A blog dedicated to Early American History Lovers, Civil War Reenactors, Living Historians, and people that love the past. Lots of Historical Recipes and Patterns!
I'm starting this off with the disclaimer that I am NOT musical and this particular song did not fit the musical principals of the present day as my limited musical ability understands them. A more musical person could no doubt understand more and make more of the music than I ever could but I was interested in trying to get a little taste of this 18th century song written by William Tans'ur. Hope you enjoy!
This song was collected by John Wesley and reprinted in 1737 in the first Anglican hymnal published in the Colonies, The Collection of Psalms and Hymns.
If anyone is interested in recording this for real, let me know, I would love to post it!
Sunday night Andy and I had the opportunity to see the famous David Kincaid live at Godfrey Daniels in Bethlehem, PA. Godfrey Daniels, an ex-doughnut shop turned hip little coffee house was the perfect setting with rustic wood paneling, broadsides and folk instruments lining the walls and warm low lighting casting an intimate ambiance onto tiny tea tables. Godfrey's has been a non-profit organization since 1978 and continues to foster and promote folk music.
David Kincaid, most well known in the historical community for his musical role in Gods and Generals gave a stellar solo performance accompanied by himself on mandolin. He played a mix of songs mostly from his first (and obsessively catchy) cd, The Irish Volunteer but also played some songs from his, equally as good, "Irish-American's Song," and finished the night with The New York Volunteer which can be heard on his live Album " David Kincaid and the Brandos " and is purportedly to be released on the next studio album. Some musicians don't live up to live performances; David Kincaid is not one of them. His live work is just as captivating and engaging as his studio stuff. It was such a good performance, we were so excited and the crowd was lively.
Want it for St. Patrick's Day? "Irish-American's Song" is available for download from Itunes.
This is a part of a program that a friend and I have been putting together for work. We will be teaching a colonial dance: "The Hessian."
Hessian soldiers were German soldiers who were hired out by their government to England. They were known as "Hessians" because many of them came from the state of Hesse-Kassel. England stationed these soldiers in America to keep the peace and later to fight the Patriots in the Revolutionary War. They were known for their brutal killing techniques and weaponry.
There is a grievance about them in the Declaration of Independence: "He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to
complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with
circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most
barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation."
The Hessian is a very simple dance so anyone can do it. Colonial dances were set to a particular tune, normally of the same name as is true with this one. Below is a music clip and the instructions for the dance. In the diagram, circles represent the men and squares represent the ladies. This type of dance could be danced in groups of four or with numerous groups of four, lined up in lines.The partners travel through the dances and eventually dance with every other couple. Keep in mind, if you are dancing in a line, one or more couples may be "out" during a rotation, but they will soon be back in.
Step 1: This is the starting position of the dance. The men
are on one side of the line and the women are on the other. The men are facing
the women.
Step 2: The first gentleman offers the second lady his right
hand and they make a complete turn and return to their starting positions.
Step 3: The second gentleman offers the first lady his right
hand and they make a complete turn and return to their starting positions.
Step 4: The first gentleman stretches his right arm across
to the second lady who does the same. Simultaneously, the second gentleman
stretches his right arm across to the first lady’s. From above, the arms will
form a cross. Together, everyone turns in a circle to the right. (From above
the figure will look like spokes of a wheel turning.)
Step 5: The first gentleman stretches his left arm across to
the second lady who does the same. Simultaneously, the second gentleman
stretches his left arm across to the first lady’s. From above, the arms will form
a cross. Together, everyone turns in a circle to the left until back in starting
positions.
Step 6: The first
gentleman will offer his right hand to the first lady, who will do the same.
They turn in a circle to the right one time. The first gentleman should be in
the first lady’s starting position and the first lady should be in the second
gentleman’s starting position.
