It’s Those Marylanders Again!
Research has proven that certain scents and colors make people more alert, relaxed, or inclined to romance. The same is true of music; a whole industry has been built on the knowledge that piped-in music tailored to human biorhythms can increase workers’ productivity.
This would not surprise the soldiers of the past. Music always figured prominently in soldiering–giving courage, speeding steps, lifting spirits, distracting from discomfort, easing heartache. That’s the tradition in which the Second Maryland Fifes and Drums stands.
The fife was an ideal military instrument, able to be heard over a distance. The Second Maryland puts it to work on a full range of martial and popular airs of North and South, accompanied by military drums. The Second Maryland’s music is a genuine sound of the Civil War; it can be heard in the movie Gettysburg, and now on a CD titled It’s Those Marylanders Again! (a first disk jokingly labelled “Volume II”).
The CD offers more than 45 stirring fife and drum tunes. You’re not going to sit still through selections like “The Yellow Rose of Texas,” “Dixie,” “Sole Leather Quickstep,” and “Gay and Happy.” You just may need to march around the house.
It’s Those Marylanders, Again! Field Music of the Civil War, Volume II, The Second Maryland Fifes and Drums, P.O. Box 172, Willow Hill, PA 17271, $15.00 for CD, $10.00 for cassette, $3.00 for shipping and handling.
Jim Kushlan
