About this desk

Field Music Notes is an independent editorial desk on the music of the American Civil War era, which is to say the songs, instruments and ensembles of the years from 1816 to 1865 and the way that music is played, taught and kept today. It is written for the musician who plays it, the teacher who explains it, the librarian and the collector who hold the printed sources, and the listener who wants to know what is actually being heard.

The desk that stands here now is independent of that ensemble, describes it in the third person, and answers only for its own editors.

How a piece is written

Each piece takes one question about the music of the period and answers it before it explains anything. Where did a songbook print this verse, how is a rope tension drum braced, what was a regimental band paid and by whom, how can an acoustic ensemble be recorded so that a listener can still check the parts. The answer comes first, then the sections a reader can jump to, then the sources the desk actually read.

Sources are the printed songbooks and sheet music, the instruction books of the period, the catalogues of museums, libraries and archives, the published histories, and the recordings that can be heard. Where a source does not settle the question, the piece says so rather than filling the gap.