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J-Walk - Posted - 06/12/2009: 10:43:32
Tune of The Week #47I'll take 'Old Time Tunes' for $500, Alex.
The answer is: When played in the key of Am, it starts out with this sequence of notes: A B C D E.
What is
Santa Anna's Retreat?
Santa Anna's Retreat is a fairly popular modal tune that's done either as a fiddle tune (ala Henry Reed, usually in Am) or as a solo banjo tune (ala Dwight Diller, usually in Gm). It works well on the banjo using Sawmill tuning (aEADE or gDGCD). It has one of those haunting melodies. Listen to a few times, and you won't be able to get it out of your head.
I started learning Santa Anna's Retreat a few weeks ago, on the insistence of wormpicker -- who was learning it on fiddle. My source is
A Henry Reed Reunion CD by Alan Jabbour, Bertram Levy & James Reed. That particular recording is fiddle and guitar only, so I just winged the banjo part. Here's a
short recording I did. I'm getting it, but II still have a ways to go with this one.
History:
Antionio Lopez de Santa Anna was a Mexican general, and this tune is associated with him.
From the
Fiddler's Companion listing:
The Fuzzy Mountain String Band learned the tune from Glen Lyn, Virginia, fiddler Henry Reed, who apparently learned the tune from his mentor, neighbouring fife player Quince Dillon, an actual fifer in the Mexican War. Reed told musicologist Alan Jabbour that the tune was used by Santa Anna’s army in retreat from the Americans, although Jabbour thought it was more likely it was played by the Americans due to its British origins.But then again, maybe not. In this 3-minute
mp3 download, Alan Jabbour talks more about the tune.
Also from the Fiddler's Companion:
The tune does appear in British and Irish collections, and in some early American tutors as well. Under the title "Johnny Cope" it can be found in O’Neill’s Music of Ireland (No. 1812, with the remark "Irish version") and in Roche’s Collection (1909, Vol. 3, pg. 78, No. 202). However, it sounds nothing like the "Johnny Cope" that I know.
There's a Stephen Foster song called "Santa Anna's Retreat from Buena Vista," which is not related.
Notable commercial recordings (all readily available):
- "A Henry Reed Reunion," by Alan Jabbour, Bertram Levy & James Reed.
- "Fuzzy Mountain String Band," By Fuzzy Mountain String Band.
- "Just Banjo 99," by Dwight Diller.
- "Yew Piney Mountain," by Dwight Diller. This is actually a tab book, which includes a CD.
- "The Sparrow Quartet," by Abigail Washburn (it's the first tune of a medley with Kitchen Girl).
- "The Celtic Collection 1992-2001," By Bill Thurman.
Free downloads online:
Music & tab:
ScottK - Posted - 06/12/2009: 12:04:38
Great post and nice picking, J-Walk! I've been wanting to work on more A modal tunes lately, so I'll have to give this one a go.
Scott
Boyd1 - Posted - 06/12/2009: 13:12:36
Nice choice and the way you put everything together. Thanks for the work. I love this tune.
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Anything you can imagine is real. - Pablo Picasso
RWJones1970 - Posted - 06/12/2009: 13:34:09
*** Nice Job on tune selection and description J-Walk !!! This is one of my favorites and I play it often. I always follow up Santa Ana's Retreat with TEXAS as I find it appropriate in context and tune. Santa Ana's Retreat>Texas, I think the two belong together but that's just my humble opinion. Santa Anna retreating from the Texans who ultimately take the victory. Here are my versions:
Reiter WL w/Nylgut in A-Modal:
http://www.banjohangout.org/myhango...musicid=9812
Ramsey 12" in G-Modal:
http://www.banjohangout.org/myhango...usicid=10838
"God has overlooked the past times of ignorance, but God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent because He has fixed a day when He will judge the world in righteousness through Jesus whom He''s appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead." ACTS 17:30-31
Edited by - RWJones1970 on 06/12/2009 16:33:13
Boyd1 - Posted - 06/12/2009: 16:29:41
I'm going to try that RWJones.
