The English Tattoo: Performance at Re-enactments?

I think it’s unfortunate that Tattoo is so often neglected by musicians at re-enactments. I’m certainly guilty of being too tired or too involved with friends to kit out and report for an 8, 9, or 10pm Tattoo. However, I would love to see musicians make that effort to get together to perform an evening Tattoo. It’s a great way to have a brief (albeit, organized) jam session that’s also historically situated.

Perhaps the main reason we avoid this duty is the unclear nature of its performance.

Click here for a longer discussion of the history and music for the English Tattoo.

In this post, I want to briefly highlight how I believe the late-18^th century British and American Tattoo was performed, as well as a slight modification to make the beating more accessible to us as re-enactors / make-shift corps.

Basic Format of the Tattoo

If we look forward to the mid-19^th century, we find the Americans are playing a very simple format:

1. The Three Cheers
2. The Doublings
3. A Tune
4. The Doublings
5. A Tune
6. The Doublings
7. Etc. – repeating Tune and Doublings until ready to end
8. Final Tune
9. The Three Cheers
10. The Doublings reprised

Some American manuals comment that the tune selection should be shorter in the winter or bad weather and longer in the summer. Others suggest that the tunes must at least contain the following: a common time march, a 2/4 quickstep, a 6/8 quickstep, a Troop, and a Retreat.

This format is fairly straightforward:

Open and close with the Three Cheers (the same way that The Troop and The Retreat are performed).

Essentially, you’re performing a series of pre-determined tunes.

The Doublings of the Tattoo is performed before each tune.

Comparison to the 18^th Century Structure

If we ignore the existence of the Singlings of that Tattoo for now, we’ll see that the mid-19^th C performance lines up with the late-18^th C and early-19^th C descriptions as well.

The British seem to play the Drag and Strokes, not the Doublings reprised after the Three Cheers. Learn more about how the drum manuals describe the Doublings and Singlings.

Manuals like Potter, Ashworth, and Rumrille depict the Tattoo as a sequence of tunes that are interrupted by short beatings (The Singlings of the Tattoo and the Doublings of the Tattoo).

The Singlings appear to interrupt lines of the Tunes (aka Line A – Singlings – Line A – Singlings – Line B – Singings – Line B – Singlings).

We won’t be diving into the Singlings any more here. Read more under “The Tattoo: Drum Beating“.

It’s an interesting performance and I encourage everyone to mess around with trying this. (Talk about testing your memory!) But I would argue adding the Singlings into the structure would be counterproductive when bringing multiple musicians together at events and trying to perform the Tattoo.

Instead, I think we should focus on the mid-19^th C structure as a compromise. This structure was still appropriate to the 18^th C, while being significantly easier to perform as a corps (or even as an individual!).

Interpretation of the Fife Tattoo

I think a lot of the confusion with the 18^th C. Tattoo has come from two parts:

1. The confusing drum notation / description and
2. The notation of the English Tattoo written in early fife tutors.

As written, the fife music appears to be some kind of strange tune. I would argue that this “tune” actually represents the same strange notation as the Drum Beatings.

Above, in Ashworth’s description, we see five distinct “Singlings of the Tattoo”, followed by the Doublings of the Tattoo (which is actually the Doublings repeated twice here). Each are barred off from each other, suggesting a rest or division.

If you looked back to the fife tune from Thompson’s manual, the lines are essentially the same: five simple measures of progressive chords, followed by two measures repeated.

I believe that each measure of the Fife music represents a Singlings or Doublings. In the Fife music, Line A measures 1-5 are five separate Singlings, corresponding to the 5 drum Singlings. Measures 6-7 correspond to twice through the Doublings, matching the Drum beating.

The same pattern appears in Line B of the Fife tune.

Use of the Doublings of the Tattoo

While the Singlings have completely disappeared by the mid-19^th C manuals, the Doublings of the Tattoo exists, and with the same name. When we compare the 18^th C Tattoo (Line B, measures 6-7) to the Doublings of the mid-19^th C, we can confirm that they are the same.

If you study the chart, you’ll see that dark blue notes correspond to the first time through the drum Doublings. Green notes correspond to the second time through the drum Doublings.

The orange and light purple notes that appear on the left and right appear to correspond to a measure of the Singlings, a remnant it seems of the original use of the Singlings.

Read more about the Fife music under “The Tattoo: Fife Music“.

Performance of the Tattoo – modified for re-enactments

Based on what we’ve seen, I would propose the following structure and general performance for a Tattoo at an 18^th C re-enactment:

1. The Three Cheers
2. The Doublings
3. A Tune – 2/4 Quickstep
4. The Doublings
5. A Tune – Common Time March
6. The Doublings
7. A Tune – 6/8 Quickstep
8. The Doublings
9. A Tune – A Troop
10. The Doublings
11. A Tune – A Retreat
12. If more tunes as desired, continue by playing The Doublings + Tune
13. The Three Cheers
14. The Doublings (American) OR Drag and Strokes (British)

The order of the types of beating is just a suggestion and can be moved around or swapped out based on the musicians’ abilities and common tunes.

To help better explain my thoughts, I have included music that fits this basic structure and a recording of the full Tattoo.

Any corps or musician can use this music as their standard Tattoo. Please feel free to print or reproduce. Download a standard English Tattoo here.

Closing Thoughts

It might an interesting conversation to propose a “Standard” Tattoo for umbrella organizations (such as The BAR or British Brigade, etc.) or for large events. That way everyone can prepare those specific tunes in this structure prior to the event.

If there is interest in this possibility, please contact me and let me know! Especially if you have ideas or suggestions for what that standard might look like.

To learn more about the English Tattoo, check out the main page: “The Major Duty Calls: “The Tattoo”