Step 7: The first gentleman and the first lady turn to the
outside of the group and walk down behind the second couple. When the first
couple gets 75% of the way down, the second gentleman offers his right hand to
take the second lady’s right hand and leads her one step to the front. The
first couple takes the position that the second couple has just vacated.
Step 8: The first gentleman will offer the first lady, both hands and they will make one right turn so that both the gentleman and the
lady are on the side that they started on.
Step 9: While not a physical step, the couples change
numbers. The first couple becomes the second couple and the second couple
becomes the first couple and the dance is repeated until the song ends.
Please watch the video to hear a pretty boring rendition of the music. Imagine the melody played on the harpsichord or by an orchestra.
A few nights ago, Andy and I were fortunate enough to see one of Ireland's premier fiddlers, Kevin Burke. Kevin Burke is best known for his work with the Bothy Band in the 70s with Uilleann piper, Paddy Keenan.
For this concert, he was working with Cal Scott, a guitarist and songwriter from Oregon who writes soundtracks for documentaries.The concert was a cozy, small affair and the music was great. We were close enough to the stage that we could hear the music, crisp and clear, straight from the instruments.
In true Irish style, the concert was informal and the audience was almost dancing. We ended up buying a CD that had a lot of the songs that they played at the concert and we've been enjoying it very much. They were even nice enough to sign it for us.
We very much liked "The Surround," and "The Lighthouse Keeper's Waltz." It is great because they have a songbook available for this CD so Andy can play fiddle and I can play guitar. We've been having fun with it.
"If there be room enough, the gentleman only holds his partner the tips of the fingers. Certainly the dance in question is danced in a far different way among the inferior orders of society, as they hold each other tight by the middle, and thus in each other's embrace go round like whirligigs. But this is no argument to condemn a dance, which I think is decent, harmless, and elegant.—The only objection I could ever see in the Waltz was, that the dancers were liable to get exceedingly dizzy, by repeated turning; but the dance is by no means indecent, as danced by the better sort of people, and it has the most brilliant effect. 'No Puritan.' " -Sporting Magazine 1812
When the Waltz first became popular in England and the U.S., it met with mixed reviews. Many people disliked dances in general, thinking that they were places rife with sin. There were many discourses on the evils of dancing but the Waltz was by far the most scandalous, popular dance of the time. Most dances were danced with many partners and therefore "social." Waltzes were really the first almost exclusive dances. The intimate nature of the dance had chaperons and parents watching like hawks.
The Fairy Waltz was published in 1825 as part of treatise on the dances of London. The accompanying dance is pretty easy and I hope to chart it sometime in the future. The song that goes with the dance is very cheery. This would make a very good piece for a young lady to play while her friend's danced. I put the song into a MIDI file. The MIDI is very fast and I think it would best be played almost at half the speed of the MIDI file.
Finally I got Andy to play his low D whistle. I am not very happy with the sound quality of the recording, I recorded it straight on the computer using the built-in hardware. It sounds like it is being played on a phonograph.
Andy is very nervous when playing in front of people or when he is recorded. The recording really doesn't capture the richness of the whistle sound that you hear in person.
*******Please vote in the poll on my sidebar if you are interested in knitting a Civil War Era reticule. I had a lot of people interested in making them and asking me for a good pattern. Please vote so I know when it is best for most people.
Yesterday Andy and I made homemade Penny Whistles out of CPVC pipes. He made a low D whistle and a whistle with Uilleann pipe fingerings (which means I won't have to listen to those bagpipes when he's practicing a new song. ::jumps up and down:: )and I made a penny whistle with an extra hole to allow the whistle to reach a middle C.
Andy and I originally were just going to make a Low D whistle because they are expensive but the pipes were sold in 10 ft segments so we ended up making a bunch.
It took a lot of measuring and sanding but they did not take very long to make.All it took was The pipe, a wood dowel, a saw and sandpaper.
It really was a lot of fun and we got three whistles done in a couple of hours. They sound very pretty too. If I can convince Andy to let me record him, I will post it on here. He always says yes but ends up avoiding it-- he's shy about playing in front of people but is very good.
Some Tutorials, Plans and Tips for making CPVC and PVC whistles and other instruments if you'd like to try yourselves:
I've been in the mood to learn "Cockles and Mussels" on the tin whistle. It's really a simple but pretty song. "Cockles and Mussels" (Molly Malone,) is a traditional and well known Irish song. It is widely accepted as the nonofficial song of Dublin. It's about a fishmonger in Dublin. You can here a MIDI of the song here.
Not much is known about the origins of the song or if Molly Malone was a real person; however, there is a statue in Dublin commemorating "her." The song was very popular at Harvard in the 1860s.
There are a lot of great renditions of this song out there. I recommend these:
Cockles and Mussels by ichingiching. Molly Malone by Fiffin Market/ Lexington Field. This is a pop rendition. Molly Malone by Four Celtic Voices. This is a really pretty version played on the harp.
It is surprising that the lyrics to this song have changed very little throughout the years. Many traditional songs change with each generation.
I wrote out the tin whistle fingerings for beginners or anyone who doesn't like to read music. A plus sign next to a fingering means to play that note in the higher octave (use more air.)
I made some blank tin whistle (fife/Irish Flue/ ect.) sheet music for beginners or anyone who can't read music yet to use. It is also good for writing down sequences of notes you like while fooling around with the whistle.
I am one of the few who has never seen the Anne of Green Gables movies. Before last month, I had never even read the books. I was inspired to read the book by the pretty photos on Bramblewood Fashion's blog which is hosting an Anne of Green Gables Fashion Week. To celebrate the week, I drew Anne on the roof in one of her
"serviceable" dresses.
I finally read the first book and absolutely loved it! There were a lot of very true and beautiful things written in it.
Some meaningful things said in the book were:
" Blessed are they who expect nothing for they shall not be disappointed."
"...when a man is courting he always has to agree with the girl's mother in religion and her father in politics."
"A body can get used to anything, even to being hanged, as the Irishman said."
"It is all very well to read about sorrows and imagine yourself living through them heroically, but it's not so nice when you really come to have them, is it?"
Here is a song to celebrate the week also. Anne mentions that Diana is going to teach her a song called Nelly in the Hazel Dell. This song was written in 1853 and was revived in the early 1900s. A midi version of the song can be heard here at The Music.
I hope everyone has been enjoying Anne of Green Gables Fashion Week and I can't wait to see the rest of everyone's blog posts. Someone will have to tell me if they use this song in the movie.
Hornpipes were a type of dance that were traditionally danced by English sailors in the late 1700s, as a means of exercise aboard ships. The Sailor's Hornpipe (also known as The College Hornpipe, and Jack's the Lad,) is a popular tune that was originally published in 1798. (It is the tune that the Popeye the Sailor Man theme song is based on.) It is said that each move of the dance mimicked a chore sailors would have to perform on ship. It was normally danced on a ship without a partner, barefooted.
In the 1800s songs written in the same style became collectively known as "hornpipes." Hornpipes also became a "country dance" and new routines were created for group dances.
By the 1890s, dancing the hornpipe became stereotypical of sailors, although publications at the time were more than willing to admit that they never met a sailor who actually could dance a hornpipe. (They also wrote of how vile sailors really were.)
The dance moves are complicated. Can you imagine teaching this to a bunch of hardy seamen? "Double shuffle, heel, toe. Whirligig!"
Unfortunately I am trying to learn it myself! The traditional dance routines have been said to be lost. But I am going to try and research the individual dance moves listed in the instructions above and see if I can't put at least a little of it back together. I think it will be fun to try and get exercise like one of Nelson's crew. Dancing a hornpipe reminds me of the scene in the Horatio Hornblower series where the tyrannical Mr. Midshipman Simpson orders Horatio to dance just to demonstrate his power aboard the ship.
