Annotation:General (1) (The)

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GENERAL [1], THE. English, American; March (2/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. This tune is a fife and drum air used by soldiers during the American Revolution as a signal for camp duties and military maneuvers. It was published in Thomas Bennett's The Compleat Tutor for the Fife (London, 1770), Longman, Lukey & Co. Compleat Instructions for the Fife (London, 1770), Joshua Cushing's The Fifer's Companion No 1 (Salem, Mass., 1805), Andrew's Complete Instructions for the Fife (London, 1808), Clementi, Muzio & Co's Entire New and Compleat Instructions for the Fife (London, 1815), and like publications. The march was also entered into many late 18th century musician's manuscript collections, including the 1776-1778 music copybook of fifer Thomas Nixon Jr. [1] (1762-1842), of Framingham, Connecticut. Nixon was a thirteen-year-old who accompanied his father to the battles of Lexington and Concord, and who served in the Continental army in engagements in and around New York until 1780, after which he returned home to build a house in Framingham. The copybook appears to have started by another musician, Joseph Long, and to have come into Nixon’s possession.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Camus (Military Music of the American Revolution), 1976; Example 2, p. 86.

Recorded sources:




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