Annotation:Tempest of War

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X: 1 T:Tempest of War,The. BC.04 M:C| L:1/8 Q:1/2=75 S:Benjamin Cooke MS.circa 1770, F.Kidson Coll. R:.March O:England A:Uncertain, probably northern N:Is this a bad translation of "Tempesta Di Mare"(Storm at Sea) Opus 8 & N:Opus 10. By Vivaldi ? Anybody know the tune?CGP. Z:vmp.John Bagnall K:G GA|B2 Bc d2 cB|A2 AB c2 BA|G2 GA B2 AG|D2 DD D2:|! |:Bc|d2 ((3gfe) d2 AB|c2 ((3edc) B3 c|BdBG AcAF|G2 GG G2:|

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TEMPEST OF WAR, THE. English, American; March (whole or 2/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. "The Tempest of War" appears in several American musician's manuscripts of the late 18th and early 19th century, including the c. 1776-1778 music copybook of fifer Thomas Nixon Jr. [1] (1762-1842), of Framingham, Connecticut. Nixon was a thirteen-year-old who accompanied his father to the battles of Lexington and Concord, and who served in the Continental army in engagements in and around New York until 1780, after which he returned home to build a house in Framingham. The copybook appears to have been started by another musician, Joseph Long, and at some time during the war came into Nixon’s possession. "Tempest of War" was entered into the music copybooks of flute player John Hoff (1776-1818), of Lancaster, Pa., who compiled his manuscript at the closing years of the 18th century, and flute player Henry Beck, who manuscript dates to 1786. Dutchess County, New York, patrician Henry Livingston, a fiddler/violinist, entered a setting of the melody in 3/4 time in his latter 18th century ms. collection.

The march was published by Norris & Sawyer in their “Village Fifer” (1808, Exeter, N.H.), and by Alvan Robinson Jr. in his “Massachusetts Collection of Martial Musick” (Hallowell, Maine, 1818).

The tune was in use at least through the American Civil War and was in the music book of Union Army fifer Luther Whiting Mason (from Ohio), who, at age 46 in 1864, was older than most army musicians (many of whom were number of boys and adolescents twelve to sixteen). Mason, who became the Chief Fifer for the 138th Regiment, sewed together sections of publications, including a fife tutorial and sixty one fife tunes from pages of Massachusetts Collection, the martial collection from printed in 1818.

It is tempting to assign an American provenance for the melody, where it seems to have had a measure of martial popularity, however, the earliest appearance of "Tempest of War" was as an entry in the c. 1770 music manuscript collection of Benjamin Cooke (contained in the library of collector and musicologist Frank Kidson). It may thus have an English provenance, however, nothing is known about Cooke or where he was from. The tune may have been an adaptation of, or associated with, Dr. Arne’s song “The Tempest of War,” printed in late 18th century songsters such as “Song CX: A Favourite New Song” in ‘’’Goldfinch, of New modern songster’’’ (Glasgow, c. 1785) and The Bull-finch (1781):

LET the tempest of war be heard from afar,
With trumpets' and cannons' alarms;
Let the brave, if they will, by their valour or skill,
Seek honour and conquest in arms.
To live safe, and retire, is what I desire,
Of my flocks and my Chloe possest;
For in them I obtain true peace, without pain
And the lasting enjoyment of rest.
In some cottage or cell, like a shepherd, to dwell,
From all interruption at ease ;
In a peaceable life, to be blest with a wife,
Who will study her husband to please.

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