Author: Alan Radford

Orders of the day, Volume 34, Issue 5, 2002

I recently turned up a book called “The Rise of Military Music” by Henry George Farmer, published in 1912. In it he states that the earliest music for the fife to be found in an English work is in a book entitled "Mars, His Triumph," by J. B. (identified elsewhere as our old friend William Barriffe). This gives a description of a muster at the Merchants Taylors' Hall in 1638 by the Artillery Company of London.

The music was played by one fife and two drums, and accompanied the manual and firing exercises. The original plate of the three tunes is included, and shown below. The "Posture Tune" was for the firing exercise - played once through for each posture. For the manual exercise the "Falling Off Tune" was used once over for each rank. The "Tune for the Motions" was played for all parade movements, such as facings, doublings, etc.