Tatoo / Fife and Drum Concert
Trip Start
Jun 27, 2008
1
3
15
Trip End
Jul 06, 2008
Williamsburg,
Virginia,
United States
Friday, June 27, 2008
The auditorium in the museum was kind of small. Fortunately we arrived early enough to get prime seats in the middle, 7 rows back. The program started with an introduction from the master of ceremonies
Chilling with TJ
. He explained that the Fife and Drum Corps comprised of all local boys, who would wait over 5 years on a waiting list to get there chance to learn the fife and drum. The members are self taught by an older (higher ranked) member. The eldest members would have graduated from high school and are waiting to start college. On stage were two corps sergeants, who took turns explaining the purpose of their instrument and some rudimentary calls or beats.The sergeants were joined by the rest of the squad (3 fifers and 2 drummers). The main purpose of the corps is to communicate to the troops, so the program began with the various troop calls and what they meant. Of course, they started with Reveille (wake-up call). Reveille had four main parts that the fife/drum squad would play at the four corners of the camp and four marches which are played as they walked from one corner to the next...sort of like hitting snooze three times before waking up. I was surprised because I did not recognize any of the melodies...I was more familiar with the bugle reveille call. Among some of the troop calls played were cease-fire, evening retreat and mess call...I am sure this was the troop's favorite. Also the squad played Tattoo. Tattoo was the call used to muster the troops out of the local tavern to return to camp for the night...definitely NOT a favorite of the troops. Again for the evening retreat I was expecting Taps which is a bugle call so I did not recognized that tune either.
The master of ceremony mentioned that in the evening after a battle, opposing fife/drum corps would visit each other campsites and learn new tunes. For this part of the program they played some of the foreign tunes. I actually recognized one, a Welsh tune "Men of Harlech". It was a tune used in the soundtrack for the movie "Englishman who went up a hill and came down a mountain". At the end there was a Q&A session. Some tidbits I learned was that there was a gentleman's agreement not to shot at the fife and drummers because they are necessary for communication between troops. Nowadays the lines of communication is the first thing we take out when fighting someone. Also during the Revolutionary war it was quite confusing for both the Colonial and the British troops because both sides used the same calls and tunes. Of course the program completed with one uniquely American tune, "Yankee Doodle".
After the concert we went back to Merchant Square and had a meal at the Fat Canary. I did not know how lucky we were to get a seat because we just walked up and in 5 minutes we were seated on one of the outdoor tables. The hostess mentioned that there is a 2 month long waiting list for reservations for dining inside. Also we timed it right and beat most of the evening walk-on diners. The executive Chef was Thomas Power and the restaurant has won the prestigious AAA 4 diamond award the last three years. For this special occasion I decided to order fricassee (French for stew) rabbit. I have never ate rabbit before but it was delicious and it did not taste like chicken...it was more like pork. We heard the Tattoo call and decided to call it a night.
Even though the walk back was lite with electric lights...a modern allowance I am glad they instituted...we ended up on the wrong side of the Visitor Center and had to walk around the entire building to find the car. Then we ended up making a complete circle around Williamsburg before finding our hotel...in our case Tattoo should have been played earlier.
