The American army, quite understandably, took most of its original drum music (and military tradition!) from the British.
Thus, it’s no surprise that the American’s original Drummer’s Call was taken from the British Duty.
Overtime, though, French influence on the American military appears in very minor changes to Fife and Drum music. The most notable change comes to a replacement of the British Drummer’s Call with the French version.
In this article, I’d like to take some time to track this replacement and discuss some observations on the origin of the French drummer’s call.
French Music Enters the American Duty
In 1835, General Scott introduced his three-volume set of military regulations and drill. These manuals, often referred to as Scott’s Tactics, were translations of the French military drill, which was updated in 1831.
In the back of Scott’s first volume, he includes fife and drum music for the various camp duties. Interestingly, the majority of daily duties – like Reveille, Retreat, Tattoo, etc. – reflect the traditional British music. Many of the field signals, however, such as Forward March, Commence Firing, etc., were taken from the French 1831 manual.
This is also true of the Drummer’s Call. Scott’s beating removed the fife tune and replaced the slower British beating with a quicker French variation.
As with many things, it’s unclear how quickly or completely Scott’s new music was adopted by the military and the militia.
However, by the American Civil War, this version of Drummer’s Call has been full adopted throughout the army.
Bruce and Emmet include the older British version, with a note:
“Formerly beat in the army, and now used in the U.S. Navy.”
B&E, p. 9
Instead, they offer the new version from Scott’s as the appropriate Drummer’s Call in the U.S. Army. This is confirmed by Nevins’ use of Scott’s beating.
Even the militia appear to use this beating fairly uniformly. Hart calls it the “Modern Style” and Howe includes the beating, with just a slight modification to the ending.
Additionally, all manuals uniformly change the French 4-stroke rolls, still notated in Scott, with 7-stroke rolls.
The use of Scott’s beating is solidified post-war by Strube.
The French Drummer’s Call
To learn more about the origins of the American Drummer’s Call, we’ll need to work backwards through the French repertoire.
The first written example of the French drummer’s call appears in the 1831 ordonnance.
The notes with “4” above them indicate a 4-stroke roll, known to French drummers as the Ra Simple. Modern drummers might recognize it as a Swiss Ruff.
Interested in learning how to perform the Ra Simple? Check out my Practice Guide: Ra Simple.
The Ra Simple is used predominately throughout French duty beatings and simple cadences, and can loosely be thought of as the French equivalent to a 7-stroke roll. (It’s understandable, though, why the American drummers would have converted this foreign roll into something more comfortable.)
French Drummer’s Call: Evolved From L’Appel
There is no earlier written evidence of the French Drummer’s Call; however, we must assume that they had a beating to summon the musicians, as it’s hard to believe they wouldn’t have required such a call.
Most likely they used a beating called L’Appel.
L’Appel literally means “To Call” and the beating appears to have a variety of different uses, many of which were to call officers and NCOs, among other things.
There is a fife tune to L’Appel, which might have only been used when L’Appel was played as a salute.
Otherwise, the beating is one simple drum phrase, repeated over and over again.
The important question is: How did the French soldiers differentiate the meanings of L’Appel?
Most likely, the drummers played just a portion of L’Appel depending on who they were summoning.
Dutch Duty Calls: L’Appel as NCO’s & Drummer’s Calls
We can find Dutch military duty calls in Rauscher’s Marchen en Signalen (1815).
The Dutch have a beating “Appel” that is nearly identical to the French l’Appel.
Later, we see that their beatings for various NCOs are made up of an opening roll, followed by the Appel phrase so many times over.
- The Serjeant Major is Roll + 4 phrases.
- The Serjeant is Roll + 3 phrases.
- The Fouriers is Roll + 2 phrases.
- The Corporal is Roll + 1 phrase.
- The “Tamboers Appel” (Drummer’s Call) is just the Appel phrase 3x.
What Does the Dutch Duty Suggest about the French?
In the 1831 French Ordonnance, we also find NCO calls for the French.
- The Serjeant Major is Roll + 4 strokes.
- The Serjeant is Roll + 3 strokes.
- The Fouriers is Roll + 2 strokes.
- The Corporal is Roll + 1 strokes.
The pattern is strikingly similar to the Dutch break down and suggests a possibility that the French NCOs calls were once more complex, using the L’Appel phrase rather than a simple stroke.
Though we can’t prove that, we can see a remarkably similarity between the Dutch Drummer’s Call and the structure of the 1831 French Drummer’s Call.
This similarity suggests that the older French Drummer’s Call probably was once the Appel phrase three times, played three times over, like this:
Conclusion
This survey suggests that the well known American Drummer’s Call actually originated in the French beating L’Appel.
The quick, double-drag-like L’Appel phrase eventually blurred into a Ra Simple, which ultimately became a 7-Stroke roll to the Americans.
Find out more about the British and early-American Drummer’s Call:
Interesting in learning more about the Ra Simple? Check out:
Want to know more about L’Appel and its relationship to American Music? Check out:
