Sunday 30 December 2018

Deconstructing Fusilier

Deconstructing Fusilier

When populating my fictional music festival with bands, I used some I had prepared earlier, for other books. I needed some new ones, and one I came up with I called Fusilier. This is composed of men and women who wear period military uniform and play kettle drums and fifes. When I invent this kind of thing, it generally just comes to me, but I sometimes deconstruct the process afterwards.
In the case of Fusilier, I believe one of the sources was probably a Eurovision act I saw a few years ago. The song was called Only Teardrops and the introduction consisted of drummers and flutes.  The fifes may have come from the Punchbowl Farm series of books which I read in the 1960s and 70s. In one of the stories Lindsey, who had been saving up for a flute, bought a fife instead because it was less expensive. I remember  knowing what a fife was because of the old song Soldier Soldier. Finally, there's the poem Following the Drum and, even longer ago, a book called The Ship from Simnel Street. So, there you are... the band Fusilier... It just came to me. Or did it? 

2 comments:

  1. In my first year at high school we were all offered the chance of learning a musical instrument; the choices were trumpet, violin and bassoon. I chose bassoon because a) I had never heard of it and b) everyone else had already chosen trumpet or violin. Not quite the same as choosing the 'less expensive' option, but I can't imagine what my band name would have been based on that history... (I do still have my bassoon though, it's hanging above my piano in the dining room)

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  2. Bassoon of course! A few days ago I was talking to a young man who was playing the bassoon outside the local supermarket - he was doing Christmas carols by request and he told me a bit about the instrument.

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