Haste to the Wedding: Marches of the American Revolution

Haste to the Wedding was a popular tune at the time of the American Revolution, in England, Ireland, the American Colonies, and Canada. In America the piece has a long history. "Haste" appears in late 18th century music copybooks such as those of Captain George Bush and Henry Livingston. The latter purchased the estate of Locust Grove, Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1771 at the age of 23. In 1775 he was a Major in the 3rd New York Regiment, which participated in Montgomery's invasion of Canada in a failed attempt to wrest Montreal from British control. An important land-owner in the Hudson Valley, and a member of the powerful Livingston family, Henry was also a surveyor and real estate speculator, an illustrator and map-maker, and a Justice of the Peace for Dutchess County. He was also a poet and musician, and presumably a dancer, as he was elected a Manager for the New York Assembly's dancing season of 1774–1775, along with his 3rd cousin, John Jay, later U.S. Chief Justice of Governor of New York.

It was printed by Howe in his Musician's Omnibus of 1850, and in his School for the Fife in 1851. "Come Haste to the Wedding" was entered into the music copybook of American musician M.E. Eames, 1859 (p. 73). Burchenal published it under the title "Green Mountain Volunteers" along with a New England contra dance by the same name. It was recorded for the Library of Congress by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph from Ozark Mountain fiddlers in the early 1940's, and also was recorded by Herbert Halpert for the same institution in 1939 from the playing of a Lauderdale County, Mississippi, fiddler named Stephen B. Tucker.

The title appears in a list of Maine fiddler Mellie Dunham's repertoire (the elderly Dunham was Henry Ford's champion fiddler in the late 1920's) and it was a favorite dance tune in western New York at the turn of the century (according to Bronner's source, Milo Kouf). As "Hasten to the Wedding" it was mentioned in an account of a fiddlers' convention at the Pike County Fairgrounds in the Troy Herald of July 6th, 1926. Winston Wilkinson ("Virginia Dance Tunes," Southern Folklore Quarterly, VI, 1, March, 1942) calls it "one of the best-loved tunes in Virginia." He collected it from Albermarle County fiddler James H. "Uncle Jim" Chisholm, who had played it and other tunes in the 1930's at the White House for President and Mrs. Roosevelt.

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