A fife ( ) is a small, high-pitched, transverse aerophone, that is similar to the piccolo. The fife originated in medieval Europe and is often used in fife and drum corps, military units, and marching bands. Someone who plays the fife is called a fifer. The word fife comes from the German , meaning pipe, which comes from the Latin word .
The fife is a diatonically tuned instrument commonly consisting of a tube with six finger holes and an embouchure hole that produces sound when blown across. Modern versions of the fife are chromatic, having 10 or 11 finger holes that allow any note to be played. On a 10-hole fife, the index, middle, and ring fingers of both hands remain in the same positions as with the six-hole fife, while both thumbs and both pinkies are used to play accidentals. An 11-hole fife has holes positioned similarly, but adds a second hole under the right middle finger.
Fifes are made primarily of wood, such as blackwood, grenadilla, rosewood, mopane, pink ivory, cocobolo, boxwood, maple, or persimmon. Some fifes are entirely made of metal or plastic.
Military and marching fifes have metal reinforcing bands, called ferrules, around the ends to protect them from damage. A fife used in less strenuous conditions may have a lathe-turned, knob-like decoration at the ends for protection. Modern fifes may have two- or three-piece constructions, and may incorporate a sliding tuning joint made of metal or cork.
Fifes are most commonly used in fife and drum corps, but can also be found in folk music, particularly Celtic music. Some Caribbean music makes use of fifes, which are usually made from bamboo.
Key and range
The names of different varieties of fife follow the conventions of transposing instruments: defining the key in which a transposing instrument sounds as the major key whose tonic is either the lowest pitch producible by that instrument without fingering or other manipulation, or the pitch produced when the player fingers a C on the staff. naming different subtypes of a given transposing instrument after the respective keys in which those subtypes sound.
These conventions are specific to transposing instruments. By contrast, non-transposing instruments use another convention. For example, although the trombone and the tuba each produce a B when played at their lowest harmonic position with the slide not extended or with no valves depressed, respectively, the trombone's music parts are not transposed, and the tuba's music parts are transposed only across octaves, such that the note sounded by a tuba bears the same name as the note read by the tubist.
The standard "B" fife is an A transposing instrument, meaning that prevailing scoring conventions dictate that the C position on a fife-part staff should correspond to a concert A. The standard fife sounds a minor sixth above written, the equivalent of a major-third drop followed by an octave increase. The B name follows the same naming convention as with tin whistles, being named after the concert pitch produced with all six holes covered, or the instrument's D. Fifes pitched (i.e., constructed so as to sound) in the keys of D and of C are also common. Fifes in various other keys are sometimes played in musical ensembles.
A convention specific to some fife music and contradictory to the standard is for fife music to be written in the key of D regardless of the key in which the fife in question sounds. The general effect is to define sounded notes in terms of scale degree, as with a movable-do system, and then to express any pitch having a given scale degree in the context of a given musical piece, regardless of that pitch's absolute value, in terms of a staff position defined as corresponding to that scale degree. The more specific effect is to treat fife subtypes sounding in different keys as comparable to transposing-instrument subtypes (e.g., of clarinet) sounding in those keys except that the tonic of the key in which a given fife sounds is set as corresponding to D rather than C, such that the written key signature for fife music played in a given concert key would have two fewer sharps or two more flats than would the written key signature used in music written for other transposing-instrument subtypes sounding in the same key.
Like the Irish flute and the tin whistle, the ancient fife is a six-hole simple system flute. These flutes are unable to play all chromatic pitches, while many of the chromatic pitches which they can play are grossly out of tune. Because of these restrictions on available notes, the common six-hole fife is for practical purposes capable of playing only in the written keys of D (concert B) major, G (concert E) major, A (concert F) major, and those keys' relative minors.
An experienced fife player can play three full octaves, although the fingering patterns necessary for playing in the third octave can be daunting to a beginner. Marching bands typically play only in the second and third octave since these are the loudest and most penetrating.
In folk music In medieval Europe, the fife was used in some folk music traditions to accompany dancing by all social classes.
The fife was one of the most important musical instruments in the United States' Colonial period, even more widespread than the violin or piano. The fife can still be heard in some Appalachian folk music, playing lively dance tunes. American slaves adopted fifes in their musical traditions, which derived from African music. The tradition developed into fife and drum blues, a genre that continued throughout the 20th century but has since died out. One of the most famous artists in the tradition was Othar Turner, a musician from Mississippi, who played blues on homemade cane fifes.
