Photo Essay: April 19th
Every year, on April 19th, the Sudbury Militia and Minute Company and the the Sudbury Ancient Fife and Drum Corps marches from the old Sudbury center to the North Bridge in Concord, MA in honor of the colonist that took up arms on that day in 1775 against the most powerful army in the world. For me, April 19th was on par with Christmas for excitement. I loved the way everyone dressed. I loved the smell of the black powder from the muskets and, most of all, I loved the music. The melodies of the fifes were infectious and it became my instrument of choice. Since I only heard fife and drum few times a year I was, on the eve of the march, as restless as most kids are the day before Santa shows up.
The first tune I can recall as a child is called ‘The Girl I Left Behind Me’ and has the distinction of being the the first tune played every year to start our walk to Concord. I have recorded my arrangement of this tune with three voices to go along with this post. I will get the written music posted as soon as I can.
Here is what the march looked like this year:
4 COMMENTS
This is very nice indeed. The pictures take you right back into history. Thank you for putting this together. Now, if you can find a way for us to smell the powder…
Ginger
That tune brings back memories of when I was a kid, drumming with Menotomy Fifes & Drums. Patriot’s Day weekend was a blast back then!
Ginger, as luck would have it, I’m working on version 3.0 of baconworks.com with a scratch-n-sniff feature. Digital odor…it is all the rage. 😉
Gregory Rowe Bacon: Your dad is very proud. I Love You.