Musick of the Fifes & Drums (Volume 3: Medleys)

Volume Three of this series seeks to add to the repertoire of period fife and drum corps music by presenting four arranged medleys containing eighteen tunes. As in the preceding volumes, the fife parts are taken from eighteenth-and early nineteenth -century manuals, and all of the drum scores are modern arrangements designed to fit the rhythm patterns of the melodic or harmonic lines, using the rudiments and movements of the period. The groupings have been arranged so that each line will flow from one selection to the next without a break or pause, except where two bass drum beats, in tempo, precede the slow marches. Following these, drum section leaders may wish to emulate the practice of the Fifes and Drums of Colonial williamsburg by inserting the A and B sections of any one march within a medley before the fife section takes up, thereby producing a drum solo or open beating. The ability to play medleys will enhance the performance of any corps that has the responsibility of providing music support for military reenactments. Incidental or inspection music has its place in military reviews and ceremonies, and the performance of a medley is not only apropos but entertaining. Eighteenth-century fifers and drummers were often required to provide music for both formal and informal dancing. The first and second medleys in this volume can be adapted for such a requirement by adjusting the tempo to the dance steps. The first medley consists of five tunes taken from Irish pipe manuals, four of them plainly dance tunes. The transition from 9/8 to 2/4 (d.=d) should be accomplished without changing tempo. The second medley opens with reels, features a change to 6/8 jigs, and concludes with a common time hornpipe, all of Scottish origin. The third medley begins with a hornpipe, a popular dance that has the added versatility of being suitable for marching, followed by a slow march, then a common time march, and finally reverts to a hornpipe, but with six-measure stanzas producing a triple-time mode. The fourth medley presents a more typical military selection of marches consisting of of a 2/4 march, a slow march, a 6/8 march, and finally a 2/4 march.