By Phyl Newbeck
For The Essex Reporter

Gerd Sommer grew up in Mt. Vernon, N.Y., and started drumming at the age of 6. He took lessons in rudimental drumming (defined as the drumming most commonly used for military music) and began searching for a place to play. When he was 12, discouraged that his school band wasn’t geared toward that form of music, Sommer found a local fife and drum corps and never looked back. When he moved to Vermont in 1968, he immediately began searching for a similar group, only to find that none existed.

Sommer went to local amateur hours to try (no pun intended) to drum up support for a local corps, and attempted to work with the Boy Scouts, all to no avail.

Finally, in 1976, his daughter Lori took one of his drums, a fife, an old uniform and a record to Browns River Middle School for show and tell.

One of Lori’s teachers asked if her father would be interested in trying to form a fife and drum corps at the school. She didn’t have to ask twice. Forty people came to the first organizational meeting of what became the Hanaford’s Fife (sometimes spelled ‘fyfe’) and Drum Corps, based in Underhill.

The Corps is named for Nathaniel Hanaford, a drum major from the War of 1812 who is buried in town. There were some glitches to be worked out such as the lack of a fife teacher, but a local player was found who was proficient, although he could not read music. Sommer was in charge of teaching the drums.

The band’s first performance was on July 4, 1976. Unfortunately, they only had three drums so they had to play Yankee Doodle Dandy four times so that each of the 12 drummers would have a chance to participate.

Cole Tierney’s sister went to that initial presentation at Browns River Middle School and when she told him about it, he immediately signed up. Tierney, also a middle school student at the time, remembers that the potential drummers outnumbered the drums, but said Sommer was quite strict and wouldn’t let any of the kids play until they had mastered what are known as the 26 essential American drum rudiments. Tierney describes the rudiments as “the words of ancient drumming, strung together in patterns.” He said learning the rudiments makes it easy to learn songs because you recognize the patterns.

Tierney said the high point for attendance was 1976 when the corps almost resembled a high school band with up to 20 fife players and 12 drummers. He noted that there are cycles of greater and lesser activity, accentuated by kids graduating from high school and moving away. The corps is currently at a low point in membership, but they have reached out to homeschooled kids so attendance is improving.

Tierney described a talented group of five sisters who have recently joined. “They came to one practice and by the next one, they knew half the songs,” he said.

The corps usually marches with five fife players, two snare drummers and one bass drummer. Corps President William White said it can take up two years for a new drummer to learn the parade route “because you are training your body to do something it doesn’t want to do.”

White taught himself to play in the Navy at the age of 17 and continues to march with the Corps at the age of 73. He said it takes less time (six to nine months) to learn the fife.

The corps plays at a number of local events including the Old Fashioned Harvest Market in Underhill. At the market, they also staff a booth selling fried dough, which is the major fundraiser for the non-profit organization. Another regular gig is the Essex Junction Memorial Day parade.

One unofficial appearance occurs in Burlington after the Independence Day fireworks. Tierney’s father lives on Lakeview Terrace, a location from which band members view the pyrotechnics. Afterwards they march down the street. “The whole community has gotten so used to us that they flood the street and follow us like the Pied Piper,” said Tierney. “You have 300 people following us down the street. We have a permanent open invitation there.”

The corps also attends an annual Fife and Drum Muster which usually takes place in Connecticut. Tierney describes it as the equivalent of Reggaefest, but with fifes and drums. Each corps puts on a separate performance but at 11 p.m., they all join together for a performance on the field with at least 300 musicians taking part. “It’s an amazing sound,” said Tierney. “You can hear it for miles.”

The band’s regular uniform is a light green hunting shirt with military-style coveralls and green tams. Tierney admits the tams are “kind of cheating” since they come from the era of the French and Indian War. Cole’s wife (and Sommer’s daughter) Lori made the hats, which differentiate the Hanaford’s corps from most groups who wear three-cornered hats.

In addition to the musical unit there is a group that displays the colors (the flags) and a militia. White said the colors are generally displayed by parents of children in the musical unit or by those children who are not quite ready to play in public. The militia has grown over the years and is now headed by the son of the founder who has just returned from a tour of duty in Iraq. White said that unit also participates in a variety of local military reenactments.

A high point for the corps was marching in President Clinton’s second inaugural parade. Tierney believes this happened at the instigation of Bob Tourville, a drummer in the corps who has since passed away. Tierney described the parade as “quite an adventure,” especially since there was coolant forming underneath the bus they chartered to take them from their Virginia hotel into Washington. Tierney was amazed at how lax the security was. The group saw some high school bands from Florida being wanded but the security guards were so intrigued by the muskets carried by the corps’ fire guard that they were never frisked.

Tierney said that a number of the corps members have also been part of the U.S. Army Fife and Drum Corps including him and his sister. That group had been scheduled to march for President Reagan’s second inauguration but for some reason the parade was called off. Tierney is happy he had the chance to march years later as a civilian.

The corps’ repertoire does not change too much over time, although Tierney said they do try to include some new pieces, occasionally stretching the era by including Civil War era music or finding a way to “dress up” an old piece. They stick to 6-hole fifes, rather than the 11-hole ones favored by orchestras.

“It’s a tough balancing act,” said Tierney, “to retain tradition while keeping things fresh. You can only play ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy’ so many times.”

White said that although the music comes from the Revolutionary War, it has its basis in English, French, German, Irish and Scottish tunes, as well as “homegrown” American music. He explained that the fifes and drums controlled the movement of soldiers both in the camp and in battle, telling them when to attack, when to retreat and how to march.

The band was recently featured on an album entitled “’Thrufters & Throughstones: The Music of Vermont’s First 400 Years.”  The album is the product of collaboration between Big Heavy World’s Vermont Music Library, the Vermont Folklife Center, and the Vermont Historical Society. The band’s entry in this compilation is a song entitled “The Moon and Seven Stars.”  White said their piece was recorded outdoors, as the music is meant to be played.

Sommer, Tierney and White all worry that kids today have more options and are less interested in being part of a fife and drum corps.

Sommer, now 81, notes that when he was growing up, the options were playing unorganized sandlot ball or music, so more kids were interested in marching bands.

Tierney is still happy to continue playing a role in the corps. “It was sort of just a social thing growing up,” he said, “but now it’s what I do. It’s a tradition.”

For more information on the Hanaford’s Fife and Drum Corps, contact Bill White at 878-2655.