Band of Freemen

X:1 T:Band of Freemen M:4/4 L:1/8 K:D dc|BB/B/ Bc BAFE|AA/A/ AB AF dc|BB/B/ Bc BAFD|A2 A>B AF|| DE|F3A AFED|E3F FEDE|F3A AFED|B2 B>c B2||



BAND OF FREEMEN. American, March (4/4 time). USA, Pa. D Major. Standard. AB. From the Pennsylvania fifing tradition. The title comes from a song called "The Old Granite State," popularized in the early 1800's by the Hutchinson family of singers, and which had a repeated chorus-line of "We're a band of freeman." The tune was used for several spirituals and camp-meeting songs, especially by the Millerites. Bayard (1981) "emphatically" disputes Winston Wilkinson's assertion that the tune is the air or the Irish reel "Take Her Out and Air Her." He also thinks that the tune may possibly be a derivative of a Scots march by Oswald, "The Tulip." Source for notated version: fifer Hiram Horner (Western Pa., 1944) [Bayard]. Printed source: Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 287, pg. 241.

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