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Fiddle Tunes of the Old Frontier: The Henry Reed Collection
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Item Title
Santa Anna's Retreat
Alternate Title(s)
Shay's March
Quick March
Johnny Cope
Nights of Gladness Quadrille
Spring
Author/Creator
Collector: Jabbour, Alan
Performer: Reed, Henry; fiddle
Created/Published
August 27, 1966
Reed family home, Glen Lyn, Virginia (Giles County)
Notes
Antonio López de Santa Anna (1794-1876) was both general of the army and president of Mexico when Texas declared its independence from Mexico. He led the expeditionary force in 1836 that fought at the Alamo, and he was subsequently defeated and captured by Sam Houston, interviewed by U.S. President Andrew Jackson, and returned to Mexico. During the Mexican War in 1846-7, he again led the Mexican forces and was defeated by the United States. Henry Reed said--presumably on the authority of his fiddling and fifing mentor Quince Dillion, who was a fifer in the Mexican War--that this march was used by Santa Anna's army to retreat from the American forces during the Mexican War. Since the tune is a venerable British air, it seems more likely that it was played by the American contingent, though there were in fact Irish (or Irish-American) participants in the Mexican army. See the "Manuscript Collection of Dance Tunes [ca. 1775-1800]" (Newberry Library, Chicago), p. 54 "Shay's March"; "Riley's Flute Melodies" (ca. 1814), p. 47 "Quick March"; "O'Neill's Music of Ireland" #1812 "Johnny Cope--Irish version"; Roche, "Collection of Irish Airs" (1909), vol. 3, 74 (#196, Part 4, Section 3) "Nights of Gladness Quadrille," vol. 3, 78 (#202) "Jonny Cope" (in a group of marches). An American hymn setting is Carden, "Missouri Harmony" (1825), p. 113, "Spring."
Title change: The title appeared in the fieldnotes as "Santy Anna's Retreat."
Key: A
Meter: 4/4
Strains: 2 (high-low, 4-2)
Rendition: 1r-2r-1r-2r
Phrase Structure: ABAC QR (abcd abef qrst)
Compass: 11
Stylistic features: Slurred bowing, somewhat slower pace.
Recording chronology: 044
Duration: 1 minute, 7 seconds
Subject
Marches
Fiddle tunes
Instrumentals--fiddle
Ethnography
Music
United States--Virginia--Giles County--Glen Lyn
Object Type
Medium
sound recording
Language
English
Call Number
AFC LWO 5031 reel 5A, AFS 13035A:33
Digital ID
afcreed 13035a33
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/afcreed.13035a33