W. Francis McBeth

Drayton Hall Esprit

DRAYTON HALL ESPRIT was commissioned by the Drayton Hall Middle School Band, Charleston, South Carolina, Debbie Oxner, conductor. Drayton Hall was one of the few plantation homes that was not burned by Union troops during the Civil War. It was saved by quick thinking on the part of its residents who hung white bed sheets out the windows, which was the accepted sign that typhus was present inside. The work is based on a motive built on the first five notes that most players learn, the first five notes of the Bb major scale, but they are not set in a simplistic manner.