Junior Fife and Drum Camp, 2012

Last week three of us went to the Company of Fifers and Drummers’ Junior Fife and Drum Camp. This was my (Peter) seventh time at the camp, and the last time due to aging-out, and was the second time for John and Thomas. It was held in Ivoryton, Connecticut the week prior to the Deep River Ancient Muster, the largest fife and drum muster in America (I’ll be posting about the muster next post). The camp had 90-some fifers and drummers from around the states (mostly the north-east, but including California, Missouri, Indiana, Tennessee, etc...). We had a great time playing, learning, and listening to the fife and drum for the week.

This year we learned some of the music of the Connecticut Yanks Fife and Drum Corps, a corps from the 1960s-70s very influential in the fife and drum tradition. We actually had former members of the corps teach us at camp, as well as tell stories of fife and drum 35-50 years ago. You can see pictures from camp and listen to the original Yanks on their Facebook page. This completed a three-year series at camp where we had also learned music from the Sons of Liberty Ancient Fife and Drum Corps and the New York Regimental Fife and Drum Band (both from the mid-1900s). We have found it helpful to see the way the fife and drum tradition has been handed down from generation to generation, giving more motivation to see it continue to advance in our own time and beyond.

At the end of camp we performed the music at the Deep River Muster on Friday night. Here is video of most of the performance:

Hark! Can you hear the drum resounding? 

Can you hear the bass drum’s mallet pounding? 

Can you hear the fife’s clear melodic shrieks? 

Though the hills and valleys, ponds and creeks?

-Peter

 Memor!