18th Century British & American Drumming

This section will focus predominately on late-18th century British and American Drumming.

In this section I will explore the major daily duty calls performed by British and American fifers and drummers.

I’ll explain who performed the duty calls and how they were performed. I’ll also discuss interpretations and analysis of the correct music from period resources. Join the conversation:

• The Reveille – “The American Reveille: A British Origin?”
• The Troop – 4 Meanings of the Term Troop
• The Retreat
• The Tattoo
• The English Foot March
• The Three Cheers
• The Drummer’s Call

In addition to my research on the history of Drum Rudiments, you will find some discussions and insights on interpreting 18^th century drum manuals and drum manuscripts.

I will include interpretations of these drum beatings in modern notation for many of the major duty calls. You are free to use any that you find on this site.

• The Three Camps / English Reveille
• The Scottish Reveille
• The Troop
• The Retreat
• The Tattoo
• The English March

Unfortunately, no British drum manuals or manuscripts survive from the French & Indian War or Seven Years War, which makes a true depiction of military drumming from that era very difficult to reconstruct. I would suggest this Revolutionary War-era information can be applied to the mid-18^th century until more resources become available.

Research Philosophy

First and foremost, I believe that if you’re investigating a certain time period, you need as many sources that are contemporary to that specific period of interest. Those resources must compose your primary focus.

As my main interest is in late-18^th Century British Fife and Drum, my primary sources are therefore based on period Drum Manuals and Fife Manuals, including:

• The Young Drummer’s Assistant (YDA), a published British military drum manual from 1780.
• Drum Beatings, a handwritten manuscript with British military drum beatings circa 1770-1790.
• Benjamin Clark’s drum beatings, an American handwritten manuscript circa 1790.
• Issac Day’s drum beatings, an American handwritten manuscript circa 1790.
• The Drummer’s Book of Music, an American handwritten manuscript circa 1770-1790, usually ascribed to Levi Lovering or Gardner
• Various Fife tutors and manuscripts, both American and British, dating from 1754-1800.
• John Buttrey’s Fife collection, a British handwritten manuscript of hundreds of fife tunes and duty music circa 1797 to 1814

I must necessarily also be interested in various period British and American military resources. This includes drill manuals and regulations, treatises and military dictionaries, and memoirs, general orders, orderly books, etc. These provide important insight on how fifers and drummers were used:

• according to regulations
• in practice (as seen in memoirs, orderly books, etc.)
• on the field (as seen in memoirs, drill manuals, etc.)

Keeping these period sources as my primary points of evidence helps us to stay focused on a narrow period of time. This focus produces the most likely picture of late-18^th Century Fifers and Drummers.

However, we must remember that these musicians didn’t exist in a narrow bubble of time.

Fifers and Drummers in the late-18^th century are just one point on a long spectrum of musical tradition.

When period musical resources won’t give us a complete answer, we ought to look backwards and forwards to find clues to an answer.

The important element of this technique is to compile as much information before the period of interest and as much after the period of interest. This allows us to see a timeline and an evolution. We can then find where our period of interest lies on that timeline and make some educated inferences.

For this reason, many of my arguments will also take other drum resources, fife resources, and military resources into account that exist prior to or following the late-18^th century.

Additionally, we must remember that these musicians didn’t exist isolated in their niche.

Fifers and Drummers were also part of a much larger musical community.

The music and beatings they played were absolutely influenced by popular music and famous composers. The style certainly changed as taste and style developed.

Their understanding of tempo, time signature, and other major musical conventions would have been influenced by and limited to the musical theory of the day.

In my opinion, it’s very important to take into account the history of music theory around the time period of interest. For this reason, some of my articles and arguments will be interested in the role of Mensural Notation (c. 1400-1650) and its residual impact on 18^th century music theory.

Building Dialogue

I encourage you to comment on pages and create a dialogue concerning any of the topics posted here.

I also encourage constructive feedback on any of my arguments or interpretations. For that reason, I look forward to developing my thoughts as I interact with other research-oriented drummers.

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Do you have any specific questions about the music or the performance of that music in 18th century British or American drumming? Contact me. I might be able to answer your question or it might inspire me to go out and find an answer.

Looking for 18th century drum manuals or music resources? Check out my References and Resources page.