This arrangement of the widely known Civil War–era fiddle tune “Soldier’s Joy” will be a hit with your ensemble or school string program. Challenge yourself and your fellow musicians with the traditional melody of this American hoedown.

“Whiskey Before Breakfast” is yet another fun addition to your repertoire. Covered by the likes of Doc Watson and the String Cheese Incident, this tune has strong roots in the British Isles. This lively arrangement offers an accompaniment that takes on a traditional American “boom-chuck” bowing pattern.

ABOUT THE MUSIC (Excerpted from the Performance Notes)
"Soldier’s Joy" is probably the most widely known traditional American fiddle tune in the repertoire. In jam sessions from Carolina to California, and everywhere in between, folk musicians perform this Civil War–era hoedown. I chose to arrange this tune for string quintet to help musicians coming from a classical background familiarize themselves with this standard melody.

Stylistically, “Soldier’s Joy” presents the classically trained musician with the challenge of mastering the hoedown rhythmic pattern. Also called the basic shuffle, the eighth note followed by two 16th-note figures (see Violin 1, mm. 1–2) provides the rhythmic underpinning for this and most other duple-meter American tunes. Keep in mind that the diverse musical heritage of American fiddling will help the performer gain perspective on properly executing this rhythm.

Soldier's Joy

“Whiskey Before Breakfast (Traditional)” is one of my favorite fiddle tunes. It’s commonly played by old-time and bluegrass musicians and can be heard in the repertoire of many Canadian and Celtic fiddlers. Since this tune has strong roots in the British Isles, I’ve chosen to introduce fragments of the melody on top of a low bass drone and a repetitive cello groove. My intention is to slowly bring the music across the Atlantic Ocean until the final presentation of the melody, at which point the accompaniment takes on a more traditional American “boom-chuck” pattern.

Stylistically, the first step is to make sure the performers have a firm grasp of the shuffle bow stroke (see the detailed description of this technique in the performance notes of “Soldier’s Joy”). While this pattern appears sporadically (m. 22, Violin 2/Viola/Cello; m. 55, Violin 1; and mm. 63–64, Viola), it still provides the rhythmic underpinning for this type of tune. The other fiddle bow stroke that appears with great frequency (especially in the melody) is the one-separate, threeslurred pattern. This stroke appears at various locations within a particular beat and will, at first, feel uncomfortable for the classically trained musician. However, when properly executed, this stroke will produce a variety of accents on syncopated and strong beats that will produce an authentic fiddle sound.

Whiskey Before Breakfast

To produce the appropriate sound in this stroke, the bow speed on the down-bow separate note must be exactly three times as fast as the up-bow slurred notes. This aggressive down bow combined with a more relaxed up-bow stroke will create a natural accent. Be careful that that the accent is achieved through bow speed, not pressure.

—Andrew Carlson