P.S. Blogger has changed a bit so I can't figure out how to get the formatting just right. Please bear with me. It's driving me nuts!
I came across this article in the New York Times Archive Database. I was originally looking for a recipe for naval hardbread. I was unsuccessful in finding the recipe but I came across a fun little article: I think the subheading says it all "Kitchen Ga-ley Resounded with Death Threat Over
Slice of Pie." The article tells of what was probably a small incident but it is covered it as though it were a romanticized, full fledged Mutiny. The article is charming and picturesque, it gives images of angry sailors storming the deck with belaying pins (those wooden clubs on the inside edge of old ships, used to tie the ropes to,) and sailors chanting the old sea shanty "Leave Her, Johnny," while the captain stands aloft with his pretty daughter. It's so rainy today, grab a cup of hot chocolate and a cozy blanket and read a newspaper clipping, that is probably older than your grandma.
This article was so cute I couldn't help but post on it, and since the article is really hard to read a typed version can be read below:
"WEEVIL IN BUISCUIT
ROUSE SAILOR’S IRE
Fued Rages Between
Fidor, the Cook and Seamen as the Mashona Reaches Port.
POLICE QUELL A
“MUTINY”
Magistrate Told How
Kitchen Ga-ley Resounded with Death Threat Over Slice of Pie.
Four able seamen, Anton Vaneik, Alexander Lemberg, John
Andersen, and John Paulton, were arrested yester-day afternoon on board the
four-masted bark Mashona. Incoming from Buenos Aires.
They were locked up in the Stapleton Police station on warrants sworn out by
Ernest W. Fidor, the cook, who charged that they had threatened him with bodily
harm after the vessel had arrived inside the three-mile limit and was under the
jurisdiction of the United States.
The seamen said they were glad to be brought ashore and in-carcerated, because
they would have a chance to get some food fit to eat, which they had not
experienced for the last seventy-five days, they told the Police Lieutenant.
When the
Mashona arrived in Quar-antine yesterday forenon with 3,4000 tons of linseed
from Buenos Aires and Montevideo, Captain Gunderson told the Health Officer
that four of his crew were mutinous and had given him a great deal of trouble
on the voyage. He wanted a police boat to come and take them off, he said.
After the bark had anchored off Stapleton a police patrol boat went alongside
and two of the Harbor Squad went on board to look the situation over. The
vessel was flying the Uruguay flag and had a Scandinavian crew of twenty men
for-ward nad [sic] a Captain, two mates, car-penter, sail maker, and cook aft.
When the
police officers climbed on deck they found that the Mashona was in a state of
siege, but there was no signs of violence. The Captain and his mates stood on
the poop shouting to the men that they were “a bunch of beachcombers” and other
unkind things, while the crew stood in a group around the capstan on the
foc’sle head growling out the old sailor chant, “It’s Time for Us to Leave
Her.” With the Captain on the poop stood his fair-haired, tall daughter,
Ggatha.
The sailors
told the police that they all had their certificates for ability in their
duties. What they complained of, they said, was bad food. Fidor, the man who
was doing the cooking, they declared, did not know how to cook salt water. The
beans were so mouldy, they added, and the biscuits were so full of weevils, the
seamen said, that they had to be nailed down to prevent them running all over
the deck. Weevil steeplechasing was their only sport the men said. The bark was seventy-five days on the voyage,
and they did not get any meat fit to eat until the vessel was within four days
of Sandy Hook.
Captain
Gunderson said the men had not attempted any violence, but that they had
threatened him at various times, and Earnest Fidor, the cook, who said he
hailed from Milwaukee, declared that one of the able seamen had threat-ened to
slice his liver out if he did not give him a piece of pie. After listening to
both sides the police told Captain Gunderson they could not take any action and
suggested that he should go on shore and search New York
City to find the Consul for Uraguay.
