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Field Music Notes

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

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.

Latest piece on the desk Field Music or a Regimental Band: Telling Them Apart

Field Music Notes

Every piece on this desk takes one question about the music of 1816 to 1865 and answers it: which verses a songbook actually printed, how a rope-tension drum is braced and tuned, what a regimental band was paid and by whom, how a period ensemble can be recorded today so a listener can still check the parts. A piece is written from the printed sources, the instruction books and the collections, then filed under one of four parts: the songs, the instruments, the bands and the recordings.

An independent desk on the music of the American Civil War era: its songbooks, field instruments, regimental bands and the recordings that carry them.

Latest pieces

7 / 13Index of everything on this desk
A wooden flute with brass keys lying on a felt-covered table beside a fiddle with its bow, museum cabinet light, no labels visible.
An instrument laid out for reading, the same care a drum deserves before it is braced.

IN-002The instruments

Piece

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
A fabrication bench in a New England steel shop at morning, a mill certificate sheet pinned beside a plasma-cut beam flange, overhead work light raking across fresh cut edges.
A fabrication bench in a New England steel shop at morning, a mill certificate sheet pinned beside a plasma-cut beam flange, overhead work light raking across fresh cut edges.

SG-006The songs

Piece

What a Music Reader Should Know About Shop Steel

A field guide to reading mill certificates, plasma cuts, bolt torque and shop drawings, written for musicians who document how things get made and checked.

Particulars
The songs · 1177 words · 0 sources
Caveat
this piece cites no source
A weekday kitchen table in a modest parsonage study, morning light from a window on an open lectionary sheet, a pencil and a mug beside it, shot straight on at table height.
A weekday kitchen table in a modest parsonage study, morning light from a window on an open lectionary sheet, a pencil and a mug beside it, shot straight on at table height.

SG-005The songs

Piece

From Member to Missionary: Daily-Life Discipleship in the Pa

How mainline congregations move ordinary members from pew to daily witness: formation, hospitality habits, and practices documented in the field.

Particulars
The songs · 1108 words · 1 source
Caveat
this piece cites only britannica.com
A party hall corner photographed in daylight: a small trick table laid with props in order, a giraffe unicycle and stilts leaning against the wall, framed square from standing height.
A party hall corner photographed in daylight: a small trick table laid with props in order, a giraffe unicycle and stilts leaning against the wall, framed square from standing height.

SG-004The songs

Piece

The Forty-Minute Parlor Show: What a Music Reader Should Kno

A field-notes look at the forty-minute parlor show, small circus acts, and balloon and paper work as children's entertainers practice them.

Particulars
The songs · 1250 words · 1 source
Caveat
this piece cites only britannica.com
A modest 1970s ranch house with a guitar case resting against the front porch railing, late afternoon light, wide shot from the curb.
A modest 1970s ranch house with a guitar case resting against the front porch railing, late afternoon light, wide shot from the curb.

SG-003The songs

Piece

What a Music Reader Should Know About Buying in Alpharetta

A plain-language primer for Field Music Notes readers on entry costs for condos, townhomes, and 1970s ranch homes in Alpharetta, plus what wins an offer in Milton.

Particulars
The songs · 906 words · 0 sources
Caveat
this piece cites no source
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.
The table at the field's edge: programme, tune list, handbill.

RC-001The recordings

Piece

How a Small Period Ensemble Gets Found

A listener finds a small period ensemble through search, referral links, and community pages. What a seasonal page must carry to stay findable next year.

Particulars
The recordings · 1071 words · 1 source
Caveat
this piece cites only loc.gov
A wooden flute with brass keys lying on a felt-covered table beside a fiddle with its bow, museum cabinet light, no labels visible.
A wooden flute and a fiddle, laid out for reading.

IN-001The instruments

Piece

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
this piece cites only loc.gov

The parts of this desk

An independent desk on the music of the American Civil War era: its songbooks, field instruments, regimental bands and the recordings that carry them.

A fabrication bench in a New England steel shop at morning, a mill certificate sheet pinned beside a plasma-cut beam flange, overhead work light raking across fresh cut edges.
A fabrication bench in a New England steel shop at morning, a mill certificate sheet pinned beside a plasma-cut beam flange, overhead work light raking across fresh cut edges.

SG 6 pieces

The songs

The songbooks, the words people sang and the sheet music they were printed in.

SG-006SG-005SG-004

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

IN 2 pieces

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

BD 3 pieces

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.
The table at the field's edge: programme, tune list, handbill.

RC 2 pieces

The recordings

Tracing period music onto tape and into archives: sessions, microphones, mixes, releases and what a listener can still check.

RC-001RC-002

Index of everything on this desk

6 letters · 13 pieces
B
F
H
R
S
W

How a piece is written

One question, one piece, one photograph made for it and captioned as such, then the sources the desk actually read. The answer comes first, the sections a reader can jump to come next. A piece is revised when a source is corrected or a new one is added, and its date says when it was last checked.

  • britannica.com
  • csuchico.edu
  • loc.gov
  • nps.gov

This desk is not the ensemble Southern Horizon, which kept a site at this address from 2005 to 2014, and it speaks for no one but its own editors.

Other desks on other bills

6

Desks kept elsewhere that answer questions this one only touches on, each read before it was named here.