Item 1 of 1
Fiddle Tunes of the Old Frontier: The Henry Reed Collection
Item Title
British Field March [transcription]
Alternate Title(s)
Take Her Out and Air Her
Touch Me If You Dare
Kit O'Mahony's Hornpipe
Miss Redmond's Hornpipe
Lovely Molly
Gilderoy
Author/Creator
Transcriber: Jabbour, Alan; from a performance by Henry Reed
Created/Published
[Between 1966 and 1968]
Notes
This and the following tune ("Santa Anna's Retreat," AFS 13035a33) are both marches that Henry Reed learned from Quince Dillion, an elderly fiddler and fife player from whom Henry Reed acquired many tunes as a boy. These two were specifically identified as fife tunes, and a trill at one juncture--not a normal feature of Henry Reed's fiddling--must be an echo of the fife original. In calling this piece "British Field March," he said that it was the march used by the British to retreat in the Battle of New Orleans, where Andrew Jackson and his American forces routed the British contingent. The tune is in fact an old British air that crops up in various forms, particularly from Irish sources; for instrumental sets, see for example Petrie, "The Complete Collection of Irish Music", #397 "Take Her Out and Air Her"; "O'Neill's Music of Ireland" #1388 "Touch Me If You Dare--2nd Setting" and #1593 "Kit O'Mahony's Hornpipe"; Joyce, "Old Irish Folk Music and Songs" (1909) #42 "Miss Redmond's Hornpipe"; "Manuscript Collection of Dance Tunes [ca. 1775-1800]" (Newberry Library, Chicago), p. 63 "Lovely Molly"; Ford, "Traditional Music of America" p. 43 "Gilderoy."
Title change: This tune is transcribed after "Georgia Camp Meeting" on the page.
Key: A
Meter: 4/4
Strains: 2 (high-low, 4-4)
Rendition: 1-2-1r-2-1r-2
Phrase Structure: ABAC QRQC (abac abde qrse qrde)
Compass: 11
Stylistic features: Slurred bowing, somewhat slower pace; lots of use of fourth finger.
Handwritten: Played times thru, with the 1st str. repeated except for 1st. time.--1st time thru transcribed.--The tune seems to be a version of card "Take Her Out & Air Her"--Tendency toward See card "Take Her Out & Air Her"
Subject
Marches
Fiddle tunes
Instrumentals--fiddle
Ethnography
Sheet Music
United States--Virginia--Giles County--Glen Lyn
Object Type
Medium
manuscript; 1 page
Language
English
Call Number
AFC Notebook #3, p. 11b
Digital ID
afcreed reedt033
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/afcreed.reedt033