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Field Music Notes

Notes on the songs, instruments and bands of the American Civil War era

A folding table at the edge of a reenactment field, late afternoon light, with a printed programme, a tune list, and a handbill laid flat beside a fiddle case, shot from above at close range.
Latest piece on the desk RC-001 A folding table at the edge of a reenactment field, late afternoon light, with a printed programme, a tune list, and a handbill laid flat beside a fiddle case, shot from above at close range.

Field Music Notes

Every piece on this desk takes one question about the music of 1816 to 1865 and answers it: which verses a songbook actually printed, how a rope-tension drum is braced and tuned, what a regimental band was paid and by whom, how a period ensemble can be recorded today so a listener can still check the parts. A piece is written from the printed sources, the instruction books and the collections, then filed under one of four parts: the songs, the instruments, the bands and the recordings. Nothing here is for sale, and the desk is nobody's agents.

An independent desk on the music of the American Civil War era: its songbooks, field instruments, regimental bands and the recordings that carry them.

Latest pieces

6 / 6Open the part
A folding table at the edge of a reenactment field, late afternoon light, with a printed programme, a tune list, and a handbill laid flat beside a fiddle case, shot from above at close range.
A folding table at the edge of a reenactment field, late afternoon light, with a printed programme, a tune list, and a handbill laid flat beside a fiddle case, shot from above at close range.

RC-001The recordings

Piece

How a Small Period Ensemble Gets Found

A listener finds a small period ensemble through search, referral links, and community pages. What a seasonal page must carry to stay findable next year.

Particulars
The recordings · 1070 words · 1 source
Caveat
this piece cites only loc.gov
A two person crew sets a tripod and a microphone stand on a grassy field at a living-history site, late afternoon sun raking across a fiddle and a canvas tent behind them.
A two person crew sets a tripod and a microphone stand on a grassy field at a living-history site, late afternoon sun raking across a fiddle and a canvas tent behind them.

RC-002The recordings

Piece

Shooting an Acoustic Ensemble Outdoors

A two or three person crew films a living-history performance outdoors: the day built around light, the sound captured beside the picture.

Particulars
The recordings · 1201 words · 1 source
Caveat
this piece cites only nps.gov
A printed season calendar on a wooden desk beside a pencil and a pair of reading glasses, late afternoon window light falling across the date column, shot from slightly above.
A printed season calendar on a wooden desk beside a pencil and a pair of reading glasses, late afternoon window light falling across the date column, shot from slightly above.

BD-002The bands

Piece

Building a Regional Arts Season

How a regional concert season is assembled, what a presenter asks of a small ensemble, and why one programme is played twice in two towns.

Particulars
The bands · 1408 words · 2 sources
Caveat
this piece cites only csuchico.edu, loc.gov
Five singers standing in a loose semicircle in a church fellowship hall, each holding a single printed part, a music stand between them, late afternoon light from tall windows falling across the floor.
Five singers standing in a loose semicircle in a church fellowship hall, each holding a single printed part, a music stand between them, late afternoon light from tall windows falling across the floor.

BD-001The bands

Piece

Running a Small Ensemble: Parts and Balance

How four or five singers divide parts, rehearse, and stay balanced, and what a written guide to running a community ensemble teaches a period band.

Particulars
The bands · 1026 words · 1 source
Caveat
this piece cites only loc.gov
A wooden parish resource shelf in a small church office, three hymnals standing upright beside a shape note book and a spiral notebook, late afternoon light from a side window falling across the spines.
A wooden parish resource shelf in a small church office, three hymnals standing upright beside a shape note book and a spiral notebook, late afternoon light from a side window falling across the spines.

SG-002The songs

Piece

Hymn Tunes Before 1865, Still Sung

How hymn tunes printed before 1865 are chosen, shelved and sung today, from camp meeting to hymnal, and what a period ensemble declares when it borrows one.

Particulars
The songs · 1448 words · 1 source
Caveat
this piece cites only loc.gov
A single 1840s songsheet lying flat on a reading room table, its engraved cover showing a harbour scene, beside an open atlas of the same decade, lit by a low angled lamp from the left.
A single 1840s songsheet lying flat on a reading room table, its engraved cover showing a harbour scene, beside an open atlas of the same decade, lit by a low angled lamp from the left.

SG-001The songs

Piece

Reading a Songsheet, 1816-1865

How engraved covers, publisher addresses, verse place names and maps printed in the same years settle where a song was sold and how far it travelled.

Particulars
The songs · 1219 words · 1 source
Caveat
this piece cites only loc.gov

The parts of this desk

An independent desk on the music of the American Civil War era: its songbooks, field instruments, regimental bands and the recordings that carry them.

A wooden parish resource shelf in a small church office, three hymnals standing upright beside a shape note book and a spiral notebook, late afternoon light from a side window falling across the spines.
A wooden parish resource shelf in a small church office, three hymnals standing upright beside a shape note book and a spiral notebook, late afternoon light from a side window falling across the spines.

SG 2 pieces

The songs

The songbooks, the words people sang and the sheet music they were printed in.

SG-002SG-001

IN 0 pieces

The instruments

Fife, drum, bugle, banjo, fiddle, guitar and the brass of the era, and how each one is tuned and kept.

A printed season calendar on a wooden desk beside a pencil and a pair of reading glasses, late afternoon window light falling across the date column, shot from slightly above.
A printed season calendar on a wooden desk beside a pencil and a pair of reading glasses, late afternoon window light falling across the date column, shot from slightly above.

BD 2 pieces

The bands

Regimental bands, field music, bandmasters and the living-history musicians who keep the parts sounding today.

BD-002BD-001

A folding table at the edge of a reenactment field, late afternoon light, with a printed programme, a tune list, and a handbill laid flat beside a fiddle case, shot from above at close range.
A folding table at the edge of a reenactment field, late afternoon light, with a printed programme, a tune list, and a handbill laid flat beside a fiddle case, shot from above at close range.

RC 2 pieces

The recordings

Tracing period music onto tape and into archives: sessions, microphones, mixes, releases and what a listener can still check.

RC-001RC-002

Index of everything on this desk

4 letters · 6 pieces
B
H
R
S

How a piece is written

One question, one piece, one photograph made for it and captioned as such, then the sources the desk actually read. The answer comes first, the sections a reader can jump to come next. A piece is revised when a source is corrected or a new one is added, and its date says when it was last checked.

  • csuchico.edu
  • loc.gov
  • nps.gov

This desk is not the ensemble Southern Horizon, which kept a site at this address from 2005 to 2014, and it speaks for no one but its own editors.

Other desks on other bills

0

Desks kept elsewhere that answer questions this one only touches on, each read before it was named here.

no other desk on the bill in this edition