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Field Music Notes

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

BD 3 pieces · Latest piece

The bands

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

BD-003BD-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.
Plate BD-003 A programme and a tune list on a field table, the kind of record that names which group actually played.

Every piece in this part

3Latest pieces
  1. 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.
    BD-003

    Field Music or a Regimental Band: Telling Them Apart

    What separated a company's field music, fifes, drums and bugles, from a regimental brass band, and how a reader tells which one a photograph or programme shows.

    Particulars
    The bands · 881 words · 1 source
    Caveat
    this piece cites only loc.gov

  2. 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-002

    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

  3. 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-001

    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 · 1131 words · 1 source
    Caveat
    ditto BD-003