When the
Captain and his daughter had gone ashore, Fidor, the cook, took a boat and
landed at Stapleton, where he went to the police station and asked for a
warrant for four of the crew, who had threatened him. He said that these men
had pretended to be ill a month ago, and when the Captain and his mates went
forward with the carpenter and sailmaker to carry them to the hospital, where
they could give them more attention, the rest of the crew, armed with belaying
pins and sheath knives had showed fight, and forced the captain and his
officers to retreat aft.
Fidor was
taken to Ninth Branch Detective Bureau at St. George’s
Ferry House, after swearing before
Magistrate Hanry at Stapleton that the four seamen had threatened to kill him
after the bark had passed inside Sandy Hook. The
detectives said goodbye to their families and looked well to their revol-vers,
expecting to have to deal with a piratical crew, on board the Mashona, but they
have had no trouble in taking the men ashore.
The cook
said that even when the Captain had three pigs killed on Sunday, the crew had
complained that the porkers were too fat to eat. He told the reporters that he
was the only American on board and that in 1900, for a wager, he had rowed
alone in a lifebzoat [sic] from Galveston to San Juan, Porto Rico, which took
him three months, but he would not allow that to appear in the uapers [papers.]
He disliked publicity, the cook said.
Fidor told
the Magistrate that he would hace Captain Gunderson in court this morning to
appear against the four seamen. The skipper and his daughter were reported to
still be looking for the Consul to Uruguay
when the sun sank below the horizon last night. The men cannot sue the Captain
under Uruguay’s
laws for giving them bad food, as they could if the vessel was sailing under
the American Flag."
Many people have come to love the song Lady Margaret, most
recently performed by Cassie Franklin. You might have heard it on the Cold
Mountain CD. I absolutely love that version, even though it did not make it
into the movie. The song originated in Scotland
in the early 1600s. It later was taken to America
where it, along with a lot of other songs, was sung in the Appalachian region.
The songs were played in the region with very little outside influence until
the songs morphed and changed with each performer until the original songs and
the Appalachian songs shared only common themes. (If I was an
anthropologist, I would call this: Parallel Evolution. :D)
The songs share similar lyrics and themes but most of them are different
enough to warrant being completely different songs. The varieties are really
interesting to follow and it’s neat because it’s as if the story never ends.
Some Good Versions and Variations of the story of Lady Margaret and Sweet
William can be listened to below:
Read the Lyrics of Fair Margaret and Sweet William which is most similar to the Cold Mountain Version. This is an excerpt from English and Scottish Ballads, read the rest here.
I hope this song and the stories pull you in as they have me. It is a very grisly-sweet story, a dark romantic one , it has the same kind of feel as Wuthering Heights. I was surprised to see how many newer versions of the song there was. There seemed to be a revival of the song in the 1970s as well as another in 2003 (when Cold Mountain was released.) I'm glad this song has stood the test of time--It has been performed for over 400 years! I hope people continue to record new versions. Are there any other historical songs that entrap you like this one?
Everyone who has read my blog has heard me refer to my significant other,
Andy. Andy has kindly written a post about his Civil War reenacting fiddle:
Since Christmas I have been excited. You see, for those of you who may not
know me personally, for a little over a year now I have been learning to play
the fiddle. For about two years, I have been loving music from all over Ireland.
Well for Christmas, Steph bought me an antique fiddle (1920ish.) She said
this one was for when we go out reenacting. So, since then I have wanted
to make this violin a bit more correct for the Civil War time period.
Fortunately, violins have not changed very much over the last few hundred
years. The major changes I have to make are the removal of the chinrest
and the conversion from steel to gut strings. The other change I want to
make is to the tailpiece. You can see in the picture there are three
tailpieces. The black one that is not attached was the original. It
is broken, and the previous owner replaced it with the smaller sized one
currently on it. The brown one is one I am going to replace it with,
because I want to have the proper size on the fiddle.
