Drumma boy biography definition

Drummer Boy or Little Drummer Boy may refer to:

Military

Literature and the arts

Music

• "The Little Drummer Boy", a popular Christmas song written in 1941
• "Drummer Boy" (Alesha Dixon song), a song by English singer-songwriter Alesha Dixon released in 2010
• "Drummer Boy" (Debi Nova song), a single by Costa Rican singer-songwriter Debi Nova released in 2010
• "Drummer Boy", a 2007 song by Sean Kingston from his self-titled album
• "Drummer Boy Dub, a track on the 1996 album Dub Take the Voodoo Out of Reggae by Mad Professor with Lee "Scratch" Perry
• A Drummer Boy Christmas, a 2020 album by For King & Country
• Little Drummer Boy Live, a 2006 album by Mark Kozelek
• Drummer Boy (EP), a 1995 EP by Christian folk group Jars of Clay
• Drumma Boy, American record producer and hip hop artist

Film, television, theater, and literature

Other

Little Drummer Boy Challenge, a mind game

See also

The Little Drummer Girl, a 1983 John le Carré novel

Topics referred to by the same term

1941 American Christmas song by Katherine Kennicott Davis

This article is about the Christmas song. For the 1968 stop-motion animated TV special, see The Little Drummer Boy (TV special).

"Little Drummer Boy" redirects here. For other uses, see Little Drummer Boy (disambiguation).

"The Little Drummer Boy" (originally known as "Carol of the Drum") is a popular Christmas song written by American composer Katherine Kennicott Davis in 1941. First recorded in 1951 by the Austrian Trapp Family, the song was further popularized by a 1958 recording by the Harry Simeone Chorale; the Simeone version was re-released successfully for several years, and the song has been recorded many times since.

In the lyrics, the singer relates how, as a poor young boy, he was summoned by the Magi to the Nativity of Jesus. Without a gift for the Infant, the little drummer boy played his drum with approval from Jesus's mother, Mary, recalling, "I played my best for him" and "He smiled at me". The story of a drummer at the manger is not from the Bible.

Origins and history

The song was originally titled "Carol of the Drum". While speculation has been made that the song is very loosely based on the Czech carol "Hajej, nynej", Claire Fontijn, the chair of the music department at Davis's alma mater Wellesley College claims otherwise.

Inspiration for "The Little Drummer Boy" came to Davis in 1941. "[One day], when she was trying to take a nap, she was obsessed with this song that came into her head and it was supposed to have been inspired by a French song, "Patapan", explained Fontijn. "And then 'patapan' translated in her mind to 'pa-rum-pum-pum', and it took on a rhythm." The result was "The Little Drummer Boy".

Davis's interest was in producing material for amateur and girls' choirs: Her manuscript is set as a chorale, in which the tune is in the soprano melody with alto harmony, tenor a

Ann Warren Turner. HarperCollins Publishers, $16.95 (32pp) ISBN 978-0-06-027696-6

Turner (Dust for Dinner) takes readers to a Civil War battlefield in this disturbing picture book narrated by an idealistic 13-year-old. The premise is much the same as that of Gary Paulsen's novel Soldier's Heart (reviewed July 20); unfortunately, the lessons may be too complex for a picture book audience, at least in this treatment. The narrator, a farm boy, has liked Lincoln ever since he gave a speech in the boy's town, and sometime after war breaks out (no specific time or place is given) the memory of that encounter inspires him to join up. He also wants to free the slaves. Lying about his age, he is enlisted as a drummer boy, asked to march with the troops and ""raise a tune for our men in battle."" In the heat of bloody confrontation, the boy witnesses the atrocities of war. He holds the hand of a mortally wounded soldier ""until his eyes stopped seeing."" Poetic turns of phrase further describe how grim reality quickly dims a boy's bright-eyed patriotism. But there are problems here. The passage about slavery seems tacked on, the boy never feels fully real and the most interesting information about drummer boys is relegated to an afterword. The ending misfires: the boy bitterly blames Lincoln for making him ""see things no boy should ever see."" Hess's (Hercules: The Man, the Myth, the Hero) atmospheric, dramatic scenes capture period touches as well as the serenity of rural life and the action of combat. But he, too, stumbles: while all of the other scenes are carefully lit and detailed, a view of slave quarters is so muddy and imprecise that a slave woman looks shockingly misshapen and simian. Well intended but off the mark. Ages 4-8. (Aug.)

Details

Reviewed on: 08/03/1998

Genre: Children's

The Beinecke Library does not appear to own a copy of the “drummer” photo. Likewise, the National Archives does not have the “rags” view in its collections. Given the similar handwriting and parallel phrasing on these cartes, we theorize that they were a matched pair, inscribed by the same unknown hand, but currently separated across the two institutions.

We found another drummer boy pair in the Louisiana State University Libraries Special Collections. LSU preserves a collection of 107 lantern slides “documenting the aftermath of the Siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana from May 23 – July 9, 1863” that may have been created in the 1880s by Maj. John Langdon Ward of the 75th USCT, who served during the siege. One slide shows the young man in rags with the intriguing caption, “600 Miles through swamp and cane brake to fight for freedom.” Another slide shows the transformation to Union drummer with the caption, “Taylor—drummer 78th U.S.C.T.” It was another vote for Taylor of the 78th USCT, attributed to an officer who may have had firsthand experience with the event.

We located two more examples of the photo pair in private collections. One set of images, which we found via Ross Kelbaugh’s website, was first published in William Gladstone’s United States Colored Troops, 1863-1867. The backs of these photos bear inscriptions that add new details to the mystery. The first inscription reads “Jackson” and “As he appeared when he came into our lines,” while the second reads, “As he appeared two weeks later.” The other pair, from the collection of Terry O’Leary, was published by Don Dillon in the May-June 1981 issue of MI. These cartes bear the period inscriptions, “Before” and “After,” but no other distinctive elements.

None of the drummer boy photos we found had a photographer’s backmark, and we can only speculate about the intentions behind their creation. However, they represent a genre of photogr