There remains an active and enthusiastic group, primarily in the northeastern United States, that continues to play fife and drum music in a folk tradition that has gone on since the American Civil War. The center of this activity is in eastern Connecticut. There is a loose federation of corps, though not a governing body, called The Company of Fifers and Drummers, which maintains a headquarters and museum in Ivoryton, Connecticut.
Fife alone, or fife and drum, is also used in numerous European countries, especially in the South of France (Occitania): Languedoc and the county of Nice; in Switzerland (notably Basel); and in Northern Ireland, where it is often accompanied by the lambeg drum.
Modern players of Celtic music, folk music, old-timey music, and folk-rock include fifing in their arrangements of tunes and songs.
The Junkanoo festival of the Bahamas and Jamaica includes the music of bamboo fifes.
In the rural lands of northeast Brazil, people use a bamboo fife called a Brazilian fife (in Brazil it is called or just ). This fife is a mix of Native American flute traditions with European fife traditions. The groups that use this instrument utilize only flute and percussive elements in their music, in a profusion of Native American, African and European traditions.
In military music
When played in its upper register, the fife is loud and piercing, yet also extremely small and portable. According to some reports, a band of fifes and drums can be heard up to away over artillery fire. Because of these qualities, European armies from the Renaissance on found it useful for signaling on the battlefield. Armies from Switzerland and southern Germany are known to have used the fife () as early as the 15th century. Swiss and German mercenaries were hired by monarchs throughout Western Europe, and they spread the practice of military fifing. The fife was a standard instrument in European infantries by the 16th century.
During the 17th and 18th centuries, the protocols of the fifes and drums became intricately associated with infantry regiments only. They were not used as signaling instruments by the cavalry or artillery, which used trumpets, kettle drums or both. Each company in an infantry regiment was assigned two fifers and two drummers. When the battalion (5 companies) or regiment (10 companies) was formed up on parade or for movement en masse, these musicians would be detached from the companies to form a "band". This is how the term band first came to refer to a group of musicians. In their individual companies, the signaling duties included orders to fire, retreat, advance, and so forth. By the 18th century, the military use of the fife was regulated by armies throughout Europe and its colonies. The rank of Fife Major was introduced, a noncommissioned officer responsible for the regiment's fifers, just as a Drum Major was responsible for the drummers. Books of military regulations included standard fife calls to be used in battle or at camp. During the American Revolutionary War, the British and Americans used the so-called Scotch and English Duties, specified melodies associated with various military duties. American martial music was influenced by that of the British military throughout the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
By the early 19th century, warfare was changing and fifes were no longer practical as combat signaling devices, being gradually replaced by the infantry bugle. They were still used as signaling (as opposed to musical) instruments by American units during the Civil War, but were gradually phased out by the 1880s (the same case in France). A similar evolution occurred in the British Army. The US Marines were the last American units to drop fifers from their rolls. However, the British have an unbroken tradition of using fife and drum corps attached to their infantry regiments, with whom they still parade regularly. Germany also continued an unbroken tradition of fife and drum corps until the end of World War II. They were integral to the regular German Army, Air Force and Navy, and not merely part of the Hitler Youth and the Nazi Party organizations. Bands of fifes and drums were regularly at the head of regimental parades and ceremonies of the infantry regiments, military schools and naval and air bases. The tradition of fifes and drums, though, even carried on in the Cold War, as both the West German Bundeswehr and the East German National People's Army formed dedicated sections.
Today the fife's military legacy can be seen in marching bands, for example in English, Welsh and Irish military units and in the pipes and drums of Scottish regiments. There are fife and drum corps in Switzerland, and the United States "Old Guard" has a ceremonial one. British fife and drum bands play at ceremonies such as the Trooping of the Colour. Amateur historical reenactment groups and dedicated civil bands sometimes feature fife and drum corps sporting period military costumes from the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War or the American Civil War.
Military fife and drum bands can be heard in Germany, where they are part of the Bundeswehr. The Bundeswehr Staff Band Berlin and the Bundeswehr Band Bonn have fifes and drums assigned, as do the bands attached to the Bundeswehr Military Music Service in the German Army, German Navy and the Luftwaffe.
The Chilean Army and Chilean Navy have dedicated fife, drum and bugle bands attached to the main military bands. They are seen especially at the annual parades on May 21 and September 18 and 19. This tradition is now adopted by various Chilean elementary and secondary schools and colleges, both public and private, which frequently appear at public events.