You can see from
the close-up that the tailpiece was attached with a piece of wire. I am
going to replace it with a piece of catgut. I begin by removing the
things I am going to replace. Most of the time you don’t want to take
everything off at once, but as I am replacing the tailpiece and tailgut there
isn’t much choice. After unwinding the strings from the pegs, I can take
off the old tailpiece. I put the bridge aside for later
Before I can put the new strings on, I will need to prepare the new
tailpiece. There are a few things needed for this. I need the
length of tailgut I bought, some stitching gut (or an old gut E-string) and a
lighter or source of flame. When the end of the gut is burned, it unwinds
and becomes stiff. The stitching gut is tied around the ends as
reinforcement. These wider ends prevent the gut from slipping through the
holes in the tailpiece. Once the tailpiece is ready, I can begin to attach
the strings.
The strings come in double lengths, so you can clip them in half—you
actually get two strings (except for the G-string, which is wound with
silver—that one is a bit more expensive!). The strings don’t use ball
ends like many steel strings, but they do use a similar technique of holding
themselves in place. The string is held in place by a knot tied in the
end. The package of these strings shows you how to tie the knot—you need
to burn the end of the string to prevent it from slipping from the knot.
I had problems at first with the G and E strings, because they are thinner
and the knots were small. By tying extra knots, I got them to stay. The
strings take a lot longer the stretch than steel strings, but they sounded
great after they were able to stay in tune for more than 20 seconds.
Thanks, Andy! The above photo is of Andy's modern fiddle along with his "Civil War" fiddle. We are currently trying to learn to play the fiddle and guitar together--a huge task for us! We are hoping to record something so you can hear how the gut strings sound. Civil War tuning is lower than today's modern tuning, the sound is more melancholy. We were hoping to get a good Irish song recorded in honor of St. Patrick's Day, we'll try tomorrow.
Being cooped up in the house due to the snow has made me graciously take to music. I was given a very beautiful parlor guitar for Christmas and new silver strings for it for Valentine's Day and have been playing it nonstop. I have been particularly keen on learning a simple traditional Irish song from 1884 called "Molly Malone." There are many different renditions of this song available but one particular rendition of it on youtube.com by "Joe and Larry." I can hardly imagine how that man is still standing. It reminds me of the lyrics of a song by The Prodigals: "You dance like you're drunk but you sing like you're sober." It is nevertheless one of the best renditions of the song I have yet heard.
Chords to the song:Molly Malone. (I like this site because it shows the fingering charts for unfamiliar chords and it can also change the key for you.)
Tin Whistle/Fife/ Irish Flute Music for Molly Malone.
There is a statue in Dublin commemorating the Molly Malone of the song but no one can be sure if Molly Malone was a real person. The statue is controversial because she is wearing 17th century clothing which is considered a bit risque today.
I made up some blank guitar chord sheets. The ones that I had were a little smaller and I can't see them so well when I am trying to play. This one has fit my needs, it is like large print books. :D
A while ago, I tried my hand at writing a traditional style Irish song. It has multiple names to mimic the Irish practice of learning songs by ear. Traditionally, as a song passed from player to player, the songs would acquire new names, adaptations and changes but would remain the same songs. My guitar "teacher" wrote the guitar chords and I think it turned out really well. I don't know how to make chords do anything but he can put them together like magic! (You know--years of talent and hard work. :D)
*Note: I am sorry to learn that Larry, from Joe and Larry has recently passed away on February 13, 2010. Many of his videos can be found here. A traditional Irish blessing in his honor:
May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face.
And rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the hollow of His hand.
-->
I've had a very musical week. Hopefully we will be getting some simple music
together for some of the nights around the fire at Civil War reenactments. At
the moment, we are just testing out instruments. Are they easy to play? Carry?
Sound good with the other instruments? It's difficult but fun. Last Ridley
Creek Reenactment, a harmonica and some bones made a very agreeable
accompaniment to the civilian and soldier singing.
