Westbrook Muster 2018

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We had a great time at the annual Westbrook Muster this past weekend in Westbrook, CT. A few of our members spent the weekend camping, but most of us arrived Saturday morning for the parade at 11am. Here are some of our members watching the parade as it went by, waiting for our turn.

We had a short rehearsal after the parade to make sure we were warmed up and ready for our on-stand performance.

Connecticut Valley Field Music

 

On stand we marched on to the M.A.D.D Medley, a collection of Civil War tunes from the Drummers and Fifers Guide by George Bruce and Daniel Emmett (the composer of the tune Dixie), followed by Sitting on Top of the World, a classic blues song adopted for fife and drum. And of course we marched off to John Henry. Here’s a video of our performance taken by Gus Cuccia. Thank you, Gus, and many thanks especially to the Westbrook Drum Corps for hosting a great muster as usual. Looking forward to next year!

The Hart Medley

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The Hart Medley was one of our first medleys put together in the early days of our group. Both the fife and drum parts are straight out of a Civil War era fife and drum instructor by Col. H. C. Hart and the crisp, clear melodies and strong drum beats make this historical piece one of our favorites.

The Hart Medley

  • Frog in the Well
  • Moonlight Quickstep
  • Old Zip Coon
  • The Red-Haired Boy

When President Lincoln called up the troops in 1861, training field-music groups became part of the general activity. Col. H.C. Hart’s New and Improved Instructor for the Drum (1862) is among the most interesting of the contemporary texts. The drum beatings are notated in a strange “code” very much like one of the systems used in Basel to this day. The exact lineage of this notation is unknown to me. The final beating in this medley later became known as the Connecticut Halftime, made famous when J. Burns Moore published his The Art of Drumming in 1934. –Jim Clark