"33. March" (Reconstructed Carolean March, 1715) - Fife & Drum

When looking for sources for 18th century military music, it is almost impossible to find notes written by the actual military musicians themselves, since in most cases back then, music was taught from one person to the next through practical tuition. A rare exception is the manuscript of Gustav Blidström, a Swedish hautboyist (“oboist”) in the army of Charles XII, who wrote down almost forty marches from his time – though, sadly, in most cases only the second part, which means we can only guess what the actual melody was like. I have previously made a couple of reconstructions (for example this one: https://studio.youtube.com/video/C4cy..., and the Swedish musician and professor of historical drumming, Rolf Landberg, recently published his own reconstructions of about 20 of the pieces in the manuscript.

This is a new attempt by myself to reconstruct the piece known as “33. March” in Blidströms book. All the pieces are originally written down for oboe, a common military instrument at the time, but I have made a rendition for fifes, which was also used. This arrangement is for C fifes, to preserve the original key, albeit tuned a half-tone down as was sometimes done in the period.

The image shows Charles XII of Sweden being escorted by his forces from the Battle of Stresow in 1715, the same year as Blidström wrote the larger part of his manuscript. It was made by the Swedish history painter Carl Gustaf Hellqvist in 1850.

Enjoy!