When Johnny Comes Marching Home (arr Finegan)

From Wind Repertory Project
Patrick Gilmore

Patrick Gilmore (arr. Bill Finegan)


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General Info

Year: 1863 / 1945
Duration:
Difficulty: (see Ratings for explanation)
Original Medium: Traditional
Publisher: Bradbury, Wood Ltd.
Cost: Score and Parts – Out of print.


Instrumentation

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Errata

None discovered thus far.


Program Notes

When Johnny Comes Marching Home (sometimes When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again) is a popular song of the American Civil War that expressed people's longing for the return of their friends and relatives who were fighting in the war.

The lyrics to When Johnny Comes Marching Home were written by the Irish-American bandleader Patrick Gilmore during the American Civil War. Its first sheet music publication was deposited in the Library of Congress on September 26, 1863, with words and music credited to "Louis Lambert"; copyright was retained by the publisher, Henry Tolman & Co., of Boston. Why Gilmore chose to publish under a pseudonym is not clear, but popular composers of the period often employed pseudonyms to add a touch of romantic mystery to their compositions. Gilmore is said to have written the song for his sister Annie as she prayed for the safe return of her fiancé, Union Light Artillery Captain John O'Rourke, from the Civil War, although it is not clear if the engagement already existed in 1863, as the two were not married until 1875.

Gilmore later acknowledged that the music was not original but was, as he put it in an 1883 article in the Musical Herald, "a musical waif which I happened to hear somebody humming in the early days of the rebellion, and taking a fancy to it, wrote it down, dressed it up, gave it a name, and rhymed it into usefulness for a special purpose suited to the times."

The melody was previously published around July 1, 1863, as the music to the Civil War drinking song Johnny Fill Up the Bowl. Jonathan Lighter has suggested a connection to the seventeenth-century ballad The Three Ravens.

When Johnny Comes Marching Home was immensely popular and was sung by both sides of the American Civil War. It became a hit in England as well.

- Program Note from Wikipedia


Media

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State Ratings

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Performances

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  • Virginia Grand Military Band (Alexandria) (Loras John Schissel, conductor) - 26 May 2018


Works for Winds by This Composer


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