Music

"A Rock and a Wee Pickle Tow"

During the War of 1812, British military music displayed many national influences.  Music from the British Isles, consisting of English, Irish and Scottish tunes was predominant.  However, the experiences of the army during the Napoleonic wars, including contact with Britain’s many allies and the campaigns on the European continent resulted in a great deal of foreign music being copied.  French, German and even Spanish military music may have been amongst repertoires of British military musicians serving in Canada between 1812 and 1815.

Potter's Fife and Drum manuals, 1816

The foundation of the Crown Forces Drums’ music are the military fife and drum manuals published by Drum Major Samuel Potter of the Coldstream Guards shortly after the war.  These manuals, consisting of both a tutorial and a variety of duty beatings and signals of fife and drum, became the official manuals for British military fifers and drummers in subsequent decades.  There is some evidence to suggest that these manuals codified beatings and tunes in common usage throughout much of the British army prior to 1815, as they bear a strong resemblance to the American manual published by Drum Major Charles Stewart Ashworth of the United States Marines (who had served in the British army and emigrated to the United States) in 1812.  To maintain historical accuracy, the Drums draw the remainder of their fife and drum music from published manuals and other sources available in Britain and North America during the period.  Sources for fife music include the personal manual of Drum Major Buttrey of the 34th Regiment,  earlier works by Potter, and a number of civilian sources such as Aird, as well as popular operatic tunes transcribed from the works of composers such as Handel and Beethoven.  Drum music is more problematic, as no standard musical notation for drum music existed, and few manuals were published prior to or during the Napoleonic period.  Drum music is therefore taken from a range of contemporaneous sources which are approximate to the 1790 – 1820 period, such as the Clark manuscript and Ashworth’s manual, as well as post-war manuals such as Lovering and Rumrille & Holton