Britain and America, have many things in common, including their inordinate interest in the military band. This became increasingly evident when a more comprehensive outlook on instrumentation was sought between them as early as 1920.

Publishers in Europe and England began to issue for the American Band Instrumentation (40 to 50 players) as well as for the Symphonic Instrumentation (6o to 8o players). Indeed, so adaptable is the British publisher that he actually issued alternative parts suitable for French and Belgian bands whose instrumentation in terms of completeness, was second only to that of America. To appreciate adequately the rise of the British school of instrumentation, and its own particular treatment in scoring, one must turn back the pages of history.

By the close of the nineteenth century the instrumentation of British military bands had become static; there was no appreciable change in the early years of the present century. Still, there were some excellent band-masters who contributed to the prestige of their charge. Among them were J. Manuel Bilton (Royal Horse Guards), George Miller (Grenadier Guards), Charles W.H. Hall (2^nd Life Guards), Robert G. Evans (Coldstream Guards), Frederick W. Wood (Scots Guards), Charles W. Hassell (Irish Guards) Andrew Harris (Welsh Guards), F. j. Ricketts (Royal Marines), and Edward C. Stretton (Royal Artillery). The Royal Family had long appreciated the eminent services of these bandmasters and in 1887 Queen Victoria conferred a honorary commission on Dan Godfrev of the Grenadier Guards. Eleven years later, she promoted four staff bandmasters to the full commissioned rank, and since then the position of Director of Music as a commissioned rank has been created for certain staff bandmasters.

Yet this excellence of British bands was maintained in spite of much that could be considered to be old-fashioned in instrumentation and scoring, which for a long time were a handicap. In the absence of original music, bands had to be content, in the larger forms, with arrangements. The older arrangers were skilled and experienced men-notably the Godfrey family

In Britain, owing to the fact that band performances were mostly outdoors, arrangers were compelled, especially under British climatic conditions, to adopt a tutti technique more often than they would have done had they been scoring for the concert hall only.

Even as late as 1910 that admirable composer and arranger for the military band, Albert Williams said:" Don’t score too thinly for open-air performances; remember it is not an Academy picture, it is a fresco painting." Much was tried to prevent this overstress to suit outdoor conditions by cues but this was not always successful because of imbalance and improper instrumental tonality. The future however became very bright as concert halls and the sheltered band stands became more available to the military band, and the composers and arrangers were able to present their scores more to their individual tastes and requirements.

American, French and Belgian scoring for the band already revealed an outlook more liberal and progressive than that which was found in British scores. The older conception, such as that which remained in Britain, viewed the clarinet family as one would the strings of the orchestra. The newer outlook brushed this aside, and choirs of instruments of similar timbre-clarinets, saxophones, trumpets came to be treated as separate entities, a plan which brought much richer coloring to the score. There is no doubt that the American and Belgian influence began a new wave of military and concert band arrangements. The employment of instruments in groups as well as the introduction of numerous percussive effects helped to take wind band scoring into a new and exciting era. The creativity of the writers now began to accelerate particularly in America. The revolution began at the turn of the century. Composers began to recognize the growing resources available to them and just as in the orchestra the advent of new instrumental family members helped bring alive new mediums for composition.

The military band as an ensemble now became a vehicle for more than just military marches; even some of the orchestral music became strongly influenced by the military band instrumentation. If we review Stravinsky’s Sacre du Printemps(1913) we are inclined to wonder why there are strings included in the score at all. We are unable to determine what may have been in his mind but we can with analysis discern a fresher coloration particularly in the brass and reed dimension. Honnegar in his Le Roi David (1921), produced a marvelous effect with the almost exclusive use of brass and reed combinations. The transcriptions of these numbers as well as many others written in the same scope were infinitely better than the original orchestral versions because the strings were in fact an adjunct to the composition as a whole.

Stravinsky also wrote a Symphony for wind instruments, although not in our formal acceptance of the term, as well as the Volga Song for the same. Even prior to this Rimsky-Korsakov had composed a Concerto for Clarinet and Variations on a theme by Glinka for the military band. Richard Strauss also has a place here, although his contribution was but marches for the Prussian Guards. Then came Albert Roussel and Florent Schmitt to devote their genius to this new medium of the band with overtures and waltzes. Henry Hadley with his overture Youth Triumphant and Ralph Vaughan Williams in his Toccata Marziale. Gustav Hoist contributed two impressive works with his Suites in Eb and F. later writers include John Philip Sousa, Edwin Franko Goldman, Leo Sowerby and Morton Gould. The Celtic Set by Henry Cowell and Percy Grainger’s compositions have become a lasting memento of their contribution to the military band library. Other great world class composers and their military band music will be discussed in other chapters of this history.

The two world wars revealed the utmost value of army bands in particular. It is true that the day had passed when regiments marched into the smoke and din of battle with colors flying, trumpets sounding and drums beating but the cheer and heartening of martial music still played its part in another field, just behind the fighting line. During the 1914-18 War, the British staff bands and others took their turn at this duty. Only those who know that national and regimental traditions are linked up with military music can appreciate how the playing of an army band revived the spirits of the tired and wounded behind the lines. Looking at a diary of one of these tour bands we can realize what duty of this sort implied. A two months' journey of thousands of miles or more took this band to ninety-six different centers whilst a second tour meant eighty different camps and one hundred and twenty-one performances.

America also realized the importance of its army bands, and when it declared war in 1917, it immediately promoted its bandmasters to the commissioned rank and raised the number of bandsmen in each regiment from twenty-eight to forty-eight; the Army Music School had to work overtime so as to provide bandmasters and bandsmen to fill the vacancies.

After the close of the war in 1918, America formed the United States Navy Band under Charles Benter, which was soon to number eighty-six performers. Two years later the United States Army Band was raised out of the old American Expeditionary Force Band of the 1917-18 establishment. It won some European fame in 1929 during its visit to Spain under the baton of W. J. Stannard. Yet it was World War II that enabled this combination to earn distinction and gratitude for its fine work, artistically and socially, behind the battle front. Many may recall the Army Band under Thomas F. Darcv giving concerts for the wounded and weary in North Africa in 1943, and later in Britain. Few bands could boast of such a galaxy of soloists as Darcy's combination. Another band of musical warriors was the Royal Artillery Band under director Owen Geary, who toured I5,000 miles over the parched African terrain to bring comfort to the troops in distant camps as well as giving concerts at Tunis, Gibraltar and Naples.

Thus we have seen how the military band in the concert hall and the open air has a particular beauty just as much as the orchestral sounds which often frequent the outdoors and the indoor stage. Bands do display an elegance and symmetry even more pleasing at times than the effects of an orchestral combination. Admittedly, it is military music which beckons the public, the crowd, but it is not necessarily an inferior art on that account. The one thing which has made the band an obvious attraction is its instrumentation and technique, both of which make for lucidity of expression and clarity of rhythm. It requires no great effort on the part of a listener to determine what they enjoy. It is music very often in it’s most simplest and basic form. Some melody, some rhythmic passage, something which allows the foot to tap. It is merely entertainment, but how artistically it is performed. The music of the masses in a popular form can often convey a message which is unalterably majestic. The driving passion of drums, the thunderous evocation of brass coupled with the spiraling and sonorous sounds of the woodwinds create a sweet compulsion of music. A picture painted and sculptured in brass and wood is indeed the music of the people. The music of the military band and the profession of the military musician is a culture which has evolved from minstrels and troubadours and is as vibrant today as it was 500 years ago.