A truly exciting find at Jamestowne -- OK, it is truly exciting only to compulsive brass players like me -- is the discovery of a trumpet mouthpiece in a trashpit c. 1609-1612.  I don't know whether the fact it was in a trash pit is a comment on the quality of the playing, or just that that poor musician misplaced it.  While one trumpet does not an ensemble make, nevertheless, it does show those pesky Moravians down there in North Carolina who brought their trombone choirs to America in the early 1700's that there was some brass in Virginia over a century before.

One intriguing entry in an old Jamestowne document is that Capt. John Smith took a trumpeter when he went to call on Chief Powhatan.  Tongue in cheek, I wonder if the trumpeter played "Hail..........." no, that is soooooooo politically incorrect :))

In any case, I understand that Ian Woodfield's ENGLISH MUSICIANS IN THE AGE OF EXPLORATION discusses the role of trumpeters aboard ships, and perhaps what they played when the ship was in port.  I am not able to locate a nearby copy, and wonder if one resides in some Virginia learned institution.  

In addition, I wonder if any such institution has expertise in early Virginia Musick a century prior to all that fine musick which comes out of Williamsburg. I am fortunate to have an original copy of THE PfALME fINGERf COMPANION c. mid 1600's, but it is basically psalms.   So I wonder what did the good colonists sing in the pubs 1620-1680?  Was it some variation on early Rennaisance like "Summer is icumen Inne", etc?  If you have any info, please get in touch with me. ASAP.  The source of all this excitement (on my part) is that I have been asked to help pull together music that was played in Colonial Virginia, for the innaguration of Gov. Kaine early next year.  Last year, I backed up about 50 years from my usual stomping grounds in Virginia Civil War Brass Bands, and published MARTIAL MUSIC IN THE AGE OF LEWIS and Clark, but now I gotta back up another two centuries!

Randy Cabell
Winchefter BraffBand


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