Connecticut Halftime

[Gawd Awful Lad]

Gentleman, as many musicians know, stock beats were a major part in drumming durring the Civil War. But does anybody know when the stock beat Connecticut Halftime was created. I always felt it wasnt a period cadence because i have yet to see it in the Bruce and Emmett book nor have i seen it in Hearts manual. Just wondering if anybody ahs any info on this cadence that i hear so often at events.


Thank you for whatever help you may give

Brett Asselin
The Gawd Awful Mess

[JKfifer119]

Gentleman, as many musicians know, stock beats were a major part in drumming durring the Civil War. But does anybody know when the stock beat Connecticut Halftime was created. I always felt it wasnt a period cadence because i have yet to see it in the Bruce and Emmett book nor have i seen it in Hearts manual. Just wondering if anybody ahs any info on this cadence that i hear so often at events.


Thank you for whatever help you may give

Brett Asselin
The Gawd Awful Mess


Brett

Take another gander at Colonel Hart's manual... and pay special attention to the Rosebud Reel.....Conn 1/2 time in one of its early forms
Drum music is funny from that period. They were just beginning to look for ways of notating it and Hart had his way and the B&E had its way etc..
a lot of drumming floating around in the old fashioned aural/ rote style of passing it on (listen and watch what I do ;-) )...

PS. The B&E is probably a little over indulged these days .. look at Hart's and Howe and Nevins..compare them all ...skill and regional influences could have a big effect on a field music's repitiore as well as the Prinicipal Musicians Personal taste

cheers
Joe Korber
119th NY Field Music

[Gawd Awful Lad]

Thank you very much for that resonse.
Now should we be playing it as much as is heard at the events today?
Also when did the fill come about?
was it one of those watch and copy things?
i was told by many never to fill only because field musicians were not as good as many drummers today and that "the whole filling thing came about form just people in connecticut".
What should i do?

Brett Asselin
The Gawd Awful Mess

[JKfifer119]

Thank you very much for that resonse.
Now should we be playing it as much as is heard at the events today?
Also when did the fill come about?
was it one of those watch and copy things?
i was told by many never to fill only because field musicians were not as good as many drummers today and that "the whole filling thing came about form just people in connecticut".
What should i do?

Brett Asselin
The Gawd Awful Mess

Brett
most "fills" do come out of the ancient fife and drum tradition now centered in Connecticut and that alone is a good reason not to use them. However the notion that they(period military musicians) wouldn't have been capable of playing it 140 yrs ago because they were not as good as modern musicians amounts to temporal ego-centrism.

I have had discussions with players (mostly drummers) who seem to think that because the music left behind is on the simpler side of the scale that all 19th century drummers were inferior to their modern counterparts.
Part of the problem is that the modern civilian musician looks at period military drumming with the eye of a civilian entertainer instead of a member the military who's tasks were as much a military function as they were an entertaining one.
Military drumming was simple on purpose...it had to be be easily remembered by both player and listener and easily understood
the time for creative embellishments came later as fife and drum became a civilian avocation as opposed to a military vocation.. then drumming became more complex and fifes became better designed for pitch and tuning...

But guess who started all those post war inovations? all those alleged inferior, now veteran musicians!!
besides, you play fife or drum or bugle for 5 years, everyday and they pay you extra for it
you get good at it or they fire you

As far as when to use Conn 1/2 time or rosebud reel as a beat ....well unless a manual is specific as to what beat went to what tune, use it to what fits
there are a fair number of tunes played that weren't originally written for fife and drum, like adaptations of popular ballads (example: battle cry of freedom)
drummer and fifer had to adapt
where its written do whats written otherwise use common sense and don't sell our predecessors short.. they had some good chops back then
and playing some of that music while someone is shootin at you ain't no joke

hope this help
good luck
Joe Korber
Prinicipal Musician, 119th NY

[Gawd Awful Lad]

Thank you Mr. Korber for all you help
Im just going to use what fits from now on while in the field (Ct 1/2 time) included. thank you again.




Brett Asselin
The Gawd Awful Mess