fife

The tradition & historical record

A fife ( FYFE) is a small, high-pitched, transverse aerophone, that is similar to the piccolo. The fife originated in medieval Europe and is often used in fife and drum corps, military units, and marching bands. Someone who plays the fife is called a fifer. The word fife comes from the German Pfeife, meaning pipe, which comes from the Latin word pipare. The fife is a diatonically tuned instrument commonly consisting of a tube with six finger holes and an embouchure hole that produces sound when blown across. Modern versions of the fife are chromatic, having 10 or 11 finger holes that allow any note to be played. On a 10-hole fife, the index, middle, and ring fingers of both hands remain in the same positions as with the six-hole fife, while both thumbs and both pinkies are used to play accidentals. An 11-hole fife has holes positioned similarly, but adds a second hole under the right middle finger. Fifes are made primarily of wood, such as blackwood, grenadilla, rosewood, mopane, pink ivory, cocobolo, boxwood, maple, or persimmon. Some fifes are entirely made of metal or plastic. Military and marching fifes have metal reinforcing bands, called ferrules, around the ends to protect them from damage. A fife used in less strenuous conditions may have a lathe-turned, knob-like decoration at the ends for protection. ¹

The names of different varieties of fife follow the conventions of transposing instruments: ¹

defining the key in which a transposing instrument sounds as the major key whose tonic is either the lowest pitch producible by that instrument without fingering or other manipulation, or the pitch produced when the player fingers a C on the staff. naming different subtypes of a given transposing instrument after the respective keys in which those subtypes sound. These conventions are specific to transposing instruments. By contrast, non-transposing instruments use another convention. For example, although the trombone and the tuba each produce a B♭ when played at their lowest harmonic position with the slide not extended or with no valves depressed, respectively, the trombone's music parts are not transposed, and the tuba's music parts are transposed only across octaves, such that the note sounded by a tuba bears the same name as the note read by the tubist. ¹

The standard "B♭" fife is an A♭ transposing instrument, meaning that prevailing scoring conventions dictate that the C position on a fife-part staff should correspond to a concert A♭. The standard fife sounds a minor sixth above written, the equivalent of a major-third drop followed by an octave increase. The B♭ name follows the same naming convention as with tin whistles, being named after the concert pitch produced with all six holes covered, or the instrument's D. Fifes pitched (i.e., constructed so as to sound) in the keys of D and of C are also common. Fifes in various other keys are sometimes played in musical ensembles. A convention specific to some fife music and contradictory to the standard is for fife music to be written in the key of D regardless of the key in which the fife in question sounds. ¹

In medieval Europe, the fife was used in some folk music traditions to accompany dancing by all social classes. The fife was one of the most important musical instruments in the United States' Colonial period, even more widespread than the violin or piano. The fife can still be heard in some Appalachian folk music, playing lively dance tunes. American slaves adopted fifes in their musical traditions, which derived from African music. The tradition developed into fife and drum blues, a genre that continued throughout the 20th century but has since died out. One of the most famous artists in the tradition was Othar Turner, a musician from Mississippi, who played blues on homemade cane fifes. There remains an active and enthusiastic group, primarily in the northeastern United States, that continues to play fife and drum music in a folk tradition that has gone on since the American Civil War. The center of this activity is in eastern Connecticut. There is a loose federation of corps, though not a governing body, called The Company of Fifers and Drummers, which maintains a headquarters and museum in Ivoryton, Connecticut. Fife alone, or fife and drum, is also used in numerous European countries, especially in the South of France (Occitania): Languedoc and the county of Nice; in Switzerland (notably Basel); and in Northern Ireland, where it is often accompanied by the lambeg drum. Modern players of Celtic music, folk music, old-timey music, and folk-rock include fifing in their arrangements of tunes and songs. The Junkanoo festival of the Bahamas and Jamaica includes the music of bamboo fifes. In the rural lands of northeast Brazil, people use a bamboo fife called a Brazilian fife (in Brazil it is called pife nordestino or just pife). ¹

When played in its upper register, the fife is loud and piercing, yet also extremely small and portable. According to some reports, a band of fifes and drums can be heard up to 3 miles (4.8 km) away over artillery fire. Because of these qualities, European armies from the Renaissance on found it useful for signaling on the battlefield. Armies from Switzerland and southern Germany are known to have used the fife (German: Soldatenpfeife) as early as the 15th century. Swiss and German mercenaries were hired by monarchs throughout Western Europe, and they spread the practice of military fifing. The fife was a standard instrument in European infantries by the 16th century. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the protocols of the fifes and drums became intricately associated with infantry regiments only. They were not used as signaling instruments by the cavalry or artillery, which used trumpets, kettle drums or both. Each company in an infantry regiment was assigned two fifers and two drummers. When the battalion (5 companies) or regiment (10 companies) was formed up on parade or for movement en masse, these musicians would be detached from the companies to form a "band". This is how the term band first came to refer to a group of musicians. In their individual companies, the signaling duties included orders to fire, retreat, advance, and so forth. By the 18th century, the military use of the fife was regulated by armies throughout Europe and its colonies. The rank of Fife Major was introduced, a noncommissioned officer responsible for the regiment's fifers, just as a Drum Major was responsible for the drummers. Books of military regulations included standard fife calls to be used in battle or at camp. ¹

The modern era of fifing in the United States began in about 1880, with the popularizing of civilian fife and drum corps in a musical tradition that has come to be known as Ancient fife and drum (or simply Ancient). The rise of these corps led to a demand for fifes that were superior in intonation and better suited for group playing than those used during the Civil War. ¹

In 1958, a new model fife designed… ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Fife (instrument)”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

fife is musical instrument, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 21 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ²