While George Washington is widely known as an excellent statesman, soldier, and horseman, most do not know that he was also quite the dancer. A life-long music lover, one of his greatest pleasures was listening to his granddaughter play the harpsichord. This tradition of music is continued today at Mount Vernon through concerts, dancing, and educational programs on colonial music, such as our slave music videoconference, the new Harpsichord Hero game, and an upcoming distance learning program (more details to come).
Mount Vernon has been lucky to have musician David Hildebrand, of the Colonial Music Institute, performing here for many years, and he has been kind enough to let GWW interview him. Enjoy!
GWW: How did you become interested in colonial music?
DH: Many years ago, nearly 30, Gmy wife and I were playing traditional folk music in Annapolis, Maryland. Every so often someone would come up to us and say something like: “Hey, this is a colonial town, do you know any colonial music?” Well, the first time someone asked, we just smiled. The next time we started to wonder what colonial music was like. By the third time, we had already started researching and had a piece ready to play for the enquirer. Three advanced degrees and four CDs later (not to mention 2 children and thousands of performances), here we are, apparently the national experts in the field.
GWW: What instruments do you play?
DH: Harpsichord, English guitar, Spanish guitar, hammered dulcimer, violin, English and German flutes, and djembe.
GWW: What was the general style of the music that George Washington would have enjoyed?
DH: There was no single style of music. Those wealthy enough to afford harpsichords and other instruments and lessons could play the English and European instrumental works and song settings that were published in London and elsewhere – these would be in what is roughly called today the Baroque or Classical style. But the tunes to which he danced, the military ballads, and the tunes he overheard his slaves sing- these were all in very different style. Of the popular songs of the day, English and Scottish music prevailed, while Irish music would flourish only later in the century.
GWW: What would George Washington play on his ipod today?
DH: Most of the titles would not be recognized by the average person, but the following list gives those older titles followed by modern titles which today represent the same melodies. In most cases the function of these older pieces was to accompany dancing, while the more recent titles evoke nursery rhymes or childish songs:
God Save the King (same as My Country Tis of Thee)
La Belle Catherine (same as Do You Know the Muffin Man)
Nancy Dawson (same as Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush, or Lazy Mary Will You Get Up? or This is the Way we Brush our Teeth, etc.)
Marlbrouk (same as The Bear Went over the Mountain, or For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow)
Yankee Doodle- we all know this one! But be careful, the typical opening verse which goes “Yankee Doodle went to town riding on a pony, stuck a feather in his hat and called it macaroni” is not from Washington’s time period, but dates only back to the 1830’s (about the time the myth about him chopping down the cherry tree was being invented).
