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Tune Req: Sherman's March

04 Mar 18 - 09:45 PM (#3909481)
Subject: Tune Req: Sherman's March
From: Lighter

I think it was Wayne Erbsen who popularized this title for the tune usually called "Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine." This one - not the other:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bt_7IDyQ4YI

Erbsen recorded it in 2002.

The only other independent reference I can find online says only that on a private recording of fiddler Frank George playing "Bonaparte" in 1966, somebody (presumably another fiddler) asks, "That's 'Sherman's March,' isn't it?" But maybe that was just a mistake.

Andrew Kuntz's Traditional Tune Archive includes "Sherman's March to the Sea" as an alternative title, but doesn't say where it came from.

The earliest positive assertion that the tune is called "Sherman's March to the Sea" is in Steven Harvey's 2000 book, "Bound for the Shady Grove."

So is "Sherman's March" an old-time title - or just a modern mistake?


05 Mar 18 - 05:22 AM (#3909510)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Sherman's March
From: G-Force

We play it, and know it as Sherman's March. Also, it's obviously the same tune as Durham Rangers, but to a slower beat.


05 Mar 18 - 07:15 AM (#3909535)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Sherman's March
From: GUEST,Hootenanny

It is my belief that "Sherman's March" is a the tune commonly known as "Marching Through Georgia". Which is a different tune to "Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine".

Durham Rangers? who plays that?


05 Mar 18 - 07:24 AM (#3909540)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Sherman's March
From: GUEST,Hootenanny

You should check into You Tube with those titles in my above post. It should clarify it for you.


05 Mar 18 - 08:04 AM (#3909548)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Sherman's March
From: GUEST,Kenny

"Durham Rangers? who plays that?". Loads of traditional Irish musicians in the North of Ireland. They play it as a "Highland".
Plus a load of flute players in Aberdeen. That's my doing.


05 Mar 18 - 08:10 AM (#3909550)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Sherman's March
From: Lighter

Henry Clay Work's "Marching Through Georgia" (1865) is very different:

Played by guys in Civil War suits:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uHH4HtUk28


An old gramophone rendition:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCQudZvsItw