Civil war era tunes

[jaco]

After watching the Ken Burns Civil War Documentary, I've become interested in the music of this era. From a musicological perspective what would be some of the most important music from this era in yur opinion. Not necesarrily most popular, but defining music of this period. Seems like a good theme for a musical project for someone.

[John Flynn]

There are whole websites on this. The Conteplator site lists these as defining CW tunes, even though some were written much earlier, but it is certainly not a complete list:

Battle Hymn of the Republic
Bonnie Blue Flag
Darling Nelly Gray
Dear Evelina, Sweet Evelina
Dixie
The Drinking Gourd
Garry Owen
The Girl I Left Behind Me
John Brown's Body
The Sword of Bunker Hill
Tenting Tonight
Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!
The Vacant Chair
When Johnny Comes Marching Home

I would add off the top of my head:
Soldier's Joy
Kingdom Coming (The Year of Jubilo)
Cumberland Gap
Johnny's Gone for a Soldier

[Red Englemann]

These songs come to mind.

Year of Jubilo
The Girl I left Behind
Battle Hymn of the Republic
Soldiers Joy
Gerry Ownes
Battle Cry of Freedom
Cumberland Gap

red


Red

[Richard Russell]

Local libraries most likely will have some recordings that will give you a nice start. They may even have some books on the subject. Jay Ungar and Molly Mason (jayandmolly.com) offer their own recording of these songs and also offer the soundtrack to Ken Burns' Documentary. Jay, of course, wrote Ashokan Farewell which is played throughout the program.

[allenhopkins]

I do a fair number of Civ War music programs; here are ones I've used:
Lots of George Root's music; he was one of the premier Northern composers
Just Before the Battle, Mother
Battle Cry of Freedom
Tramp, Tramp, Tramp

And of course some from Henry Clay Work
Kingdom Come
Marching Through Georgia
Grafted Into the Army

A song that's often mentioned as being sung by soldiers on both sides is Home, Sweet Home. Foster's Hard Times Come Again No More was supposedly a favorite of Lincoln's and there's a great soldiers' parody, Hard Tack, Come Again No More.

From the Rebel side, you can't go wrong with The Bonnie Blue Flag even if you don't want to sing all eleven verses (I usually make do with the first two and the last). There's a great after-the-war Southern song, The Southern Girl's Reply, to the same tune. Dixie, of course, and Goober Peas.

The really definitional Civ War melody is probably John Brown's Body in all its variations; you can find literally dozens of sets of words. Frank Proffitt, the North Carolina traditional singer, had a wonderful version. (His Going 'Cross the Mountains is another great song, about his grandfather's crossing into Tennessee to join the Union army.) Of course you end up with the tune being used for Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Kathy Barton and Dave Para have done a couple of albums of Civil War songs from Missouri, Rebel In the Woods and Johnny Whistletrigger, and they're great sources of unusual songs; I got I Goes To Fight Mit Sigel from them. The Faded Coat of Blue comes from my neck of the woods, composed by John Hugh McNaughton of Caledonia NY.

One of the few anti-war songs that survives is Kittredge's Tenting Tonight -- one of the all-time greats!

Dover Books' The Civil War Songbook has facsimile sheet music for 37 songs, and is a great source (if it's still in print -- copyright 1977).

As to tunes, a lot of the basic fiddle repertoire is good to go for the period. Girl I Left Behind Me and Garryowen were recognized marching tunes. A lot of the basic Foster minstrel repertoire is good period stuff as well.

Sorry to get carried away a bit, but I hope this helps.

[Mike Pilgrim]

http://www.pdmusic.org/

MBP

[Soupy1957]

I'm certainly glad that you folks know that "Ashokan Farewell" (the theme song from the Ken Burns Civil War Documentary), was NOT a song from the era. (It has the flavor and melancholy of that era though..it's as if that piece was "channeled" or something).

"I" didn't know that until I started learning it, and discovered the history behind it.

-Soupy1957

[Red Englemann]

I'm certainly glad that you folks know that "Ashokan Farewell"

Yea we're pretty up to date on stuff like that around here. Did you hear about the history of Danny Boy? It was written by an American who never was in Ireland. The tune was originally called by another name and the writer was unsuccessful in his attempts to promote it as I remember.

I think that Kingdom Come and Year of Jubilo are the same song from around the early 1800's.

red

[John Flynn]

The proper name of the tune is "Kingdom Coming" and it was written by Henry Clay Work in 1862. Work was a printer by trade, an avid abolitionist and a self-taught musician. He was "discovered" by a music publisher he was doing printing for, and "Kingdom Coming" was his first hit. He went on to become a prolific and successful songwrtier. He also wrote "Marching Through Georgia," which became the Princeton football fight song and as such is claimed to be the most performed Civil War era tune.

[luckylarue]

For further reference, check out the Tim O'brien cd, [/I]Songs From the Mountain, w/ Dirk Powell and John Herrmann. The collection was inspired by the songs referenced in Charles Frazier's novel, Cold Mountain, which I assume are either Civil War-era or older. Stuff like Cluck Old Hen, The Drunkard's Hiccups and Skillet Good and Greasy[I], come to mind, along w/ some great new tunes added to the cd.

