Fife (instrument) - in Folk Music

In Folk Music

They are small and high pitched. In medieval Europe, it 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 America's 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 is dying out. One of the most famous artists in the tradition was Othar Turner, a musician from Mississippi, who played Blues on homemade cane fifes. Turner died on February 27, 2003.

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 just after 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, and in Northern Ireland, where it is played as an accompaniment to the lambeg drum.

Modern players of Celtic music, including folk-rock, sometimes include fifing in their arrangements. The Junkanoo festival of the Bahamas and Jamaica includes the music of bamboo fifes.

In northeast Brazil, on the rural lands, people use a bamboo fife named Brazilian Fife (in Brazil its called Pife Nordestino or just Pife, and pronounces like Peef). This fife is a mix of Native American flute traditions with European fife traditions. The groups, that use this instrument, use only flute and percussive elements in their music, in a profusion of Native American, African and European traditions.