THE EVOLUTION OF THE MILITARY BAND IN FRANCE

(Part 2)

Edward Bevan

If the turning point in the development of the modern military band was the hautbois band, then the turning point in the career of General Bonaparte was the French Revolution: a lesser upheaval would not have provided him with the impetus he required to gain a crown.  His great opponent and ultimate vanquisher, the Duke of Wellington, had learnt to play the violin as a youth but he appears to have left decisions on Army music and bands to his subordinates - although a request to be included in the Line at Waterloo, from an untried battalion of the 14th Regiment of Foot, was granted only after the Duke had observed them parade to the beating of The Grenadiers March.  The Corsican had very firm views on army bands and their function and his interest in military music is reflected not only in the splendid formal marches written whilst he was First Consul and then Emperor, but in orders that he issued, tastes he expressed and even jokes he cracked with his veterans - his 'Grognards' - about their songs.  Before he left on the Egyptian expedition he gave special attention to the formation of good bands.  In Cairo he ordered noonday concerts by regimental bands, stationed in public places near the hospitals, where they were to play ^'Various airs which will cheer the sick and recall to their minds the finest hours of past campaigns'.  Sometimes he could demand the near impossible, as when he asked Lebrun and Rouget de Lisle to 'compose a hymn based on a familiar tune like LA MARSEILLAISE or ~ DU DEPART to be used in combat and contain sentiments for any and all circumstances of war'.  Some marches had been composed for use in battle.  LA MARCHE DE LA GARDE CONSULAIRE has had several arrangers but original composer is never indicated.  The march is said to have been performed at the Battle of Marengo (1800), the 'Pas de Charge' being in the trio.  The outcome was an important victory for France but it is ironical that the dispositions he had made caused Bonaparte to be surprised by the Austrians and he was saved only by the staunchness of the Guard and the brilliant action of a subordinate.  Characteristically, Napoleon took full credit and named his celebrated charger after the battle.  'Furgeot' an arrangement of the march has often been recorded by leading French bands. The Consulate had come into being in 1799 and as First Consul and General, Bonaparte suppressed the cavalry bends for a time, saying that by discharging the cavalry bandsmen the saving of horses would enable him to raise four extra regiments of horse.  During the five years of the Consulate the Band of the Consular Guard, led by Gebeuer and Blasius established a high reputation. In the meantime, the high clarinet in F had been introduced and the oboe restored.  In 1802 the Gendarmerie de Paris was formed, a military body which carried out certain internal duties of a police nature.  Its title underwent such changes as La Garde Municipale and La Garde Royale, until its suppression by the Provisional Government after the February Revolution of 1848.  It had a Batterie-Fanfare (drums, bugles and/or trumpets) dating from 2 October 1802, and in 1804 a Fanfare de Cavalerie (mounted trumpet corps) was formed.  In the same year Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French. A larger band for the Grenadiers of the Guard comprised twelve clarinets, two clarinets in F, two piccolos, four oboes, four bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, two trombones, two serpents, one bass drum and two pairs of cymbals. It was headed on the march by drums and fifes.  Cavalry bands were re-established and handsomely furnished with sixteen trumpets, six horns and three trombones, to which, in the cases of cuirassiers and caribiniers, kettle drums were added.

The years of the First Empire, and the decade before, were a golden age for the military band in France. Indeed, one questions whether any other country has ever enjoyed such a stimulating period. The bands lacked virtually nothing materially and the important factor of morale must have been braced by the fact that they were a necessity to the military and social structure.  Even so, the claim that it was a golden age for bands cannot be sustained without the recognition that the cardinal requirement had been present -- worthy music.  This need was met in abundance by a group of fine composers such as Gossec, Catel, Mehul, Gebauer, Charubini and others.  Their output was enormous. Quick steps and other items for military evolutions and arrangements of patriotic songs were to be expected but there were also suites, overtures and symphonies of the first rank composed especially for the military bend.  Francois Joseph Gossec (1734-1829) was already a pioneer before the Revolution and had been the first to regard the military band orchestrally; also to demonstrate the benefits of the clarinet and trombone in the orchestra.  Mozart referred to him as 'his very good friend and a dry man' and he has been called the 'founder of symphonic music in France'.  He might equally be called the founder of French chamber music, as he wrote eighteen string quartets.  With its positive cleavage from the past, the Revolution gave him his opportunity.  Very active in composing in his early days, he made his first authentic instrumental arrangement of LA MARSEILLAISE.  In terms of symphonic form, those of Gossec take first place, but Catel is more original and Louis Jardin bolder and more advanced in conception.  Regrettably, little of their music, and music for band by Mehul and Charubini (whom Napoleon disliked, as being too independent!) is ever played.  The band music of these 'composers of the Revolution' deserved a better fate at the hands of the later conductors of bands, whose programs suggest a preference for transcriptions from the popular classics, opera, the theatre and the dance.  Perhaps one day a musician with a sense of history will be inspired to revive some of this unique music written for the bends of the Revolution and the First Empire.

From the time the first Napoleon left the stage at Waterloo (1815) until the end of the Second Empire (whose fall was caused by the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71), military bands remained very much a part of the French scene, reflecting the country's martial ardor and desire to re-capture 'La gloire', as well as her colonial aspirations.   As the years progressed a greater diversity developed amongst the Army bands and the heavy stateliness of the earlier marches no longer predominated.  A regiment or battalion had its military band (L'Harmonie) but it also had a separate musical unit known as a 'clique'.  With Infantry regiments the clique comprised drums and fifes, but in the Light Infantry and Chasseur (rifle) regiments the clique used a bugle termed a cornet' (not to be confused with the present day cornet in bands) which was a small bugle shaped like a hunting horn.   In the days of the First Empire these bugles had only been used for field calls in battle or on maneuvers but, through 'esprit de corps', they became the chosen marching instruments of such regiments: such was the origin of their use as we know it today.  In 1830 France began her protracted conquest of Algeria, involving thousands of troops for many years and these campaigns speeded the official adoption of bugle bands.  A company of the 8th Chasseurs distinguished itself at SIDI BRAHIM in 1845 and the march named after it by an anonymous composer and played by a Chasseurs clique is typical of the style.   In the same year France appointed a special commission to enquire into the modernizing of its bands and its members included Auber, Carrefois, Onslow, Spontini and Adam.   As a result the Infantry were allowed fifty-four players per band and the Cavalry and Chasseurs thirty-six.   It involved the introduction of the new instruments of Adolphe Sax, who was strongly supported by King Louis-Philippe.  The change was short lived as with the 1848 Revolution the king abdicated and the bands were ordered to return to the old instrumentation.   However, Hector Berlioz blazed away furiously at what he regarded as the inferiority of the former French band instrumentation and, with the assumption of power by Louis Napoleon, Sax was entirely back in favor again.   In fact his prestige was such that he brought about the closing of the Military School of Music, which he regarded as reactionary.   It was replaced by special music classes at the Conservatoire.   Mention has been made of the disbandment of the Fanfares of La Garde Royale in 1848, but a few months later it was re-formed as La Garde de Paris and included twelve trumpeters under Trumpet-Major Jean Paulus, who composed a special fanfare for the presentation of Colors on the Champ de Mars, Paris in May 1852, by which time the Second Empire had been proclaimed by the new Emperor Napoleon III.   The Military Governor of Paris, Marshal Magnan, publicly congratulated Paulus. Within two years the fanfare was enlarged to a full band and given the title of La Musique de la Garde de Paris.   In 1871 it was changed to La Musique de La Garde Republicaine.   France maintained her bands during the Crimean War (1854-56) and many went to the front.  They gained high praise from her Allies whose own bands were organized far less effectively than the French. They continued to receive strong support, as a Decree of 1854 allowed a band of fifty-five for the Imperial Guard and bands of thirty-five for the Cavalry, with commissioned bandmasters.   It was said that the music of the French bands at Inkerman did as much to drive back the Russians as the bayonet.   Yet after the war in Italy (1859) there were drastic cuts and in 1867 the cavalry bands were abolished.   Even so, in that same year a Military Band Congress was staged at the Paris Exhibition. The following countries competed and received awards in the order given: Prussia, France, Austria, Bavaria, Russia, Holland, Baden, Belgium and Spain. The smallest band was Bavaria's - fifty-one.   Austria had seventy-six, but Prussia combined two bands to make eighty-seven players.   The judges were Ambroise Thomas, Leo Delibes, Felicien Cesar David, Franz von Bulow, Hansluck and Kastner.

France's agonizing period from 19 July 1870 until 1 March 1871, from her declaration of war on Prussia until her acceptance of peace terms, has little relevance to this inquiry, except to observe that the country returned to its peacetime life rapidly.   Even during the quickly ensuing blood-thirsty suppression of the Commune of Paris (when the barricades went up again) theatre and café life in the capital was hardly affected.   The bands settled down again, the leaders being the Garde Republicaine under Paulus and the Mounted Guides under Cressinois.   In 1872 the former represented France at the Boston Peace Festival.   Sellenick took over from Paulus in 1873, to be succeeded by Wettge (1884), Pares (1893), Balay (1911), Dupont (1927), Brun (1945), Richard (1969) and Boutry (1973~ )- and names as famous in French military music as Sousa, Santelmann, Schoepper, Benter, Whiting and Gabriel in America, and Godfrey, Williams, Rogan, O'Donnell, Ricketts, Miller, Jaeger and Dunn in England. An American bandmaster named Cappa who visited Paris in 1889 described the ensemble of the Garde Republicaine as almost perfect. For well over a century it has been regarded as the premier bend of France and it remains one of the great bands of the world. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that today in France there are others deserving of equal approbation, such as the major staff bands of the French Navy, Army and Air Force, and Les Gardiens de la Paix de Paris and La Police Nationale. These high standards of rendition arise from the meticulous organization of military music in France and the methods of personnel selection. With growing record production this is being increasingly appreciated outside France. Yet coverage on French radio and television is surprisingly limited.

Back to Historical Notes Contents.