Battlefield music will fill the air as Fort Ticonderoga hosts its annual Fife & Drum Corps Muster. The muster, which will feature five different corps, will be held Saturday, July 27, at the fort. A twilight performance at 7 p.m. on the fort parade ground will conclude the muster.
Battlefield music will fill the air as Fort Ticonderoga hosts its annual Fife & Drum Corps Muster.
The muster, which will feature five different corps, will be held Saturday, July 27, at the fort. A twilight performance at 7 p.m. on the fort parade ground will conclude the muster. Tickets for the evening program are $10. Children 4 years and younger and Friends of Fort Ticonderoga are free.
The fort’s annual clambake will also be held that day 3 to 6 p.m.
“The Fife & Drum Corps Muster highlights the role fife & drum music has played in the commemoration of American history,” Beth Hill, Fort Ti president and CEO, said. “Fife & drum corps gained increased popularity during the American bicentennial celebrations. In 18th -century military life, fifes and drums served as one of the primary modes of battlefield communication and camp regulation.”
Fort Ticonderoga formed its first fife & drum corps in 1926 on the eve of the 150th anniversary celebration of American Independence.
“The corps performed at the fort each summer until the beginning of World War II,” Hill said. “When the World’s Fair came to New York City in 1939, the Fort Ti Fife & Drum Corps was a featured performer on May 10, Fort Ticonderoga Day, celebrating the 164th anniversary of the capture of the Fort by Ethan Allen, Benedict Arnold and the Green Mountain Boys.
“In 1973, in preparation for the bicentennial, Fort Ticonderoga revived the fife & drum corps to perform daily during the fort’s summer season,” she added. “The fife and drum corps has performed every year since and has been featured performers at many major public events including the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympic Games, the christening of the U.S. Navy Guided Missile Cruiser USS Ticonderoga CG-47, and several Evacuation Day parades in Boston, Mass.”
Today the Fort Ticonderoga Fife & Drum Corps is comprised of Ticonderoga area high school students who are paid employees of Fort Ticonderoga.
“The fife & drum corps is part of Fort Ticonderoga’s interpretive department whose focus brings to life Fort Ticonderoga’s specific history through daily interpretive programs, historic trades and special events,” Hill said.
Several Fort Ti Fife & Drum Corps alumni will take part in the annual muster.
Joining the Fort Ti Fife & Drum Corps in the muster will be the 3rd New Jersey Field Music, The Fifes and Drums of the Lincoln Minutemen, The Deep River Junior Ancient Fife and Drum Corps and Hanaford’s Volunteers Fife and Drum Corps and The Fifes and Drums of Fort Ticonderoga.
The muster will include a tour of the fort at 10:15 a.m., a musket demonstration at 11 a.m., a garden march at 11:30 a.m. a garden and grounds tour at 11:45 a.m., fife & drum performances at 11:45 a.m. and 12:45 p.m., a tour of the fort at 1:15 p.m., a fife & drum performance at 1:45 p.m., a musket demonstration at 2 p.m., a garden march at 2:30 p.m., a fife & drum performance at 2:45 p.m., the clambake 3-6 p.m., a fife & drum performance at 3:20 p.m., a tour of the fort at 3:45 p.m., a combined fife & drum performance at 4:15 p.m. and the twilight concert at 7 p.m.
For more information call 585-2821 or go online at www.fortticonderoga.org
