A different American tradition takes the field down under
Americans watching cricket: a visual approximation of Australians watching baseball
The outfield wall is up, the infield is set down, and the Sydney Cricket Ground has seen its first game of baseball as MLB builds up to Saturday’s start of the 2014 season. Four years ago though, a different group of Americans brought a slightly different American tradition to this field, though few were there to witness it.
Like baseball, fife and drum music traces its origins back to Europe. Initially developed in Switzerland as a means of communicating through the Alps, fifes and drums became key elements of military forces throughout Europe and, through colonization of the new world, the Americas. Military use of fifes and drums was at its height during the American Revolution and the American Civil War, firmly connecting this style of music with the times that defined this nation.
Advances in communications technology relegated martial music to a ceremonial role in the 20th century. As the times changed, fife and drum music largely fell out of style except in certain areas where it continued with community groups. Fife and drum saw a resurgence as a traditional martial music style in preparation for the American Revolution Bicentennial celebration. Many of these groups and others they inspired remain to this day. In fact, American fife and drum would go on to inspire the creation of American-style fife and drum corps throughout the world and even in Switzerland where the art form originated.
And that brings us to Australia by way of Scotland. In 2007, the Middlesex County Volunteers Fifes and Drums became the first American-style fife and drum ensemble to perform at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, the world’s premier martial music event. In 2010, the Edinburgh Military Tattoo took the show (and a convincing mock-up of Edinburgh Castle) on the road to Sydney, Australia. MCV was among the groups that came from around the world to give Australia a taste of one of Scotland’s biggest events (next to the World Pipe Band Championship, of course). Next door to the Sydney Cricket Ground in the more modern and spacious Sydney Football Stadium. You can watch the show here on YouTube.
Beer, beer, everywhere, but not a drop to drink
Where does the Sydney Cricket Ground fit in with all of this? Well, since it wasn’t being used to host any ticketed events at the time, the Sydney Cricket Ground was used as the backstage area for the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, providing space to get changed, warm up, rehearse, and relax between sets. And on February 4, 2010, just before opening night, the Americans took to the field for one last rehearsal.
There was no audience. No modifications needed to be made to the field. And they weren’t even wearing full uniforms. But if you thought this weekend’s baseball games were the first time the Sydney Cricket Ground hosted a group of Americans doing distinctly American things with origins in Europe, you would be slightly incorrect. And if you thought any of this is as strange as it gets here, you would be way off the mark. Because we have yet to see the Scots take the field.
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