X:1
T:Skidmore Guards, The
M:6/8
L:1/8
R:March
S:Bayard – Dance to the Fiddle, March to the Fife (1981)
Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion
K:D
E | F2A AFA | BAF D2 (A/B/4c/4) | dcd ede | f3d2e/f/ |
g2f gfb | afd A2 c/d/ | e2f e2d |1 [c3e3] [B3e3]{c/B/} :|2 [c3e3][B2e2] (3a^g/f/||
|: e2c d2a | f2d f2a | ^gfg efg | a^ga agf |
e2c e2a | f2d f2a | ^gfe dcB | [A3e3][A3e3] :|
SKIDMORE GUARDS, THE. American, March (6/8 time). D Major ('A' part) & A Major ('B' part): G Major ('A' part) & D Major ('B' part). Standard tuning (fiddle). AA'B. A "modern" piece, notes Bayard. The Skidmore Guards was a march and song by Broadway composer David Braham ("The American Offenbach") from a long-running series of routines staged by the famous variety act Harrigan and Hart, and was originally entitled “The Skids Are Out Today.” According to Brooks McNamara, in his book The New York Concert Saloon: The Devil’s Own Nights (2002, p. 50) the song was from their play The Mulligan Guard’s Chowder and, “with appropriate marching, was a great favorite in concert saloons of the (eighteen) seventies and eighties,” and was a hit with both audiences and critics.
Another song for Harrigan & Hart by David Graham
Plumes flying wenches sighing, Children cry, ha, ha. Oh, stop dat cart! Now don't you start! Oh, do you hear me, sar? Whew, whew, dandies, Oh, ain't we hot que hay! Sweet goodness sake, We take de cake, De Skids are out today.
Additional notes
Sources for notated version: - James Smalley (fiddler from Westmoreland County, Pa., 1944; learned from his father, a fiddler and fifer) and Thomas Hoge (fifer from Greene County, Pa., 1947) [Bayard].
Printed sources : - Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 635A B, pp. 559 560.