Oops - my italics flip-flopped.

[allenhopkins]

Yea we're pretty up to date on stuff like that around here. Did you hear about the history of Danny Boy? It was written by an American who never was in Ireland. The tune was originally called by another name and the writer was unsuccessful in his attempts to promote it as I remember.

And did you know that both When Irish Eyes Are Smiling and My Wild Irish Rose were written by a man from Lockport NY? Chauncy Olcott, to be specific...

And now, my hijack is complete...

[CharlieKnuth]

Don't forget about the song Lorena. I read that there wasn't a time during the entire Civil War in which this song wasn't being song by a soldier on either side.

[Fred Keller]

Did you hear about the history of Danny Boy?

IIRC, the tune to Danny Boy is an old instrumental called "The Londonderry Air." There was apparently an English Music Hall comedy song called "Linda and Her London Derriere."

Here's more than you want to know: Danny Boy info

[ira]

follow the drinkin gourd is easy to play and a blast- you can change the cadence to give it a variety of different feels- i love that tune!

[EdSherry]

Are you looking for songs ABOUT the Civil War, or songs that were sung DURING the Civil War? A number of the songs in the earlier postings (e.g., Marching Through Georgia) are the former, not the latter.

Jerry Silverman had a good compliation of Civil War songs published by Mel Bay a while back. I don't know if it's still in print, but your library should be able to borrow it.

[allenhopkins]

Marching Through Georgia is copyright 1865 -- if not during the war, then immediately thereafter.

[adgefan]

He also wrote "Marching Through Georgia," which became the Princeton football fight song and as such is claimed to be the most performed Civil War era tune.

Marching Through Georgia, along with many Civil War era songs, has been adopted as a terrace chant by football (soccer) fans here in England and Scotland and as such is sung all over the country every Saturday. The words have been changed quite markedly, I won't reproduce them here for fear of promoting hooliganism!

[morgan]

Here's a link to band music of the Civil War from the Library of Congress:

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwmhtml/cwmhome.html

[Daniel Nestlerode]

As to tunes, a lot of the basic fiddle repertoire is good to go for the period. Girl I Left Behind Me and Garryowen were recognized marching tunes. A lot of the basic Foster minstrel repertoire is good period stuff as well.

IIRC, Girl I Left Behind Me dates back to the French & Indian War in America/Seven Years War in Europe. But then as now, old tunes were fun to play. And it has a nice lilt as a march.

Daniel

[allenhopkins]

IIRC, Girl I Left Behind Me dates back to the French & Indian War in America/Seven Years War in Europe. But then as now, old tunes were fun to play. And it has a nice lilt as a march.

Daniel

The Brighton Camp lyrics to the tune tell of a recruit in the British army who can only think of "the girl I left behind me," hence the more common name of the tune.

[Ed Goist]

Based on recent discussions in this sub-forum, I thought I'd bump this thread back into play.
Lots of cool stuff here - Right after posting this I'm going to look for a tab for the song "Follow the Drinkin Gourd"! I've never heard of it, but it has to be great with a title like that!
Also, it's been stated in another thread (named Jack White [believe it or not!]) that there were very few mandolins in the US/Confederacy during the Civil War period. I found this surprising. What instrumentation would have been common in the 19th Century in general and the Civil War period specifically?

[Ed Goist]

...snip...Right after posting this I'm going to look for a tab for the song "Follow the Drinkin Gourd"! I've never heard of it, but it has to be great with a title like that!

This song has it's own website!
The title apparently refers to Underground Railroad code for "Go North" (the drinking gourd being the big dipper, pointing to the north star). This stuff is just too cool!

[mrmando]

Also, it's been stated in another thread (named Jack White [believe it or not!]) that there were very few mandolins in the US/Confederacy during the Civil War period.

I have yet to encounter any hard evidence of a mandolin being carried/played by any Civil War soldier, North or South. Italians brought mandolins over when they began emigrating to the United States in large numbers in the 1870s, just after the Civil War.

What instrumentation would have been common in the 19th Century in general and the Civil War period specifically?

Fife, drum, violin, banjo, maybe a guitar here and there, sometimes a wind instrument like a cornet or euphonium.

[allenhopkins]

Other instruments common to the period were piano, other members of the violin family (viola, 'cello), flute, and the beginnings of free-reed instrumentation (concertina, pump organ etc.). Brass bands were probably as common as string bands. The concerts by the Spanish Students in 1880 et. seq. are generally considered to be the kick-off of mandolin popularity in the US (although they apparently played bandurrias, not mandolins).

And don't plan to include Follow the Drinking Gourd in a program of Civil War-era music. As the website points out, it was first published in 1928, and Lee Hays re-wrote it into its present form for the Weavers in the late 1940's.

[journeybear]

Fife, drum, violin, banjo, maybe a guitar here and there ...

I know they had guitars then because that's what Elvis played in "Love Me Tender." And in "Cat Ballou," set soon thereafter, Nat "King" Cole and Stubby Kaye played guitar and banjo.

OK, so I kid. But I heard that the melody of "Love Me Tender" dates to around the time of the Civli War.