Annotation:British March (1)
X:1 T:British March [1] N:From the playing of fiddler Absie Morrison (1876-1964, Landis, N:Searcy County, Arkansas), recorded in the field in 1959 by John N:Quncy Wolf (Lyon College). M:6/8 L:1/8 R:March or Air Q:"Moderately slow, but steady" D:http://web.lyon.edu/wolfcollection/songs/morrisonbritish(fiddle)1249.mp3 Z:Transcribed by Andrew Kuntz K:G |:g>ag d2d|d>gb a2g|g>dg [D2d2]d|d>gb a3| b>ab b>ag|[Ae]>f[Ae] [Ae]>^cB|e>^cB [D3A3]|[G,G]>AB [DA]>GE|[G,D]>EF [G,3G3]|| |:[G,D]>EG [D2A2]G|[G,G]Be +slide+[ee]>dB|[D2d2]B [D3A3]| [G,G]>AB [DA]>GE|[G,D]>EF [G,3G3]||
BRITISH MARCH [1]. American, March (6/8 time). USA, Arkansas. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. Source biography:Absie Morrison (1876-1964) maintained that this march was played by a British army band while they were stacking their arms at Cornwallis's surrender at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781 (see also "The World Turned Upside Down" for another such tale). Morrison was interested in the antiquity of some of his tunes, and, while his origin stories may be fanciful, his interest in connecting them with historical events reflected a post-war (WWII) era that looked with renewed interest to the Colonial and War of Independence periods in America. While the exact origins of Morrison's march remain obscure, however, it should be compared to the famous English melody "Black Joke (1) (The)," which may be ancestral.
