The Rogue's March
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
"The Rogue's March", also known as "Tight Little Island" is an English march in 2/4 or 6/8 time<br> in G Major. The parts are played AAB or AB. The B part is 12 measures long.<br> The tune was played in the British and American armies when military and civil offenders and<br> undesirable characters were drummed from camps and cantonments.<br> It appears in Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden Time (1859) where<br> he says: "Why so graceful and pastoral a melody as this should have been condemned to be<br> 'Cantio in exitu' of deserters and reprobates who are to be drummed out of regiments, is not<br> easily to be accounted for; but such is the case, and has been for more than a century -<br> possibly much longer".<br> The music is found in a great many 18th century volumes of martial music and collections for<br> fife and flute, as, for example, in Thompson’s Compleat Tutor for the Fife (c. 1756).<br> "Rogues March" was one of the most widespread and recognized melodies in martial repertory<br> of the era. The melody also appears in the late 18th century manuscript copybook of Henry<br> Livingston, Jr.<br> About 1790 and later the air was adapted in vocal settings for several popular humorous songs,<br> including "Robinson Crusoe", "Abraham Newland" and "Tight Little Island"<br> (also printed in Chappell). This last song was written as "The Island" by Thomas Dibdin<br> about 1798, and sung by a singer named Davies at Sadler’s Wells that same year. <br> As with a great many British martial airs, "Rogues March" was adopted by the American army in<br> the War of Independence and continued to be employed through the Civil War. This is confirmed<br> by its appearance in Bruce and Emmett's Drummers’ and Fifers’ Guide, a manual printed in 1862<br> for training musicians for the Union Army. The authors (one of whom was Dan Emmett, of blackface<br> minstrel fame) note: "This air and (drum) beat is used only to ‘Drum out’ of the<br> service men that have been guilty of desertion or any other misdemeanor".<br> Camus (1976) states there was another informal or unofficial ceremony connected with the tune:<br> when a soldier married the widow of a comrade he was "hoisted upon the shoulders of two stout<br> fellows of his company, with a couple of bayonets stuck in his hat by way of horns, and<br> preceded by a drum and fife, playing the 'Rogue's March', he is paraded in front of his regiment".<br> It was printed in Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden Time (1859),<br> Bayard's Dance to the Fiddle Dance to the Fiddle March to the Fife (1982),<br> Bruce & Emmett's Drummers’ and Fifers’ Guide (1862),<br> Camus's Military Music of the American Revolution (1976) and<br> Winstock's Music of the Redcoats (1970).<br>
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