X:1
T:Washington's March [3]
M:C|
L:1/8
N:DDad tuning (fiddle)
N:from a 1947 field recording.
S:Edden Hammons (1875-1955, Pocahontas County, W.Va.)
D:West Virginia Univ. Press - "The Edden Hammons Collection, vol. 2" (1984)
F:https://www.slippery-hill.com/recording/washingtons-march
Z:Transcribed by Andrew Kuntz
K:D
DEFG ABcA|GBAG FD3|DEFG AGFG|Adde ded=c|
DEFG ABcA|GBAG FD3|DEFG A2fd|fd[ce]e d2d2:|
fdad fda2|edcd eggg|fdad fda2|edce d2d2|
fdad fda2|edcd ee e2|(f/e/f3) gfg2| ecec d2d2|
fdad fda2|edcd eggg|fdad fda2|edce d2d2|
fdad fda2|edcd egg2|a2g2 fed2|edce d2d2||
WASHINGTONâS MARCH [3]. American, Reel (cut time). USA, West Virginia. D Major. DDad tuning (fiddle). AB. Despite the title, the tune is played in reel tempo. May possibly be a very distant derivative of âWashingtonâs Grand March,â although there were many melodies in America that carried the Washington name, an indication of his influence even in backwoods areas. Betty Vornbrock notices a similarity in the high part of Edden Hammonsâ [1] version and the âBâ part of the Shetland tune âSleep Soond iâda Moarninââ. Allan Jabbour (in 1984 notes to Edden Hammons recording) says that this is one of the tunes in the Hammons family repertoire that has special family associations, in that it was considered to have been composed by early family members, âor at least uniquely preserved by them.â The original 1947 field recorder, a folklorist named Louis Watson Chappell, stated that Edden Hammons [2] won the 1939 Greenbrier Valley fiddle championship playing âWashingtonâs March,â and the he had learned it â59 years ago and first played it on a gourd covered by a deer skinâ (quoted by Jabbour). Randolph County, West Virginia, fiddler Woody Simmons (b. 1911) remarked in a 1979 interview for Goldenseal Magazine:Edden Hammons (1874-1955)
[Edwin Hammons] made that old âGeorge Washington Marchâ uphimself. One day I said, âEdwin, play me that âGeorge WashingtonMarch.ââ He said, âIâll play her for you, but I wonât play her ferâhecalled Dewey Hamrick âJeweyââhe said, âI wonât play her fer Jewey,but Iâll play her for you.â And he did, he played me the âGeorgeWashington March,â and I learned it from him. I won a fiddlersâcontest in Glenville with it. I could never win nothing at Glenville(the West Virginia State Folk Festival), only with the old âGeorgeWashington March.â You tune the fiddle altogether different toplay that. Edwin Hammons would drop the G string down to D,and the E string down to D. (Mountains of Music, 1999, John Lilly ed., p. 22)
The melody was also played in this tuning by eastern Kentucky fiddler Ed Haley.
Printed sources : - Krassen (Masters of Old Time Fiddling), 1983; p. 81.
Recorded sources : - -West Virginia University Press, "The Edden Hammons Collection, vol. 2" (1984). Yazoo 2103, Eddon Hammons â âAmerican Rural Classics 1927-37.â
See also listing at : Hear Burl Hammons (1908-1993, Pocahontas County, W.Va.) recording at Slippery Hill [3]
Hear Edden Hammons 1947 recording at Slippery Hill [4]
Hear Ernie Carpenter's version at Slippery Hill [5]
Hear Tom Dillon's (1887-?, Webster County, W.Va.) 1956 recording at Slippery Hill [6]