-Boyd
*****
"If you get confused listen to the music play!"
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Anything you can imagine is real. - Pablo Picasso
RWJones1970 - Posted - 06/13/2009: 05:34:52
*** I like the sound of your Gatcomb fretless !
God has overlooked the past times of ignorance, but God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent because He has fixed a day when He will judge the world in righteousness through Jesus whom He''s appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead." ACTS 17:30-31
Edited by - RWJones1970 on 06/13/2009 05:45:43
J-Walk - Posted - 06/13/2009: 17:39:32
You are right about playing it on a fretless, LyleK. Your rendition is great.
I gave it a try on my low-tuned Bowlin, and I can see your point. Give me a few years before I sound half as good as you.
wormpicker - Posted - 06/13/2009: 20:46:29
Nice, John! Glad I got you obsessing over Santa Anna's Retreat. I'm still obsessing over it myself on fiddle, but still can't get it sounding right. We need to get together tomorrow and put banjo to fiddle (but in A...). And we need Brad to give us backup. If we can get a couple strains of it sounding presentable, maybe I'll let you post it.
Paul
Obsession is a great substitute for talent. -Steve Martin
tfaux - Posted - 06/14/2009: 06:29:02
General Santa Ana lost a leg fighting the French at Veracruz in 1838, and ten years later his cork prosthesis was captured by the 4th Illinois Infantry during the Mexican-American War. It was displayed around the mid-west at traveling shows for a dime a peek for a while, and it now lives in the Illinois State Military Museum, in Springfield, IL.
In that interview Alan Jabbour notes that it was originally an Irish tune, but SAR as we know it is distinctively crooked. I've always wondered whether the short B-section--as well as the major/minor shift as it's often played--was meant by some anonymous fiddler to reflect Santa Ana's legless gait back to his fabulous hacienda after the Mexican-American War.
Or perhaps it was a sly comment on the General's famously fluctuating political allegiances.
Tom
J-Walk - Posted - 06/14/2009: 07:45:41
Too bad that fake leg wasn't made of wood. It could have been transformed into a nice banjo neck.
wormpicker - Posted - 06/14/2009: 08:07:27
quote:
Originally posted by J-Walk
Tune of The Week #47
I'll take 'Old Time Tunes' for $500, Alex.
The answer is: When played in the key of Am, it starts out with this sequence of notes: A B C D E.
What is Santa Anna's Retreat?
One moment please. The judges have to confer on this. Yes. Yes, we can accept your answer. However, the song we were looking for was
British Field March, also from Quince Dillon, by way of Henry Reed and Dr. Jabbour. The tune appears on the Southern Summits album in your music library, Mr. J-Walk. We'll return after these messages.
Alex
Obsession is a great substitute for talent. -Steve Martin
Edited by - wormpicker on 06/14/2009 08:36:14
J-Walk - Posted - 06/14/2009: 08:31:14
British Field March is also on the Hollow Rock Legacy album -- which also in my music library.
How about stringing those two tunes together in a medley? That would certainly confuse us.
wormpicker - Posted - 06/14/2009: 08:37:19
I'm confused enough, thanks. First, I'll need to learn it.
Obsession is a great substitute for talent. -Steve Martin
tfaux - Posted - 06/14/2009: 08:42:16
quote:
Originally posted by J-Walk
Too bad that fake leg wasn't made of wood. It could have been transformed into a nice banjo neck.
In fact there was a second, spare leg made of wood, also captured by the Illinois 4th.
By some accounts it was appropriated by a young lieutenant named Abner Doubleday and used as a baseball bat. It's currently on display at the Governor Oglesvy Mansion in Decatur, IL. An enterprising and daring platoon of southwestern banjo players might consider recapturing the leg.
Banjomando - Posted - 06/14/2009: 09:45:32
Hell whatever the title of the song or the fate of Santa Anna's leg or allegiances I love the tune. It is very addictive to play and has a nice melancholy feel about it.
