Annotation:Fireman's Quickstep
Tune properties and standard notation
FIREMAN'S QUICKSTEP. American, Quickmarch (2/4 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The composition is credited to one (Alburton) A.F. Hopkins, "National Fife Major" (of the Association of Civil War musicians) in the American Veteran Fifer (1905), a collection of music drawn from Civil War and post-Civil War martial sources. Hopkins appears to have edited the book. He served with Co A, 154th Ohio Volunteer Infantry during the conflict. The tune features a fire-alarm like motif in the 'B' part. Notwithstanding Hopkins' claim as composer, the march may be derivative in the first strain of "Fireman's Dance Cotillion (The)", itself a derivative of "Philadelphia Fireman's Cotillion (The)" an 1822 composition by Philadelphia African-American composer Francis Johnson.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: American Veteran Fifer (1905), No. 36. Sweet (Fifer's Delight), 1964/1981; p. 52.
Recorded sources: