Annotation:Step to the Music Johnny
X:1 T:Step to the Music, Johnny L:1/8 M:2/4 K:C (c|c)G/c/ A/G/E/G/|c/c/G/c/ A/G/E/G/|A/Bc/ B/A/B/d/|g/f/g/a/ ge/d/| cG/c/ A/G/E/G/|c/c/G/c/ A/G/E/G/|A/Bc/ B/A/B/d/|e<cc:| |:(e|e>)e cc|e>e c2|B/c/d/B/ GG/G/|B/c/d/B/ GG/G/| e>e cc|e>e c2| B/c/d/f/ gB|c>d c:|
STEP TO THE MUSIC, JOHNNY. American, Reel. C Major (Ford): D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Ford tells or retells some fairly absurd stories about tune-name origins, and true-to-form includes a blurb about this one. It seems that a party of foraging Union troops surprised a large body of Confederates relaxing by attending a dance; the northerners surrounded the place and captured the enemy with nary a shot fired. The fiddler for the dance, not a soldier but a Southern sympathizer, was vocal in his distaste for the Yankees who decided to take him along with the other prisoners for his trouble. As recompense for his sarcasm he was made to play a lively tune for the group to march to on their way back to the Union lines, enforced by the point of a bayonet at his back. From time to time the Yankees would yell “Step to the music, Johnny!,” which Ford says subsequently became the accepted name for the tune. Even given the fact that even green troops post sentries while recreating and are unlikely to be surprised, there does seem to be a core of truth to the tale, for fiddler-led processions were not uncommon in that day and age. Fiddlers leading bridal processions were common to many cultures, including Irish and Scandinavian. A similar, far more chilling procession is evoked by Eileen Southern in her book The Music of Black Americans (1983), when she describes this scene from the antebellum South: "Many a traveller commented upon the 'wild hymns of sweet and mournful melody' sung by men and women of the slave coffles on the long journey from 'Virginny' into the lower South. Gathered together into groups that sometimes numbered in the hundreds, slaves were handcuffed, two by two, and attached to a long chain that ran down the center of the double file. Men on horseback accompanied the coffles, wielding long whips to 'goad the reluctant and weary,' and fiddlers among the slaves were forced to play on their instruments. Thus the grim procession took on the bizarre aspect of a nightmarish parade" (p. 157).
