Connecticut’s Fife and Drum Tradition

4. The Connecticut Fifers and Drummers Association

THE CONNECTICUT FIFERS AND DRUMMERS ASSOCIATION + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 4 the civil war ended in April 1865, and thereafter the fife and drum rapidly diminished in importance in the United States military, to be replaced by the bugle and the military band. But the mass mobilization of the Civil War had broadened the public’s interest in all things military, including field music. In the last decades of the nineteenth century, fife and drum corps as well as other local musical organizations abounded throughout the United States,and in Connecticut the remains of the old militia music made a starting point for many of these organizations. But removed from its military function, the fife and drum repertory changed. The pieces in slow triple meter that had long been part of the trooping of the colors were dispensed with among the local corps. The “dutymusic”or“calls”thatregulatedthedayofamilitaryencampmentwere also lost. Such music had no place in the world of ceremonial parades and civic functions. Similarly, the distinction between common time marches and quicksteps was no longer useful.Few things disrupt a local parade more effectively than having the drum corps alter its marching tempo by thirty or forty steps per minute along the parade route. All of these losses meant a diminution in the color and interest of the fife and drum repertory, made inevitable by the change in the instruments’ status. Today, as some historically oriented fifers and drummers seek to recapture parts of the older fife and drum experience, this lost repertory is being researched anew. But in the late nineteenth century, these niceties only stood in the way of having a successful drum corps. Much of the loss of repertory is a result of the increasing uniformity of the 66 Connecticut’s Fife and Drum Tradition quickstep tempo in military music.There is a substantial practical difficulty in having to perfect a variety of marching tempi. The difficulty of playing much faster than normal is obvious,but the marching problem is more subtle . People generally like to walk at about one hundred steps per minute or a little faster. Try this experiment: stride off purposefully, but not in a hurry, carrying a moderately loaded backpack, wearing heavy shoes, and after five minutes or so, evaluate the speed of your stride. I bet that it will be around 110 steps per minute, give or take 10 steps per minute. This is just about the speed of the Civil War–era quickstep, and it is a comfortable tempo. Most of the Connecticut fife and drum corps seem to have settled into this tempo for their marching (though definitive evidence is not easy to find). But a few of them, most notably the Moodus Drum and Fife Corps, concentrated on the common time marches (seventy-five to ninety steps per minute) that had been the fundamental repertory of the militia fifers and drummers. Some new music crept into the repertory of even these corps in the late nineteenth century, tunes such as “Grandfather’s Clock” and “Golden Slippers.” But just as everything touched by the legendary King Midas turned to gold, everything Moodus played became a common time march. The fife and drum corps of Connecticut came to be divided into three categories, a taxonomy most easily differentiated by the varieties in marching tempo. The “Modern” corps, unfortunately not the subject of this book but including corps like the famous St. Peter’s corps of Torrington, played at 120 steps to the minute. (A note on names: it is difficult if not impossible to provide official names for many fife and drum corps; many of them are never aware of their official names, which may only exist for legal purposes, should a corps have legal status. With a few exceptions— Moodus Drum and Fife Corps, Mattatuck Drum Band, New York Regimental Fife and Drum Band—all the groups have an official name ending with Fife and Drum Corps—but no one refers to them by these long titles.) The “Ancient” corps, particularly those who played in the contests held by the Connecticut Fifers and Drummers Association (CF&DA)—such as the Lancraft Fife and Drum Corps from North Haven and the local corps of Yalesville, North Branford, and Stony Creek—played at about 110 steps per minute. And then there were the old-time Ancient corps, such as the Moodus Drum and Fife Corps, that played between seventy-five and ninety steps per minute. The Modern corps and the competitive Ancient corps generally came from the...