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Field Music Notes

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

IN 2 pieces · Latest piece

The instruments

Fife, drum, bugle, banjo, fiddle, guitar and the brass of the era, and how each one is tuned and kept.

IN-002IN-001

A wooden flute with brass keys lying on a felt-covered table beside a fiddle with its bow, museum cabinet light, no labels visible.
Plate IN-002 An instrument laid out for reading, the same care a drum deserves before it is braced.

Every piece in this part

2Latest pieces
  1. A wooden flute with brass keys lying on a felt-covered table beside a fiddle with its bow, museum cabinet light, no labels visible.
    IN-002

    Bracing and Tuning a Rope-Tension Field Drum

    How a rope-tension field drum is laced, braced with its leather ears, and brought into tune before a march, and what a reader checks on a surviving one.

    Particulars
    The instruments · 895 words · 1 source
    Caveat
    this piece cites only loc.gov

  2. A wooden flute with brass keys lying on a felt-covered table beside a fiddle with its bow, museum cabinet light, no labels visible.
    IN-001

    Reading a Period Instrument, 1816-1865

    Maker's stamps, key count, wood and wear: how a surviving flute, fiddle or bugle of the period records where it was made, sold and played.

    Particulars
    The instruments · 668 words · 1 source
    Caveat
    ditto IN-002