INSTUMENTATION - There are three musical instruments used in the
corps: the fife, the snare drum and the bass drum.
FIFE – The fife is a B flat, wooden instrument having six open finger holes,
unlike the flute or piccolo, which have keys. The fife is a member of the
transverse family of flutes, meaning they are held horizontally and sound is
produced by blowing across an open embouchure hole. There is no mouthpiece like
the flute. A firm pulse of air is required to set the column of air vibrating.
The fingerings of a fife are quite similar to the D major
scale on a flute for the first octave. The fife fingerings are different for the
high octave. The standard octave of the fife corresponds to the second octave,
or middle register, of the flute. The true first octave of a fife is rarely
used.
Lancraft plays the Ancient rudimental style which is more
“open” and at a slower cadence. The
Standard 26 American Drum Rudiments are used in our repertoire… with an
occasional Swiss rudiment! The Ancient style has more arm motion than used in
modern drumming. A good book on this style is
The Sturtze Drum Instructor by Earl
Sturtze, 1956.
MUSIC – Lancraft plays a mostly traditional, historic
repertoire, many of the tunes are from the Revolutionary War era and from the
Civil War period. Some tunes are more recent, some from the early 1900’s. Many
of the tunes are arranged by Lancraft into medleys consisting of several tunes.
While some tunes utilize harmony by the fife section, most tunes are melody
only.
The drum section’s parts include some drumming “standards”
like Army 2/4, Standard 6/8 and
Connecticut Halftime or are from
historic fife and drum manuals. Many Lancraft drum parts are written by our own
members and are unique to our corps.
REPERTOIRE - In a given year, Lancraft might have 40 tunes/medleys in its
current repertoire, about 80% being parade tunes, with the rest being somewhat
more complex “muster” medleys, used in stand still performances. Lancraft’s
total “book” of music might be 100 or more tunes. About 2/3 of our tunes are in
2/4 time, the rest in 6/8. The tempo is generally about 100 beats per minute.
Copyright © [Lancraft Fife & Drum Corps]. All rights
reserved.
Revised:
December 29, 2017.