Annotation:Road to Boston: Difference between revisions
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{{TuneAnnotation | |||
|f_tune_annotation_title= https://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Road_to_Boston > | |||
|f_annotation='''ROAD TO BOSTON.''' AKA and see: "[[Boston March]]," "[[General Greene's March (2)]]," “[[March to Boston]],” "[[On the Road to Boston]]," "[[Reel des vagues]]," "[[Road to London]],” “[[We are on our march to Boston]].” American (originally), Canadian; March (2/4 time). USA; New England, Pennsylvania. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Silberberg): AABB (most versions): AA'BB' (Phillips). Musicologist and collector Samuel Bayard recorded: "This old fifers' march is known [as 'Road to Boston'] in the Northeast [United States] as well as in Pennsylvania. A New England game song beginning: | |||
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'''ROAD TO BOSTON.''' AKA and see: "[[General Greene's March (2)]]," “[[March to Boston]],” "[[On the Road to Boston]]," "[[ | |||
<blockquote> | <blockquote> | ||
''It's a long road to Boston, boys,''<br> | ''It's a long road to Boston, boys,''<br> | ||
''Oh when shall we get there?''<br> | ''Oh when shall we get there?''<br> | ||
</blockquote> | </blockquote> | ||
may possibly account for this title; if so, the fact emphasizes the close connection between play-party and dance tunes to which we have already referred (see Introduction). Mr. Devan stated that there were words known to the tune in Fayette County, but he could not recall them. They may or may not have included those just quoted" (Bayard, '''Hill Country Tunes''', 1944). In his 1981 '''Dance to the Fiddle''' collection Bayard calls the tune and 'international' specimen, at least the first strain, and thought it probably quite old. Close variants from the Continent appear in Bouillet, '''Album Auvergnat''', p. 30, as "Bourree d'Aigueperse," and in Quellien, '''Chansons et Danses des Bretons,''' (p. 287, No. 9) [Ed./AK--The tune set as a bourree also appears in Steven's '''Massif Collection''', collected in the Auvergne region of Central France]; while the second part of an Irish tune described as a 'quadrille' corresponds to the first part of "Road to Boston" (see Joyce, '''Old Irish Folk Music and Songs''', 1909, No. 277). A southern variant appears in Ford, '''Traditional Music in America''', p. 174, as "[[Exhibition March No. 2]].". | may possibly account for this title; if so, the fact emphasizes the close connection between play-party and dance tunes to which we have already referred (see Introduction). Mr. Devan stated that there were words known to the tune in Fayette County, but he could not recall them. They may or may not have included those just quoted" (Bayard, '''Hill Country Tunes''', 1944). In his 1981 '''Dance to the Fiddle''' collection Bayard calls the tune and 'international' specimen, at least the first strain, and thought it probably quite old. Close variants from the Continent appear in Bouillet, '''Album Auvergnat''', p. 30, as "Bourree d'Aigueperse," and in Quellien, '''Chansons et Danses des Bretons,''' (p. 287, No. 9) [Ed./AK--The tune set as a bourree also appears in Steven's '''Massif Collection''', collected in the Auvergne region of Central France]; while the second part of an Irish tune described as a 'quadrille' corresponds to the first part of "Road to Boston" (see Joyce, '''Old Irish Folk Music and Songs''', 1909, No. 277). A southern variant appears in Ford, '''Traditional Music in America''', p. 174, as "[[Exhibition March No. 2]].". Researcher Jean Duval finds a 'crooked' (asymmetrical) version of "Road to Boston" in a rare volume by J.A. Boucher entitled '''Le Répertoire du Violoneux'''[https://leviolondejos.wiki/images/9/9a/Le_Répertoire_du_Violoneux_de_J-A_Boucher_(réédition_2018_par_Jean_Duval).pdf] (1933, No. 96, p. 48) where it appears as "[[Reel des vagues]]" (Reel of the Waves). | ||
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There is some speculation that a British version predated the American one, called "[[Road to London]]," and was renamed by American fifers at the beginning of the American War of Independence. However, there is no evidence of this in historical record, although melodic material from the tune (as Bayard has found) can be found on the Continent and Ireland. | There is some speculation that a British version predated the American one, called "[[Road to London]]," and was renamed by American fifers at the beginning of the American War of Independence. However, there is no evidence of this in historical record, although melodic material from the tune (as Bayard has found) can be found on the Continent and Ireland. | ||
|f_source_for_notated_version=whistled by J.W. Devan (Connellsville, Pa., 1943; as he formerly played it on the fife) [Bayard, 1944]; Wilbur Neal (Jefferson County, Pa., 1948), James Morris (elderly fiddler from Greene County, Pa., 1930's), Hiram Horner (fifer from Westmoreland and Fayette Counties, Pa., 1960), Samuel Wiltrout (Fayette and Westmoreland Counties, Pa., 1944), Marion Yoders (fifer and fiddler from Greene County, Pa., 1960) [Bayard, 1981]; Rodney Miller (N.H.) [Phillips]; Warren Argo [Silberberg]. | |||
|f_printed_sources=Bayard ('''Hill Country Tunes'''), 1944; No. 19. Bayard ('''Dance to the Fiddle'''), 1981; No. 197, pp. 153-154. Cazden, 1955; p. 26. Cushing, 1805; No. 35. Hazeltine, 1820; p. 35. Hopkins ('''American Veteran Fifer'''), 1905; No. 56. Messer ('''Way Down East'''), 1939; No. 32. Messer ('''Anthology of Favorite Fiddle Tunes'''), 1980; No. 49, p. 32. "Miller & Perron ('''New England Fiddler’s Repertoire'''), 1983; No. 53. Ostling, p. 21. Phillips ('''Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 1'''), 1994; p. 199. A. Robinson Jr. ('''Massachusetts collection of martial musick: containing a plain, easy and concise introduction to the grounds of martial musick'''), Exeter, 1820; p. 63 (as "Boston March"). Silberberg ('''Tunes I Learned at Tractor Tavern'''), 2002; p. 130. Gordon Stobbe ('''Canadian Old-Time Fiddle Hits - Vol.2'''). Sweet ('''Fifer’s Delight'''), 1965/1981; p. 79. | |||
|f_recorded_sources=Alcazar Dance Series FR 204, Rodney Miller - "New England Chestnuts 2" (1981). Apex AL 1637, "The Down East Dance Music Of Don Messer And His Islanders" (1965). F&W Records 1, "F&W String Band" (1969). North Star NS0038, "The Village Green: Dance Music of Old Sturbridge Village." Silver Eagle SE4-10962, "Graham Townsend's 100 Fiddle Hits - 35th Anniversary Collection." | |||
|f_see_also_listing=Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [http://www.ibiblio.org/keefer/r07.htm#Roatobo][http://www.ibiblio.org/keefer/o08.htm#Onthrot5]<br> | |||
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Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [http://www.ibiblio.org/keefer/r07.htm#Roatobo][http://www.ibiblio.org/keefer/o08.htm#Onthrot5]<br> | |||
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