I''d be pretty good if my fingers would go where I want them to...
http://www.myspace.com/stevequattrocchi
wormpicker - Posted - 06/14/2009: 16:42:52
quote:
Originally posted by wormpicker
We need to get together tomorrow and put banjo to fiddle (but in A...). And we need Brad to give us backup. If we can get a couple strains of it sounding presentable, maybe I'll let you post it.
I can't guarantee the "presentable" part, but here goes, from this morning's get together with J-Walk and Banjo Brad. Note that this is a clip from a longer session, right after J-Walk cracked his "FASTER!" whip. Anyway, we sure had lots of
fun!
Santa Anna's Retreat, by J-Walk (banjo), wormpicker (fiddle), and Banjo-Brad (guitar).
Paul
Obsession is a great substitute for talent. -Steve Martin
Don Borchelt - Posted - 06/19/2009: 05:04:49
This is one of my favorite Henry Reed tunes. In that very first phrase I see the Mexican cavalry bobbing up and down in their saddles as they ride along at a gait. I guess I'm hearing a bit of program music that will probably make everyone else think I'm crazy. All really great versions posted here, all different and yet all the same, the central, defining mystery of this secret cult called old time music. I got excited listening to them all and worked up an "up the neck" version to go with my "down the neck" version, which I have been meaning to do for years.
I've messed up the settings on my DR-1, and I burned up my laptop which has the programming for my Tascam US-122 USB interface, but if I can fix one or another of them this weekend, I'm going to try and record and post my three finger version. In the meantime, if anyone is curious, I do have the tab posted at my webpage:
http://www.banjr.com/tablatures.htm
I read somewhere, probably in Wikipedia, that after his military/political career came to an end, Santa Anna settled in New York City where he had something to do with the invention of chewing gum. You can't make this stuff up.
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"I don''t like to play it like he did. I try to play it the way I play it" - fiddler Lester McCumbers, interviewed by Erynn Marshall
Check out my webpage.
Edited by - Don Borchelt on 06/19/2009 05:08:47
maryzcox - Posted - 06/19/2009: 09:04:45
Hey Don--just listened to your version of it on your page on tabledit and that is a lovely version---but--there is someone with a gold plated (not me) 5 string Cello Banjo for sale for only about 500 bucks on BHO--your version would sound awesome on it--all that low 3 finger picking. 
You should scoop it up and play it on that.
You deserve a treat after all your hard work of writing out all those tabs. 
Best wishes,
Mary Z. Cox
www.maryzcox.com
If you suspect you need a new banjo--you do. Trust your musical instincts. If a banjo calls to you to buy it, don''t fight destiny. It was meant to be. :)
http://banjoquest.blogspot.com
Field videos of banjoists, banjos, tunes, and banjos in locations you may or may not have seen or heard before :)
Don Borchelt - Posted - 06/20/2009: 05:46:05
Mary wrote: "...there is someone with a gold plated (not me) 5 string Cello Banjo for sale for only about 500 bucks on BHO--your version would sound awesome on it--all that low 3 finger picking."
Well, Mary, I'm paying for a wedding this summer, so I think my banjo acquisition program is suspended for some time.
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"I don''t like to play it like he did. I try to play it the way I play it" - fiddler Lester McCumbers, interviewed by Erynn Marshall
Check out my webpage.
Boyd1 - Posted - 06/20/2009: 15:52:15
A joke for j-Walk & tfaux:
"I gave my wife a wooden leg for Christmas. It wasn't her main present. It was a stocking stuffer."
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Anything you can imagine is real. - Pablo Picasso
Edited by - Boyd1 on 06/20/2009 15:56:18
wormpicker - Posted - 06/20/2009: 15:56:44
From the looks of your avatar, Boyd1, that seems like a perfect gift for your wife.
Paul
Obsession is a great substitute for talent. -Steve Martin