One of our Reenacting Company might even take up fife. During the Civil War,
Companies were supposed to have 2 musicians, a fifer and a drummer. The company
musicians played out commands for their company in a time before high-tech
mechanical means of communication. The musicians played commands and
"duties." A Duty is a collection of music associated with certain
tasks, such as reveille and lights out. During the Revolutionary War, the
British used the Scottish and English Duties while the Americans used the Irish
Duty. The United States
continued to use the Irish Duty during the Civil War.
Army musicians were a good way to relay commands to large amounts of men
clearly.A good story about commands without a fifer comes from Abraham Lincoln
when he first commanded a company of his own, during the Blackhawk War. It
is told in the book Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln, by Allen Thorndike Rice:
I remember his narrating his first experience in drilling his company. He
was marching with a front of over twenty men across a field, when he desired to
pass through a gateway into the next inclosure. " I could not for the life
of me," said he, "remember the proper word of command for getting my
company endwise so that it could get through the gate, so as we came near the
gate I shouted : “ ‘This company is dismissed for two minutes, when it will
fall in again on the other side of the gate !’”
*Note: The song H-ll on the Wabash is taken from The Drummer and Fifer's Guide by Bruce and Emmett (1862). Many people believe that this book didn't see much use during the war but many parts of it were taken from Ashworth System of Drum Beating (1812.) The song is one of my favorites, The Purcells , a really good performing family PA have a really REALLY good rendition of it but for some reason haven't released it, (I've got some kind of demo-bootlegged CD or something.) Please go to their page and comment that you'd like to hear it and maybe they'll put it on for us.
I have always loved the sounds of flutes and whistles. I learned to play the flute in Middle school and was so bad, I was asked to leave the band. I have to say, I don't like modern flutes as much I love tin whistles, Irish flutes and fifes. They have such an old-fashioned, simple, and romantic sound. The tin whistle is rather easy to learn. The fife and Irish flute take a little more practice of breath control but they both have the same finger positions as the tin whistle. Fifes started to be used for military moral-lifting and for military commands in the 1600s and were highly utilized by Napoleon. Tin whistles (also known as penny whistles, flageolets, and Irish whistles,) have been used at least since the 1500s. They were historically used by vagabonds and urchins in street performances but were not made of tin until 1843. By the 1860s whistles were popular children's toys and an adult amusement popular in Irish music.
For those who wish to learn, I have charted out the finger positions and some simple songs to start out with. A lot of people have fifes and tin whistles but have never learned to play.
Some good resources to learn online are: Whistle Away
Whistle This (A really good site for hearing different renditions and playing styles that does not get updated anymore.) Tin Whistle This site has videos on how to play.
Resources for Historical songs: O' Neill's Music of Ireland This site is good because it has the sheet music as well as MIDI files to listen to.
The songs I have diagramed are simple and recognizable tunes that everyone can learn easily. All of them were written before 1870:
Mary Had a Little Lamb is probably one of the most recognizable songs in American history. It was said to have been written by Sarah Josepha Hale (of Godey's Lady's Book) as a poem and later put to music. It was based a true story about Mary Sawyer who took her Lamb to school and the havoc that ensued. It was so widespread that Thomas Edison used the first stanza of Mrs. Hale's poem to test his invention, the phonograph, in 1877.
Yankee Doodle is said to originally have been written by British officers to mock the Colonial commanders that they served with during the French and Indian War. The Macaroni mentioned in the song refers to the prestigious Macaroni "Club" in England which consisted of educated, over-fashionably dressed lads with enormous hairstyles who were known for their drinking and gambling. In the song, the British made the remark that the Colonists were so low class that they thought someone who had a feather in their hat was of this elite high society.
The Rising of the Moon, was written in 1866 to the tune The Wearing of the Green (1798.) The Wearing of the Green described the uprising in 1798 in County Kildare in Ireland.Green was the color of the Society of United Ireland who wished to end British rule in Ireland. Rebels wore green shamrocks in their hats to proclaim their dissatisfaction with British rule.
