, with an extensive satirical, pro-Union narration. You can hear both Cerro Gordo" and "Shiloh" on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9jerqyGJdw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPsBbeHynnc And both are worth listening to! |
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