Military Bands | World Military Bands

First appointed Commander and Conductor of the US Army Field Band he ii a native of Anson Texas . He studied under Frederick Fennell at University of Florida in Miami. He joined the active service in 1969 as a lieutenant and served in various postings until his appointment as Commander of the US Army Field band in 1991. He retired in 1999.

Growth of Military bands in Britain

Regimental music in its earliest form was created by soldiers with trumpet, fife, and drum. It was not until the first part of the eighteenth century that military bands began to make their appearance. They usually consisted of eight instrumentalists comprising two oboes ,two clarinets, two bassoons, and two horns. The bands were privately maintained by the officers in Britain and civilians often were hired to lead the band band were known as the Master of the band. Many of the bandmasters were foreigners because band music had advanced faster in Germany and France.

Guild of Ancient Fifes and Drums

The Guild is perhaps largely unknown to the world of military musicians. It comprises mainly professional percussion and flute players from principal orchestras, augmented by a few Corps of Drums Society members. The Guild, accoutered in 16th Century uniforms, play music ranging from the earliest of these isles, to music of today, together with the occasional, amiable foray into the re-established, internationally famous tradition of drum and fife in Basle, Switzerland; (whence Britain is thought to have copied the fife). The Guild’s Basle fifes are compatible with concert piccolos and its melody instrument otherwise, is the 16th Century, keyless fife.

History of Military Music

(14 Parts)

(1) WHEN we read of “military music”, we instinctively visualize “the pomp and circumstance of glorious war”. It is true that the term strictly belongs to the music of the armed throng, but the expression in this sense, is almost a misnomer, since it has come to signify any combination of wood-wind, brass and percussion instruments, as distinct from the so-called “string band” or orchestra. Indeed, it has been claimed that the phrase “wind band” would be more acceptable because the brass band could also find inclusion under such a label. So nevertheless, the fact remains that the modern military band, in its wider significance, was cradled, nurtured and developed to its present perfection under the need and stress of martial array. Yet, strange as it may seem, we have no modern history of its development.

Over half a century ago, a well-known army bandmaster J.A.Kappey, pointed out how serious was this flaw in our histories of music. “While historians”, he wrote, “reveled in descriptions of the grandeur of ecclesiastic compositions, of the music of the princely palaces or the royal playhouses, the music of the people has been passed over with almost contemptuous indifference, and it seems as if they were, so to say, ashamed to mention the poor cousin who found inspiration in the open air, or went ‘a-soldiering’. “Since those days, our ideas of the military band have changed materially, and its music has, finally, come into its own. In feudal days, kings and those of a like estate took unto themselves the trumpet’s blast as a royal prerogative, and nobody save those of the courtly circle dared to sound the silver, snarling trumpets”. Thus trumpet bands were developed by the elect, and courts the world over used their brilliant fanfares, not merely as “sonorous metal blowing martial sounds”, but as a recognized part of regal insignia. The incisive flourish at a King’s oral proclamation became as confirmative an essential item as the impressed seal; upon an indicted royal decree. Those of lesser social dignity had to be content with the coarser-sounding horn. Needless to say, both of these instruments played an important part in time of war, where their potency In conveying signals and in daunting the enemy is often paraded in martial annals.

In castles and fortified towns, other military musicians kept watch from towers and blew horns when danger threatened. They were called “Waits” in Britain, a name that still survives in the nocturnal musicians who serenade at Christmas time. It was no different on the Continent. in the Netherlands we read that “die Wachter blaest sines horen”; in Flanders that the Wettes did a like duty; in Germany that the Turmer or tower-men sounded their horns at specific hours, which was precisely the function of the Waits in England.

In the actual military array proper of western Europe, only trumpets and horns were used until the eleventh century, and this is what we see with the Crusaders when they took the field against the Saracens. In the French Romans d’Alexandre (1180) we read of cors, buisnes and grailes. It was no better with the English, whose valiant king Richard marshaled his warriors to the sounds of the tuba, lituus and buccina. In the opposing Saracen army there was a much wider range of instruments in the trumpet (nafir), horn (buq), reedpipe (zamr), shawm( surnay), drum (tabl), kettledrum (naqqara), cymbals (sunuj), and bells (jalajil)). Further, their players were organized into a band which played unceasingly during the conflict for tactical purposes. As a result of the impingement of Oriental ideas on the Occident we find the latter adopting this new use of military music together with such instruments as the anafil, naker, and sonajas, whose very names tell of their Arabic origin.

As we have seen, it was only the king’s trumpets which sounded in battle, but now all kinds of shawms, reedpipes, horns and drums were employed separately as a military band. If the former conveyed the “signs of war”, it was the latter which inflamed the souls of the warriors and created fear and in the enemy.

Although Chaucer tells us that there were the instruments in the battle that “blew terrible sounds”, they were also used in combination by wandering minstrels who roamed through the countryside, and could be heard in courtyards and in castles and market squares.

It was in the hands of the minstrels that the entire aspects of music changed. They were the first “road bands” touring through many countries picking up exotic musical forms and fresh ideas for lyrics , the music, and the rhythm .Their work was met with a formidable foe in the church and state who became alarmed because their interests were undermined by the newcomers who provided popular music as opposed to secular. Out of this repressive order grew the music Guilds which eventually became the source for the various combinations of trumpeters, minstrel groups and town bands. In Germany the Guilds were very well supported by patrons. The members were trained in various musical duties and required special diplomas after four years of study to gain acceptance to the Guilds. The minstrel guild system played a very big part in the development of wind music and the wind ensemble.

The princely houses of Europe had very well defined instrumental combinations. For example King Edward III of England had as his “Musik”, 5 trumpets,2 clarions,5 pipes, 3 waits and a drum available for outdoor music. Under Edward IV court minstrels consisted of thirteen players, trumpets, shawms and small pipes. The trombone (sakbut) made its appearance later in the realm Henry VII where there were 9 trumpets, and shawms. The trombone was the natural bass instrument for this combination.

A brief review of “Military Music” attests to the influence of the Renaissance in Europe. The rebirth of the classical art of war led to the return of the ancient concept of martial music and the replacement of regal trumpets and leather-lunged minstrels with instrumentalists attached to units of cavalry and infantry. Military textbooks within the period of the Renaissance are abundantly filled with information as to what was required of military musicians.

The Swabian infantry of Maximilian had a drummer and fifer in each company of foot and a trumpeter in each troop of Horse. In the realm of Francis I of France there were two fifers and 4 tambourines allowed to every thousand men. In England the allocation was more generous as in 1557 a regiment of foot might have a drum and fife band of twelve players.

There was much in the pomp of war to keep such combinations busy. The playing of marches was a necessity and was described in Garrard’s Art of Warre(1591) when he said “According to the stroke of the drum,…so shall they go, just and even, with a gallant and sumptuous pace, for by doing so they shall be honoured and commended of the lookers on, who shall take wonderful delight to behold them. This reference is the first notation on what is known today as a Ceremonial parade. Classical music contained several snippets of military music. The music heard in Jannequin’s Bataille 1515 contained French Cavalry calls. Many of the marches were unpretentious and were simple tunes and airs which had a spirited melody and with the addition of rhythmic figurations made them popular among troops.

The growth of military band music also had an impact on the rise of the town bands in Europe. As early as the fourteenth century the waits or watch-tower musicians were combining with the pipes to provide entertainment for the citizenry. This led to the pipers being termed “bandsmen” for the town bands and began to include, fifes, shawms, cornett and crumhorne (a double reed instrument ) trombone and drum. A drawing by Durer at Nuremberg of a town band at about 1423 shows a shawm, 2 bombards (very early Tuba) 2 trombones, a fife and a drum. In the Netherland we find 6 to 9 stadspipers.

(2) The Oboe Ensemble in German Military and City Music up to 1720

Shortened version of the first two parts of a degree thesis at Schola Cantorum Basiliensis on “The Oboe Ensemble in Germany from the Beginnings to ca. 1720.”

(. Many thanks for this fine translation from Jesse A. Read, bassoonist and Baroque bassoonist at University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Renate Hildebrand’s article first appeared in the special wind instrument-oriented magazine TIBIA . . . from TIBIA No. 1/1978 (Moeck Verlag Musikinstrumentenwerk, Celle, W. Germany) TIBIA has kindly given us permission to reprint this article in English for the first time. Ed.)

It is a little known fact that the oboe and bassoon developed as solo instruments preceding their now well-known soloist-virtuoso status of the High Baroque and Classical periods. The areas of court, military, and city music deserve special attention, for here the members of oboe ensembles were joined together in “Hautboistenbanden” which had special responsibilities and social status as befitted performers of High Baroque “entertainment” music.

The schalmei (shawm), whose use in military music of course went back much further, was used in the Brandenburg-Prussian army for the first time in 1646 four schalmeis served under the Great Elector–two schalmei, one alto pommer and one bass dulcian. This arrangement is typical until the 18th century as well in the bodyguard of the Prince of Zeitz. Von Fleming wrote this in 1725 about reed instruments in the army: “The schalmei are still in use; only four men are used: two descants, one alto and one dulcian.”

In the second half of the 17th century the French developed the oboe from their schalmei. Developments were made in fundamental points and it was thenceforth called the “hautbois” by the French. For the reed instruments, the decisive step in development was made at the same time as modifications in recorders (Block-and Querflöte) and in bassoons. These developments brought these instruments into use in “Art” music. The oboe and bassoon were now more flexible than their forerunners, less through the insignificantly narrower bore as through the modified form of the bell and the reduction of the tone hole size and especially through the embouchure by which the tightly stretched lips grasped the more refined reed and could thus better modulate the tone.

Since only the instruments of the two reed families with the greatest potential for development continued to be made, some range was lost. Because of the considerable and unwieldy length, the lower-pitched instruments of the pommer family were always less flexible from the point of view of technique and sound than were the higher-pitched members, whereas with the higher-pitched dulcian instruments, different problems were encountered; it was more difficult to build the smaller doublebore instruments, their range was narrower and their sound and intonation worse. So in the 17th c. people returned to the most successful members of the instrument families which had been developing in the meantime these had already been built in their best forms as the first examples in their classes: in the Middle Ages the schalmei, then the alto pommer, and in the 16th c. the dulcian as a bass instrument.

Since the tradition of ensemble structure according to instrument families was still alive, and the double-reed instrument families of oboe and bassoon are closely related, a new ensemble with two oboes, alto oboe, and bassoon arose from these two groups. This corresponded to the ensemble with two schalmei, alto pommer and dulcian which was already common at the beginning of the 17th century.

At the court of Louis XIV, mostly marches, dance tunes, and airs were played with the new oboes in the above mentioned arrangement, with, however, a doubling of the voices. In the 1680’s French oboists with their new instruments and their ensemble structure came to Germany most of them as court musicians. Up to that time the oboe was unknown in French military music. Later however, the oboe made its appearance there, after the French oboists had become familiar with the German schalmei in the army.

An account from the year 1690 runs: “A few years ago, French schalmei players, known as ‘hautboisten’ became known and were used in battle.” In 1681, “four German schalmei players” and a “French hautbois”” played in the infantry regiment of Anhalt-Dessau. Whether he played the principal voice or whether he was intended for the instruction of the descants, or both, is not known. In 1695 in the army of the Bavarian Elector Maximilian Emanuel II, the infantry regiments had progressively changed to six oboists; however, the old schalmei ensemble was retained until the middle of the 18th century. Von Fleming wrote in 1726: “The regimental pipers were for a time also called schalmei pipers, and at the time such instruments which gave a clear tone were played in front of the regiment so as to encourage the ordinary soldier all the more. Subsequently they were, however, difficult to play, and at close range unpleasant to the ear, so instead of the German schalmei [1], the French oboe became popular, and is now used almost everywhere.”

Later, until the second half of the 18th c., there were six regimental oboists in Prussia, Bavaria, and Austria, according to von Fleming:

“Subsequently however, the oboe came into its own, so now there were six oboes, since the oboe sounded not so harsh as, but much sweeter than the schalmei. In order to improve the harmony even more, there were now two descants, two taille, and two bassoons,” so that it is clear that “oboe” had become the generic term for the instruments from descant to bass, just as later “Hautbois” is strictly a military term. “Taille” refers in this context to the alto oboe. In a bill from the instrument maker Jacob Denner to the Göttweig Monastery (Kloster Göttweig), “bassoon” was written in beside the bass oboe and also beside the bass members of the blockflöten and chalumeaux, as almost always the “bassoon” as the bass member of an oboe ensemble was distinguished from “fagott”, the bass member of an ensemble which included strings.

An original composition “for Oboists of the Court and Battlefield, arranged for four or more instruments playing” is “Die Lustige Feldmusik” by Johann Phillip Krieger, written in 1704 for two oboes, alto oboe and bassoon. With six voices, it was necessary to double the two oboe voices or the first oboe and the bassoon. Two other works for oboe ensembles, whose arrangement is known, but whose music is missing, are the “Ouverture a 4″ for “two oboes, one taille and one bassoon” by P. Wieland (ca. 1700), and the “Ouverturensuite a 4″ by Ph. Heinrich Erlebach (1657-1714) for two oboes, taille, and bassoon. The pitch distribution of such a four-voice piece corresponds to a piece for instruments of the violin (not the gamba!) family and thus enables the same music to be played on different instruments — an important circumstance for the oboists.

The Sonsfeld music collection in the possession of the Prussian General Friedrich Otto Freiherr von Wittenhorst-Sonsfeld (1678-1755) contains almost exclusively works from the early 18th century, in which several oboes and bassoons are required, in most cases accompanied by a trumpet. The six part-books of the manuscript collection bear the initials G. v. L. which very probably can be taken to mean that they once belonged to the Prussian General Georg von Lilien. A further notation on the part-books specifies under the respective instruments, the reed instruments first: Hautbois I. . . Hautbois II. . . Hautbois III. . . Taille . . . Bassoon I. . . Bassoon II. . . It therefore has to do with ouverturensuites and concerti, in most of which a trumpet plays above an oboe ensemble movement. For the vast majority of 52 works, no composer is given. The most common arrangement is trumpet, three oboes, taille, bassoon (or two bassoons). Occasionally two violins or two horns are added, or the taille is left out; in one case even two flutes and two cornets are combined with two oboes and two bassoons, in exceptional cases there are only reed movements without trumpet.

About 1720 a six-voice movement with two oboes, two horns and two bassoons made its appearance, indicating an exchange of tenor oboe for the horns. The earliest surviving infantry marches are written for this arrangement. This was the arrangement until the end of the 18th century, notably in Telemann’s Suite in F, in Haydn’s Divertimenti Hob. II No. 7, 15, and 23 and Mozart’s Divertimenti KV 213, 240, 252, 253, 270 and 289. The four-oboists band which made its debut at the Dresden Court Festival in 1719 had a simple four voice arrangement with three reed-players and one horn. Even before 1719 J. G. Store had written a march for two oboes, horn and bassoon. Von Fleming writes: “In the Royal Polish and the Elector of Saxony’s infantry it is arranged that with the six oboists yet two horn players must join, which produces a right pleasant harmony.”

Later the horn was joined by the clarinet which was invented at the beginning of the 18th c. The usual arrangement in the second half of the 18th c. then was: two oboes, two clarinets, two horns and two bassoons. The Mozart Serenades KV 375 and 388 and Haydn’s “Feld-Parthien Hob II 4143 were intended for this arrangement. In the Musikalischen Lexicon by H. Chr. Koch (1802) is found the heading, “Hoboisten, hoboistenchor”. The entry reads: “A beautiful wind music consisting usually of two oboes, two clarinets, two horns and two bassoons.”

To this Von Fleming adds: In the Royal Prussian and Brandenburg Elector’s regiments, a trumpeter on foot instead of a horn player goes ahead,” which, incidentally indicates the social decline of the formerly privileged trumpeter.

The oboists who were on the staff of the infantry regiments, played most importantly in the personal service of the commanders, who, in Brandenburg-Prussia until 1707 and even later, paid them out of their own pockets. Von Fleming writes about this service: “Every morning in front of the commander’s quarters, the oboists play a morning song, a march which he likes particularly, an entree and two minuets which he is particularly fond of; and in the evenings this is repeated, or whenever the officer has guests or calls an assembly, and they listen to violins and cellos and sweet flutes and other instruments. . .”

Military oboists came mostly from the “Stadtpfeifereien” (henceforth translated as “town musician groups”) and played many other instruments, and were frequently interchangeable (einsetzbar). Occasionally they even appeared in court chapel music ensembles. This is mentioned, for example, in 1704 at Sonderhausen and in 1706 at Schwerin. Reinhard Keiser writes to the court of Wurtemberg, that he has in mind a combining of the two good regimental bassoonists for his Suite for 8 oboes; and in the “Pageant of the Gods” in Dresden in 1695, seven bassoonists of the local sovereign’s own guards assisted 35 others.

In Leipzig the regimental oboists played outside the military at funerals, and in Sonderhausen at soldier’s funerals the Hautboistenkorps was especially important. Von Fleming reports on the burial of an officer: “The oboists walk before the body playing a dirge on muffled oboes.” A further function was, naturally: “The trumpets, drums, fifes and oboes encourage the soldiers in battles and attacks, they control marching advances and retreats.”

As already mentioned, until now the regimental oboists were of the civilian school, the best of whom were sure to seek places in the court, chapel, and city music ensembles. Those who went to the military as a rule were not the best. There was less demand (in the army) and the job was poorly paid. Mattheson cannot deny himself a parting shot: “However, the oboes were not played in the most delicate way (in the field or among the public where it is not so precisely taken) so I would rather hear a good jew’s harp or kazoo.” And von Fleming: “the trumpets, oboes and others of the same, which make too loud a noise, are damaging to the head and the health, they impair the lungs and deform the face; the cheeks and the eyes become swollen.”

In order to improve the level of playing King Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia founded the “Hautboistenschule” in 1724 in the military orphanage in Potsdam. The first head of the school was Gottfried Pepusch, a brother of Johann Christoph. He was a member of the Brandenburg court chapel ensemble until its dissolution, and then remained as Staff Oboist and had many pupils, six of whom went to Hannover in 1701-2. Oboists were sent to Berlin for further instruction also, five by the Margrave von Ausbach.

As with court and free oboe bands, so also in the regimental bands “the first oboist had to understand composing, the music so much the better to order.” The Dessau March, for example, was composed by an oboist.

Unfortunately, nothing particularly concerning the oboe’s history can be gathered from the extensive information on town musical groups, so that it can be assumed that the oboe was adopted with very little fuss. In 1690 Kuhnau writes in his novel Musicus Vexatus that besides the importance of mastery of the trumpet, bomhart (pommer), cornet, trombone and dulcian, there was demanded a reasonable skill on the oboe and stringed instruments. Indeed in a report of the laying of a foundation in Glaucha in 1698, the town musicians marched with schalmei and bagpipes, nevertheless, after 1700 the schalmei was no longer mentioned in the town pipers groups.

Linked with this is an interesting regulation of the prorector in Halle in 1703: “After nine o’clock in winter and ten o’clock in summer, all loud music, whether on horns, trumpets, and drums or oboes or post-horns is forbidden.” Also in Halle, in 1698, the Scheinhardtsche Companie was famous for attending luncheon tables with violins, oboes, horns, trumpets, kettledrums, and “French schalmei.”

The different instruments had particular tasks in the town music groups. For example, trombones were played, but never required, while strings were reserved for other special tasks. On the other hand, the oboe took on such a universal importance, that groups of musicians called themselves simply “hautboistenbanden” even though they played other instruments also, in order to show that they were available to play with the newly fashionable instrument, outdoors, in houses and churches on both solemn and gay occasions.

The town music group was, of course, an extended training school for the new generation of musicians. Besides stringed instruments the wind instruments were nevertheless their own domain. For example, the pupils at the Thomas school in Leipzig received wind instrument instruction from the town musical group, but instruction on the other instruments from Thomas-Kantor. A supplementary article to the Guild Records set out in 1662 by the Elector of Saxony forbade organists to instruct their pupils on wind instruments, since this was the role of the town musicians. Most of the court and regimental musicians had received their five to six years instruction in the town musicians ensemble.

The town musicians saw to it carefully that they would have no competition. In 1689 it was ordered in Chemnitz that schalmeis were to be played only by town musicians. In addition, in 1702 King Friedrich I of Prussia bestowed the privilege of public oboe playing on the “Hyntzschen Companie” which caused the town musicians great loss. At the time there were about 30 oboists in Halle, however they were only permitted to play the oboe for private occasions or outside the city gates as long as they were excluded from the privilege. Here, as a schoolboy of Zachow, who himself came from a town musicians group, Handel learned to appreciate the oboe and probably composed his trio sonatas for two oboes and basso continuo.

The chapter on town musicians should not be ended without mentioning the Denners, father and son, Johann Schell, and other Nuremberg makers of woodwind instruments, who were contemporary with the town musicians of Nuremberg, which in part explains the quality of the Nuremberg instruments. The spontaneous expansion in Germany of the originally French oboe is essentially thanks to these instrument craftsmen. The oboe parts of Bach’s works show to whose ability the town pipers owe their success.

The so-called “stadtoboists” deserve mention. Such musicians of the city “miliz” were designated for the first time in 1716 in Frankfurt: “six oboists in their fine uniforms walked before the troops playing Telemann’s March.” In Leipzig in 1720 the Stadtmiliz employed oboists as well as drummers and flautists, about 1750 this group was called the “Stadthautboisten.” As a rule the group consisted of six men, as in the military groups and was put together mostly from dismissed regimental musicians, who had to be given a place in civilian service. Their duties included playing for the guard, and for festivities and processions of the town. They could play privately in taverns by the city gate. In the second half of the 18th century we no longer find these (miliz) musicians in the city records, just as free oboe ensembles, in Halle for example (see above) are no longer mentioned outside of particular occasions.

FOOTNOTES

[1] The idea of German schalmei arose in the 17th c. and referred to instruments which were described by James Talbot in 1700 thus: “They are used in the German army, but have a sweeter sound than the schalmei of other countries. They have only six key holes, no key for the lowest tone, but instead a fontanelle, and the lowest tone with six covered holes is C’.” Such instruments are preserved in many museums, among them Brussels, Nuremberg, Basel and Leipzig. [return]

LITERATURE

Baines, A.: James Talbot’s mauscript, in: The Galpin Society Journal I, 1948.

Beinroth, F. W.: Musikgeschichte der Stadt Sondershausen. Innsbruck, 1943.

Brand, H. J.: Die ehemalige Hoboistenschule im Königlich Potsdamschen Militärwaisenhaus. Deutsche Militärmusiker-Zeitung, 51. Jahrgang (1930), Nr. 49.

Braun, W.: Entwurfeiner Typologie der ‘Hautboisten’, in: Salem, W., Der sozialstatus des Berufsmusikers vom 17.-19. Jh. Kassel, 1971.

Fleming, H.: Der volkommene teutsche Soldat. Leipzig, 1726.

Meyer, K.: Geschichte de Mecklenberg-Schweriner Hofkapelle. Schwerin, 1913

Nickel, E.: Der Holzblasinstrumentenbau in der freien Reichstadt Nürnberg. Munchen, 1971.

Panoff, P.: Militärmusik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Berlin, 1938.

Rau, K. W.: Geschichte der Chemnitzer Stadtpfeifer. 1932.

Reschke, J.: Studie zur Geschichte der brandenburgischpreufischen Heeresmusik. Diss. phil. Berlin, 1935.

Reschke, J.: Zur Geschichte der deutschen Militärmusik der 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts. deutsche Musikkultur II, 1937.

Schering, A.: Musikgeschichte Leipzigs, II. Leipzig, 1926.

Seraukyk W.: Musikgeschichte der Stadt Halle. Halle, 1935 ff.

Sievers, H.: Die Musik in Wolfenbüttel-Braunschweig, in: Die Musik in Hannover, Hannover, 1961.

Sittard, J.: Zur Geschichte der Musik und des Theaters am württembergischen Hoff, II. Stuttgart, 1891.

Walther, J. G.: Musicalisches Lexicon. Leipzig, 1732.

Werner, A.: Städtische und furstliche Musikplfege in Zeitz. Bückeburg und Leipzig, 1922.
(3) The Genius of Mozart

FRANCE was not only leading the wind-instrumental world at the opening of the eighteenth century but she was looked upon as the fount of this art. Both England and Scotland had been influenced as we have seen, in their adoption of oboe bands. Even Germany was is affected by Gallic military modes, at least in its music if in nothing else. Yet the lands beyond the Rhine were already displaying themselves to advantage in the higher branches of the art, and were certainly busy in improving their bands, so much so that they were soon to leave France behind Many changes had been forced upon instrumentation. Cromornes and cornetts had passed out of use by the turn of the century, although, Gluck;was using cornetts much later.

With the oboe becoming a simpler instrument to play it soon was able to push itself in a melodic sense to the forefront. The bassoon also became a very useful instrument replacing the bombard instruments and also the trombone fell into neglect. The alteration in the coiling of the tube of the horn (and this was why it became known as the “french horn” gave this instrument new and useful position in wind bands. . The greatest novelty was the emergence of the clarinet an instrument said to have been “invented” in 1696. When all these band instruments appeared in the military band is not certain yet one feels instinctively that most of them spent their prentice years in open-air bands before they were patronized by indoor orchestras.

Unfortunately we are denied complete documents from French sources regarding the state of military music during the first half of the eighteenth century. German army band of 1706 consisted of2 oboes, 2 trumpets or horns, and 2 bassoons, plus drums, but by the mid fixed by Frederick the Great, which was quite familiar to Mozart and Beethoven. In Britain there is fund of documents about regimental bands although not so complete in the earlier years as available elsewhere. As late as 1731 the band of the Honorable Artillery Company was confined”one curtail, three oboes, and no more”. In 1746 there is reference in a parliamentary report to the music, hautbois and fifers of the Foot Guards. Probably it referred. to other fixed by Frederick the Great, which was quite familiar to Mozart and Beethoven. In Britain there is fund of documents about regimental bands although not so complete in the earlier years as available elsewhere. As late as 1731 the band of the Honorable Artillery Company was confined”one curtail, three oboes, and no more”. In 1746 there is reference in a parliamentary report to the music, hautbois and fifers of the Foot Guards. Probably it referred. to other It is not until 1762 when the famous Royal Artillery Band was formed in Germany that we get a precise instrumentation of 2 trumpets, 2 French Horns and 4 Hautbois or clarinetts.

The Artillery band increased in size to 10 players in 1792 and twelve in 1798. Many of the British Regimenyt had at least 8-10 musicians in their ranks. Cavalry bands also moved with the times and adopted oboes into their bands along with trumpets and kettledrums. Also they were augmented by bassoons. In 1767 the Horse Guards as they had very strong combinations which included trumpets ,oboes, bassoons and drums. A rather stimulating combination even without a trombone-but in 1769 two bassoons were added. At the same time it must be under-stood that excepting the Royal Artillery, the Life Guards the Horse Guards the Horse Grenadier Guards and the Foot Guards, all “Bands of Musick” in the army were unofficial although tolerated.This was also the rule in France to some extent. Here, military bands, and even militarv music in general, had deteriorated. The Uhlans of Marshal Saxe in 1741 the Gardes Francaises and a regiment of Croats had bands of horns, bassoons and cymbals. Whilst a Harmonie-Musik formula was still the rule, the Instruments were frequently doubled, as in 1762 when the French Guards had the performers in their bands increased from eight to sixteen, and in 1738 to twenty-four.Thus far we have been able to comprehend the growing strength and the widening instrumentation of the military band. This name had now come to mean, in Britain, the army band, because the latter had quite eclipsed the old town band, which had almost died out. In most instances the membership of army bands consisted of hired professionals, a position which stood military musicians in good stead occasionally.

When the Swedish garrison of Demmin capitulated in 1759 the ARTICLES OF SURRENDER READ “The hautbois and musicians being paid by the officers ,shall be at liberty. In one of Marlborough’s campaigns, when the oboes of a French regiment were ordered to strike up battle music to cheer their comrades they couldn’t be found. It appears that after the first shots had been fired the the oboes their exit. Evidently they were pleased with the “pomp”‘ but not the “circumstance” In Britain, it is said, the first band of enlisted musicians 1st Foot Guards (Grenadiers) in 1749. The rising importance musically of the military band brought the definite recognition of its leader or director who, throughout the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth century, led his band with his instrument, often the oboe. He was dubbed the Master Musician or Music major in Britain Kapellmeister in Germany, and Capo- Musica in Italy. In Britain and the United Kingdom of there was a craze for foreigners as bandmasters usually Germans and Italians.Among these aliens were some names of eminence.

The famous astronomer Sir William Herschel, a Hanoverian, was bandmaster of theDurham Militia John Kohler an instrument maker was bandmaster of the Lancashire Volunteers; Johann Logier,a early musical textbook author was in a similar position in the Kilkenny MilitiaThe appeal of the military band because of its portability was lending to it’s success. True, the primary purpose of this institution army duties, that is to to provide music for the marching and lifting the spirits of the soldier in battle, and to brighten and comfort soldiers in their bivouacs and in barracks. Yet there was considerably more to the new art form.Kipling once wrote “there no greater asset to recruiting than the band”. Since the officers supported regimental music by contributions to a “band fund”, they took every opportunity of using the regimental band for their own pleasures, even to have the band perform on civic or private occasions. In other words, they began to enter the orbit which had been the purview of town bands. In many centers of music the bands began to have regular subscription concerts. This fact is born out by the programs of the Royal Artillery Band in England. The Terraces of Versailles held numerous concerts featuring first the French Gardes du Corps and later colossal bands of the National Guard who played for the festivals of the Republic.The actual music played by military bands of the period does not reveal any drastic departure from the music which preceded it. The most important element being the march, and this was practiced in two, if not three forms the slow march, which the Germans called the parade march the quick march which the French called the pas redouble and the double quick march which was called the pas de charge. Theslow march was taken at 80 paces to the minute in Britain. Examples of the slow march can be found in march books from the past including a book called WARLIKE MUSIC … a collection of marches and Trumpet tunes.

The contributors to this collection included the venerable Mr Handel,and the book contains slow marches which were from the relm of opera including SCIPIO and RINALDO.The quick march with a tempo of M..M.=100 was in 2/2 or 2/4 (6/8 marches were mostly in vogue in Britain)Prussia originated the quick march in the 6/8 meter and the idea spread rapidly through Europe. The custom of units employing distinctive folk songs as regimental marches both in quick and slow time began during this period (circa 1760-1800) The marches were often in the 6/8 meter and were performed during regimental occasions. Most of these marches have been preserved. In Germany prized it’s historic marches -Der alte Deassauer(1705) Hohenfriedberger(1745) and Coburger(c 1750).Austria also developed some glorious marches including The Prinz Engen March Pappenhiemer and the Musketiers von Friedland.Despite the artistic progress of the military band the movement had not attracted the great composers. Reinhard Keiser(1674-1739) the creator of German opera was the first to patronise the wind ensemble by composing two suites for military band most likely based on his operas and dated 1715 noted as Kayserliche FriedensPost. Nicholas Hasse is the composer of an AUFZUG(fanfare style) for 2 trumpets and two kettledrums(1750).

The British Museum houses several early numbers for military band including Handel’s overture to his Fireworks Music(1749) scored for 3 trumpets, three horns,3 oboes,2 bassoons witha contra-bassoon and kettledrums. In browsing the score one is taken with the massive tutti scoring that must have given listeners an earful at this very early period.C.P.E. Bach wrote numerous compositions for the smaller Harmonie Musik combination of six, as well as for seven and eight players. Johann Christian, the London Bach, composed marches for this type of band, whilst Michael Haydn did a Turkish March for twelve instruments and percussion. His brother, the greater Haydn, contributed divertimenti and Feldpartien items for the military band, and when in England he wrote two marches for the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV, and another two for the Volunteer Cavalry of Derbyshire.The divertinmento was, like the partita, a suite of several movements, whilst the equally favored Military Concerto was an instrumental solo, usually with variations. The only other music of the concert type for the military band was for the most part arrangements from operas and oratorios. One recalls how this is illustrated in the second act of Mozart’s great opera where Don Giovanni’s hand of Harmonie-Musik entertains him at dinner with extracts from current operas including Figaro. On the whole it cannot be said that there is anything arresting in the wind-band music of the period. Gluck might have done something, and we know that he was invited to contribute to French rnilitary music. Of course he may have been made aware of France’s slow development in this sphere, and Rousseau had been cruelly contemptuous of this music. Even later, if one peruses the marches of Pugnani (and he was director of military music to the Duke of Piedmont), the suites by W. F. E. Bach a grandson of Johann Sebastian-or the works of Sussmayer the friend of Beethoven, it is crystal clear that no great progress had been made in wind-band music since Lully’s time.It was not until Mozart’s genius streaked across the sky that one discerns fresh ideas in the treatment of the instruments of the wind band. His ten years’ experience (1773-82) in composing a score of divertimenti and serenades and the like for the wind ensemble had enlightened him on the wider capabilities and the greater beauties of its instruments. That for which he scored was the ordinary town band–2 oboes, 2 horns, and 2 bassoons–although after 1781 he preferred clarinets to oboes, except when he used both. Occasionally he added 2 cor anglais or 2 basset horns,

Even the cavalry~band instrumentation fascinated him, 5 -or 6 trumpets and a pairs of kettledrums, with 2 flutes these latter were probably fifes, which had become popular with cavalry bands, even in Britain.”I have now no light task to get my opera (Il Seraglio) arranged for military hand,” wrote Mozart in July 1732 ”You cannot Imagine the difficulty of arranging an opera for military hand, to make it fit for wind instruments without sacrificing any of the effects.” Whatever the difficulties in this task of arranging, Mozart was certainly a master hand at scoring in this domain—a trail which he was to blaze for others, It was just as well, perhaps, that Mozart carrie at this particular ti me to break down the conservative notions of writing in the monotonous vertical treatment of military literature up to that point. In any ease, there had been scarcely any recognition of the precise characteristics of individual instruments in pre Mozart days.The use of clarinets in his symphonic works and his concerti for clarinet changed the entire perspective for the military band. The employment of the full dimensions of this instrument was one of the most important catalysts in the development of the wind band . There were other vital changes coming to the military band, for the most part extrinsic, but fortunately the Salzburg master had already settled what was intrinsic before these changes came.

(4) Different Drummers

TWO factors which brought a forceful crescendo to the military band were the so-called Janissary Music and the inordinate military and social zeal aroused by the French Revolution,

The Oriental influence was nothing new in the field of Military music. We have seen the Saracen influence in the Middle Ages. At the Renaissance, the French) envious of the kettle drums of the Hungarians, already borrowed from the Turks, introduced them into West as timballes These Tamballes, were reserved for royalty arid corps of elite cavalry, although artillery had them mounted on a chariot. Oboe bands, as we know, were also an Eastern plagiarism, and in the early eighteenth century further borrowed plumes from the Turks found favor. Janissary Music which meant the adoption of the bass drum, the deep but portable kettledrum and the tambourine, together with cymbals, triangle and “Jingling Johnny”, the last word being a popular imitation of the Turkish name chahana. The credit for having introduced this batterv of percussion and concussion into Europe usually goes to Poland which, in the 1720′S, had received a full Turkish band from the Sultan. Russia, ‘not to be outdone, sought a similar favor of the Sultan in 1725, Prussia and Austria following suit, and by the 1770′S most other countries had fallen under the sway of Janissary Music. Later borrowers dispensed with hiring Ottoman performers Negroes being employed in their stead because these had long been employed as trumpeters and drummers in European armies. In the British army we see cymbals in the 24th Foot (1777), with bass drum and tambourine added in the Royal Artillery (1782), and a Jingling Johnnie and a tambourines in the Coldstream_Guards(1785).

These “blacks” as they were designated on the muster rolls displayed great ability and agility in the handling of these percussion instruments. Dressed in the most outlandish Eastern style, and by performing their rhythmic functions they added not only to the gaiety of nations but to the rehabilitation of military music from a military point of view. In 1786 the British War Office had actually forbidden the “band” to be used for parading, but the new exotic craze helped to bring about the restoration of the musically cadenced step. Many of the march books of the period reveal that the instruments employed and music were Turkish in content . The military band did not retain sole possession of Janissary Music. Mozart used this medium in the Opera SERAGLIO(1781) and Haydn in the MILITARY SYMPHONY (1794) Hector Belioz is quoted as having said that the “alien instruments” had come to stay as they were cradled in the orchestral score but having been born in the military band .

One of the contributory reasons for the emergence of military band instruments other than the simplistic instruments associated with what was called HARMONIE-MUSIK was the necessity to develop tonal colours and balance within the military band. Th addition of percussion and the advancement of wind instruments made this condition possible.

When the French Revolution broke out in 1789 military music in France was at a low ebb. Within a year France became the military music luminaries of western Europe. The watch words of the revolution ,”Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity” were but grand slogans which needed to have some cultural attachment to make the message clear to the populace with sights and sounds. It was then that the French devolved the grand national festivals. The raison detre to celebrate the revolution became the monster parades and out door concerts with massive bands and choirs all singing and playing to praise and further the philosophical doctrine of Mirabeau and Voltaire.

An outstanding part of the open-air fetes was played by the newly-formed band of the National Guard. Raised in 1789 by Bernard Sarrette with 45 performers who were taken over the following year by the Paris Municipality. In 1792 the band was suppressed and although the band had limited success it became the focal point for the establishment of the ECOLE ROYALE de CHANT (later the Conservatory of Music) and the school was the mainstay for the provision of military musicians for the numerous French military bands which began to become established. The instrumentation of bands during the revolutionary period is of importance to the history . of military music itself. As planned by the Conservatory the military band of 1779 consisted of I flute; 6 clarinets, 3 bassoons, 1 trumpet, 2 horns, 1 serpent, with bass drum and cymbals.. The massed bands for the fetes were of enormous dimensions.

As planned by the Conservatory the military band of 1779 consisted of I flute; 6 clarinets, 3 bassoons, 1 trumpet, 2 horns, 1 serpent, with bass drum and cymbals.. The massed bands for the fetes were of enormous dimensions. . On one occasion there were 10 flutes, 30 clarinets, 18 bassoons, 4 trumpets, 2 curved tuba, 4 buccins 12 horns, trombones, 8 Serpent; with 10 side-, bass and kettle drummers, cymbals and triangle beaters.

Indeed, for spectacular effects, three hundred drummers could be mustered for a prodigious roll when needed. In this instrumentation one observes the temporary eclipse of the oboe by the clarinet. This was because the latter instrument, played with the reed uppermost and an embouchure produced a clarino (high trumpet sound. The clarinet also had a very good range from the chalameau (low register)’ to the sopranino register. Then there was the Small F flute as help in the higher registers, and Berlioz thought that such an instrument would be serviceable in ordinary orchestras Lastly, and more importantly, there was the addition of the trombone and serpent so as to give greater weight to the foundations of the wind ensemble.

The reaction to the radical changes in French bands was not .long in making itself in making itself manifest elsewhere. Germany not wishing to usurped immediately created a Guards band with an instrumental establishment of 1 piccolo 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons 1 trumpets, 3horns, 1 serpent and 6 Schlaginstrumente(percussion). Britain also saw the value of a balanced instrumentation although influenced by the French Model as seen in Grenadier Guards band of 1794 with 1 flute, 6 clarinets, 3 bassoons, 1 trumpet, 3 horns,, 2 serpents and the Janisserary percussion. It was agreed that by 1794 France, Germany and Britain certainly were at the leading edge of military bands world wide.

Returning to the hub of the military band world band world in France, we see that the band of the National Guard numbered twenty-seven. Cavalry bands were eventually raised and handsomely furnished with 16 trumpets, 6 horns and .3 trombones, to which kettledrurns were added in cuirassiers and carbiniers. The newest band which was raised was the Consular band which eventually took the place of the National Guard band and won fame under directors Michel Gebauer and Mathieu Blasius. and the oboe had been restored Under the Empire (1804), with Napolean, a larger band was allowed the Imperial Guard It was for this combination that Paer composed his four Grande Marches for Napoleon’s wedding with Marie Louise in 1810.

What contributed most to France’s pre-eminence in military music was the requirement for it. Secondly, it had composers of the mettle of Gossec, Catel and Mehul and Cherubini living and working in France. Thirdly, the band of the National Guard was composed of some of finest wind band players in Europe”. The output for the military band was enormous. In addition to the innumerable quick steps and other parade band and marching music, as well as the settings of patriotic songs, there were symphonies, suites and overtures of the first rank composed for this combination. Gossec was already a pioneer in music before the Revolution broke out, having been the first to broach the symphonic form, to use a military band with an orchestra, and to demonstrate the value of the Clarinet and trombone in the latter. The Revolution, with its clear cut with the past, provided a medium for new and vibrant works from his facile pen.

In terms of “form”, the symphonies of Gossec take first place. There is one in ‘C which comprises one movement only; another, in F, of two movements. They may not be what we know discern as symphonies but, the three movements were quite an engaging and animated work work. His Marche Lugubre, written for the translation of the body of Voltaire (1791), with those preludial notes ‘for ‘the gong and kettledrums, is a somber , moving dirge. Of greater consequence are the symphonies of Catel, who shared honors with Gossec in directing the bands. His symphony in F, written in the Hayden style is an exhilarating piece of writing, whilst the one in C displays some daring modulations, almost modem in their audacity. A symphony by Louis Jadin is even more, advanced in its bolder harmonies and, incidentally, reveals a striking prophesy of what Felix Mendelssohn was to write in the Scherzo of the “Reformation” Symphony.

The overtures by the composers of the Revolution are even better than the so-called symphonies. Two by Catel are of some importance, especially the one in F but another, in C, by Louis Jadin, is superior in many ways, with some unconventional touches in harnony and a quaint ryhmic shadowing of the Finale in Beethoven’s Symphony in C minor. Lastly, there is an overture in F by Hyacinthe Jadin a brother Louis Jadin which stands an easy first among the overtures of the revolutionary “period. Practically all of this music has passed out of use but remain as outstanding treasures of military band music. Ca Ira attributed to the drummer Becourt is an outstanding example of music which has withstood the test of time. It remains a well known and often played march.

Turning to Germany the great composers of this era also lent their hand to the creation of band music. Dittersdorf, Franz Hoffmeister ,Pleyel,Franz Kummer began writing for the band combinations. Some of the music was forgettable but it was important material to add to the repertoire. Beethoven also saw the military band asa good medium. Most of the music falls within the period which closes with the events of 1815. His earliest compositions include the Rondino and the Octetor Parthia in Eb (1872 which was the originally written as String Quartet (opus 4). He followed these works with his sparkling tattoo music (ZAPFENSTRICH) of 1809the one in F having been written for the Bohemian Landswehr. These were followed by the Polonaise Ecossaise and the March in F (1810) . The march for 2 clarinets,2 horns and 2 bassoons although undated was a fine composition for the period. His march in D written in 1816 is an example of his finest writing for the wind ensemble. The full score for this march indicates that save for the omission of the trombone it is very much equal to modern instrumentation(no saxophones of course) He also employed the F clarinet which had been used in the French Bands previously. It was useful as a outdoor backup for flutes. The march is certainly in advance of anything previously. Beethoven wrote to publisher and said” this march could be played by several bands united, but even if one band lacked instrumentation it could be easily utilized by leaving out some of the parts”. He foresaw the versatility of bands and their ability to adapt themselves with small or large combinations. A hundred and fifty years passed before formula band writing was discovered.

Band music in Britain had also begun to expand with the Royal Artillery band mustering thirty-eight performers in 1812 including boys and Janisserary. The Coldstream Guards had risen from twelve in 1785 to twenty-two in 1815. The King’s regulations also were changed to allow line bands to have as many as twelve performers by allowing one bandsman per company. Bandmasters were now beginning to have more attention paid to their merits as leaders such as George McKenzie of the Royal Artillery while John Mahon and Edward Hopkins became the leaders of the Scots of Third Guards band. One of the attactions of Life in 18th century London was the “Guard Mounting” at St James Palace which began around 1818.

There also sprung up another universal type of band and that was the bands for militia, volunteers,Yoemanry and fensibles. These bands which were formed mostly in Britain were of very high quality. In many instances they were led by well known local musicians. The abundance of new music also helped to createa healthy atmosphere for the bands. It is also interesting to note that much of the music from this period was published and in reviewing the scores we find that the composers were very serious about their work and the quality. The music also tells us that the performers were of very high standards particularly in works that were arranged from orchestral sources.

Thus we can see a pattern emerging which shows that the developing musical instruments in tandem with the literature and the evolution of the military musician were entering a new sphere and a new world was dawning for the military band.

(5) New Sounds

From its coming to its going the nineteenth century was teeming with new devices and ideas in. the realm of instruments, and most of innovations were born

In addition, pioneered in the military band. While the entire family of the woodwind was chromatic by this time, the brass, except the trombone, was confined to the harmonics of their tubes. Before 1798 John Hyde. The trumpet major of flit London and Westminster Light Horse had introduced his slide trumpet. This bridged the gap between the natural harmonics. Yet there was still room for improvement This was partly accomplished in 1810 by James Halliday, the bandmaster of the Cavan Militia, who, with live keys on his Kent Bugle completely revolutionized the military band, especially after John Distin of the South Devon Militia.Band had added two more keys to the Royal Kent~Bugle ‘The importance of this system grew under the hands of Halary of Paris who made a choir of these instruments the baritone of which was the ophicleide. It was not very long before these innovations were adopted into the orchestra. Halary also made a contrabass ophicleide which had a capricious existence, most bands contenting themselves with the old serpent, although its contorted shape made it uncomfortable on the march Regibo had cancelled its serpentine form when be produced the Russian bassoon in 1789 and this, in time was followed by the bass horn designed and produced by Frichot and Astor in London about 1800. Although the improved serpents were easier to handle, their tone was little better than that of their predecessor–”essentially barbarous”, as Berlioz put it. Of greater value was the. Adoption of the E flat and B flat clarinets, which opened the way to a wider choice of keys than the eternal colors of F and C.

In British military bands the instrumentation, pitch, and even the dress, which was most ornate, were matters which commanding officers and bandmasters decided for themselves. Officers, who purchased their commissions in those days, were responsible for the upkeep of their bands; most of the bandmasters were still civilians and foreigners. Yet bands were flourishing, despite official restrictions by the War Office. Regimental bands, except of the Royal Artillery, which was not controlled by the War Office, and were restricted by regulations to ten players and a bandmaster in 1821. Two years later, fourteen performers were granted. The Royal Artillery Band, which was exempt from this, order already numbered thirty-nine in 1820. This ensemble under George Mackenzie and the Court Military Band of George IV directed by Christian Kramer were considered the best military bands in the kingdom. The development of bands in the United States also shared the same predicament. The famous Marine Band, which dates from 1799, had the very early military band format in 1800 of fifes and Drums. . Seventeen years later the Military Academy Band at West Point had only 2 flutes, 5 clarinets, 2 horns, 1bugle, 1 trumpet, 1 trombone; 1bassoon and drum but by 1821 it mustered twenty players. For regimental bands in general, the regulations of 1834 only allowed a chief musician and ten bandsmen. By 1841, there was an increase to 12 bandsmen, and by 1847 to sixteen.

France also had a begrudging war office, which in 1820 put the clock back half a century by limiting bands to eight performers. There were no military band schools until the Gymnase Militaire was founded in 1836, when Thieres turned down Berlioz who had applied for the position of director. The job went to Frederic Berr, whose good work was carried on by Michael Carafa. Belgium, which had raised a military school of music earlier in the century (circa 1817), appointed Joseph Snell (Snel) as the first Director. Austria is not known to have any service bands prior 1807. There is a good deal of evidence to indicate that there were Bohemian Regimental Bands and that they were very efficient Among the most notable bandmasters was Frederic Starke who was later known for his Military band Journals which numbered in the thousands. His guides for military music give us an opportunity to examine the instrumentation for this period. The greatest forward movement in band music during the early part of the 18-century came from the celebrated Wilhelm Wieprecht and his reorganization of military music in Prussia. He made excellent recommendations concerning instrumentation and proportions of bands. He was able to show the advantages of using horns and trumpets equipped with valves. His early success took place in the 1830’s. Weiprecht was responsible for the complete transcription of all the Beethoven symphonies for military band. While the keyed bugle and ophicleide had widened the scope and usefulness of brass it was as indicated earlier the invention of the valve system that led to the prestige that the modern military band enjoys. The Englishman Charles Clagget is usually credited with conducting the first experiments with the valve mechanism about 1813. There is conjecture however that the brass valve system were actually developed by the Germans Friedrich Bluhmel and Heinrich Stoelzel in the period 1814-1818.. Both of these men were mechanics as well as musicians and the patent was incomprehensible because of the lack of drawings. Eventually Bluhmel bought out his partner. Weiprecht had experimented with the keyed bugle developed around 1810 by James Holiday and improved by British bandmaster John Distin. However, it was his interest in the valve and his work in Silesia with the Stoelzel and Bluhmel that led to the application of the discovery. The most well known of all keyed bugle players was the American Ned Kendall who achieved fantastic success with the instrument while a member of the Boston based Patrick Gilmore’s band and he came to notice about 1835. Valved brass instruments were certainly being used in Prussia, where it was applied to the trumpet. In addition, composer Spontini claimed that France borrowed the invention in 1823. The patent taken out in 1824 by instrument maker John Shaw underscored the success of the rotary piston valve throughout Europe. What is unmistakably certain is that the cornet a piston was used at Paris in Rossini’s William Tell in 1829 and this was the instrument, which took the world by storm. In Germany, Wilhelm Wieprecht continue to pioneer the valve system and introduced the first bass tuba in 1835, an event which rang the knell for the serpent and the bass horn. A more significant development of the device showed itself in France at the hands of Adolphe Sax who introduced in 1842 a homogeneous family of valved brass instruments called saxhorns followed by another group the saxtrombas, in 1845.Meanwhile the woodwind had also progressed. Boem had perfected the flute, although it did not immediately affect the military band. Bandmasters, with a conservative tenacity, still held to their old conical-bore instruments. On the other hand, Wieprecht was using the bathyphon a double bass clarinet in Germany in 1839 and Sax in France had invented the saxophone about a year later. The clarinet, in the development of its key system, became the first of the reeds pushing the oboe into second place. Two of those who contributed to its mechanical fitness were French military bandsman Lefevre, who added a sixth key, and Klose, who applied Boehm’s rings to the instrument. The German military clarinetist Anton Kastner however was the first performer to insulate the instrument with corks thus ending the pervasive clacking sounds. He also experimented with side key alternatives, which were an exceptional discovery, but this did not take hold for several years after his death.

By detailing the mechanical advances in wind instruments we gain a vantage point from which to judge, with greater ease, the movement which took place in a complete overhaul of instrumentation in Germany and France under Wieprecht and Sax respectively. It led to a bitter rivalry between the two each being particularly anxious to further his own particular breakthrough. In the efforts towards reorganization, Wieprecht had already taken the bull by the horns, but in 1845, he made a further sweep of older instruments, installing cornets, tubas and bathyphons. The Guards were given forty-six performers and ordinary infantry regiments thirty-seven. In the same year, France called a special commission to deal with modernizing its bands. It included Adam, Auber, Carafa, and Halevy. Onslow and Spontini. The upshot was that the infantry were allotted fifty-four players.: and cavalry and chasseurs thirty-six. Thc new instruments of Sax were introduced, but the victory was short lived since Revolution of 1848 brought about a return to the old instrumentation After much paper warfare, in which Berlioz blazed away in fury at the “inferiority of ” French bands, Sax was returned to favor and won such prestige that he brought about the closing of the military school of Music. which he1ooked upon as the stronghold of retrogression. It was replaced by special military-music classes at the Conservatoire.

In dealing with this radical reform during the first half of the century one must mention those who contributed to its practical application. They were the bandmasters which Austria claimed not a few brilliant- notably Gung’l the waltz king, and Joseph R. Sawerthal. Prussia too had outstanding men besides Wieprecht. Those deserving of mention are August Neithardt. Wilhelm Heiser, and Karl Faust. Incidentally, it was from army bands that two great clarinetists Carl Barrmann, for whom Weber and Mendelssohn wrote concertos. and Hermststedt, for whose deft fingers Spohr wrote a like work. Following the great chef’s de musique of the Revolution, France continued to produce such men as Berr, Klose, Kastner and Paulus. The celebrated conductor Habeneck used to boast of his bandsman days. After the brilliant, Snell, Belgium had an excellent bandmaster Valentine Bender. In Holland there was Hutschenruijter, who was also an indefatigable writer for the military band In Britain there were still many foreigners as bandmasters but the Guards and Royal Artillery held their own with native products in the well known and very much respected W G. Collins (Royal Artillery), H A. M. Cooke (2nd Life Guards), Charles Godfrey (Coldstream Guards), Edward Hopkins (Scots Guards), John Mahon (Scots Guards), James Waddell 1st Life Guards, and T. L. Willman (Co1dstream Guards) The first military band music journal published in Britain (1845) was edited by Carl Boose (Boosey) of the Scots Guards, The next year, Charles Godfrey of the Coldstrearn Guards began to edit a similar journal produced by Jullien Later, A. J. Schott of the Grenadier Guards fathered a journal published by Schott & Co. These journals helped to standardize military band scores in Britain. Before this, every band had its own model. The journals were also the spawning ground for some great band arrangers including Will Kappey and Charles Godfrey. The development of band music owes much to the creation of the band journal. The original compositions and transcriptions as well as arrangements became a symbol of the solid character of the bands. The later journals also helped to raise the standards in the music publishing industry, as the British publishing houses were fanatical about the part and score editing. This phenomenon was evident in the Boosey and Chappel Army editions of the music journals. Journals were paid for by subscription and new music arrived at the door of the military bands on a regular basis. Some outstanding instrumentalists from military bands lived in those days were trumpeters John Harper of the East India Volunteer Band and John Distin of the Grenadier Guards whilst Henry Lazarus a real artist on the clarinet came from the Coldstream Guards.

Both outdoor and indoor concerts for the military band had now become quite common, much to the joy of the populace. In France, there had come a lull in the outdoor performances of bands. By 1827, however we read of the massed spectacle of nine bands in Paris, and after the 1830 revolution its annual commemoration brought about a regular assemblage of bands, that of 1833 numbering 230 performers. The eminent musician Francois Fetis conducted 430 military musicians in massed bands in Brussels in the same year. Wieprecht in Berlin, not to be outdone staged 1,000 bandsmen to prove the military-might of Prussia. Hector Berlioz, in his memoirs, tells of massed bands, which played under his baton in 1840. He says “I planned a great symphony (Symphony Funebre et Triomphale) to be played in the open air… by a military band of 200, but the effect was spoiled by the National Guard marching off before the finish to the rattle of fifty side drums. In Britain, a massed band concert of the Guards and Artillery in 1851 brought together some 350 performers. The Times of London commented on “an execution…so admirable, the energy of the conductors… and the unequivocal satisfaction of the auditors”. In 1854, the Royal Artillery band made the first concert tour by a military band in the country. Such displays, as these were the only opportunities, which the tolling multitude had of hearing the best mellifluous music. It had so wide and deep an influence on the people at large that workers’ bands began to show their timid heads, which heralded the beginnings of the well-known Black Dyke and the Besses 0′ the Barn bands in the second decade of the century. The latter began as a reed band, but with the rise and popularity of the cornet, the reed elements in these bands faded out and the pure brass band emerged. The first of these is said to have been Walkers and Hardrman’s Band of 1833, which had twenty-four players. Rivalry between these bands soon arose, and contests for superiority resulted. The Musical World of 1837 suggested that these contests should be extended and tat prizes might be offered as in France.

When the full effects of the Sax inventions had spread abroad the brass-band world felt equal to the occasion and the first national contest was held in Manchester in 1853. Much of the same enthusiasm developed in Germany among the working class and August F Anacker made a name with his miner’s band. At this time band, music came under the influence of Henry Distin, the son of the bandmaster who had popularized the keyed bugle. He championed the use of the saxhorns and along with his family toured the continent and America bringing these instruments into even greater importance.

In America the invention by Allen Dodworth of the over-the-shoulder, brass instruments gave the band movement a very big kick-start. The instruments were manufactured in Vienna and were designed for use by military bands. The earliest known military band was the Marines in Washington, but a later band was the Boston Brigade band. A brass band was formed in Salem in 1806. The instruments of Dodworth were created for the express purpose of military bands marching at the head of a column and the sound being directed backward for the marching soldiers.

(6) The Golden Age Begins

THE year 1854 heralded the outbreak of the Crimean War, a serious development which halted progress for a spell in military bands in Britain and France,

Up to that date; these countries had seen their bands at the peak of excellence and influence, but when war came the situation changed causing a dramatic transformation in the role of the musicians .

. During the Peninsular War, British bands had been in the battle line cheering the soldier on to victory. In the Crimean War these bandsmen were turned into the ranks as stretcher-bearers for the ambulance, whilst their bandmasters many of whom were civilians took their departure. The Guards bands and other ’staff bands which remained at home were left intact, but the dispersal of bandsmen played havoc with military music in the Crimea, and at Varna, in 1854, the scratch- bands mustered by the British for a grand review before the allied army made a poor show against those of the French.

After the signature of the Treaty of Paris in 1856 the Commander-in-Chief, the Duke of- Canbridge decided to put an end to state. of. Affairs under which regimental bands were in the hands of commanding officers who were a law unto themselves in what concerned regimental music. He decided to abolish the civilian and foreign bandmaster, and bring all regimental bands under War Office control. His first step was to establish the Royal Military

School of-Music at Kneller Hall for the express purpose of training bandmasters and bandsmen for the British army.

This institution opened it’s doors in I857, and the following year the “Ancient Philharmonic” pitch was made general throughout the army. In 1862 it was ordered that enlisted bandmasters would take precedence over civilians. After 1872 all bandmasters had to obtain the Kneller Hall diploma, and by 1874 their pay and allowances were regularized, together with a substantive rank which, in 1881 became that of a warrant officer. One of the early professors at Kneller Hall was Thomas Sullivan, an ex-army bandmaster and the father of Sir Arthur Sullivan. Another was Apollon Barret, the inventor of the Barret action on the oboe. Up to the close of the nineteenth century the so-called “staff bands” were permitted to choose their own bandmasters, but always subject to the diploma rule. Among these bands the most outstanding was that of the Royal Artillery, which had been augmented to over seventy performers in 1856, and a few years later to eighty. By the nineties it numbered, including supernumeraries, over one hundred, the largest band in the world. The bandmaster, James Smyth, had the patronage of men like Balfe, Benedict, Costa, Gounod and Jullien. Greater still was the fame of this band under Ladislao Zavertal (1881-1906)) who raised its performances to an artistic excellence which led the Commander n-Chief to say that “its superior did not exist in this or any other country”. The band of the Grenadier Guards under the famed Dan Godfrey also commanded the attention of the wider world, especially at the Peace Festival at Boston, U.S.A., in 1872. His successor Albert Williams maintained, if he did not widen, this esteem. From the opening of the nineteenth century the Coldstream Guards Band had an enviable reputation for the purity of tone in its clarinetists, a distinction sustained from the days of Fred Godfrey in the sixties to Mackenzie Rogan in the nineties. The Scots Guards Band also had a run of good conductors from Charles Godfrey who followed Henry Dunkerton. The former transferred to the Royal Horse Guards Band in 1869, where he stayed over thirty years, bringing the best music to both the royal functions and the park bandstand. With the 1st Life Guards Band under James Waterson, Van den Heuval and Joel Englefield, and the and Life Guards Band under Carli Zoeller and Leonard Barker, these Household Cavalry musicians, dressed in their gaudy regal accouterments of purple and gold, were always prime favorites at state and official displays. Among other “staff bands” which deserve mention were those of the~aRoyal Engineers which was at its best under Joseph R. Sawerthal and Joseph Sommer, and the bands of the Royal Marines at Portsmouth, ~ under George Miller, J. A. Kappey and Frank Winterbottom respectively.

These bands were not only in demand on state and national occasions, but were in request at innumerable exhibitions, concerts and other engagements throughout the land. Sometimes they would be massed, assembling some three hundred or more performers, as in the Grand Military Concert at the Crystal Palace in 1854. At other times they would combine for purely spectacular purposes as in the Grand Military Tattoo at Windsor Castle in 1897. Nor were the so-called bands of the “line” forgotten in public and private music~making. They too had their share of engagements at concerts and displays, and in parks and spas. Indeed one is constrained to say that they played just as valuable a part in music as the “staff bands”, since in accompanying their regiments on service abroad they not only brought pleasure to their comrades stationed in foreign climes but, as Mackenzie Rogan points out in his Sixty Years of Army Life they made a solid contribution to maintaining the prestige of the British Empire.

France, during the Crimean War, maintained her bands at the front, and delighted in repeating the adage that their music at Inkerman contributed as much to drive back the Russians as did the bayonets. A decree of 1854 had given them as good bands as ever-fiftv-five for the Imperial Guard and thirty-five for the cavalry-with the bandmaster as a commissioned officer, which was more than the British conceded to their bandmasters. The war with Italy brought drastic cuts in bands, and in 1867 those of the cavalry were abolished. Yet in this same year Paris staged its great military musical congress at the Exhibition. Prussia, France, Austria, Bavaria, Russia, Holland, Baden, Belgium and Spain sent competing bands who won rewards in the above order. The smallest band was that of Bavaria with fifty-one performers, whilst the largest was that of Austria with seventy-six, although Prussia pooled its two bands with eighty-seven players. The judges for this festival were some of the most well known musicians of the era and includede Feli.cien David, Ambroise Thomas, Leo Delibes, Hans von Bulow, Hanslick and Kastner.

In 1872, after the Franco-Prussian War had taken its toll, bands settled down to their old constitution. Paulus with the Paris Guard and Cressinois with the Mounted Guides were at the top in France, and the former won laurels at the Boston Peace Festival in 1872. Sellenick then took control from Paulus and was succeeded by Gustave Wettge. In the eighties and nineties the latter created a perfect furore in Britain by the refined playing of his hand. perfect. The Garde Repulicaine Band under Gabriel Pares was declared one of the most amazing ensembles of the century .

The Germans showed their mettle at the 1867 Paris concourse when Prussia massed her two Guards hands under Wieprecht and carried all before them. His colleague, J. Heinrich Saro, with the Franz Regiment Band, created quite a sensation at the Boston Peace Festival of 1872 and received a gold medal in appreciation. After the Franco-Prussian War, militarv music rose to great heights in the German Empire, and its famous Prussian Cuirassier Guard Band-which Hanslick said was the finest in the world-certainly set the pace in western Europe. Although its cavalry bands were restricted to brass, a few of this type made their mark even abroad, notably that of the Bavarian Field artillery under Carl. Germany did not possess a school of military music, but in 1887 a department for this was opened at the Berlin High School of Music, with F. W. Voight as superintendent.

Almost from its inception, the Conservatory of Music at Prague had prepared students for the profession of military music, the result being that some of the finest bands in the Austrian army were under the control of Czechs, and among them Wenceslas H. Zavertal and Carl Sebor, whilst famous Hungarians as bandmasters were Keler Bela and Franz Lehar. Belgium took up the question of reorganizing her bands in 1863 when a commission headed by Gevaert and Mahillon was appointed. Its recommendations were not unlike those of France in I 845. The band of the Guides under the baton of Frederick Staps was the most famed of Belgium’s bands. When it visited Scotland in 1888 it comprised sixty performers with soloists verging on virtuositv. Holland had two worthy bandmasters in her National Guard of those days Cornelius Coenan at Utrecht, and Carl van den Linden at Dordrecht. In Norway, a few celebrated musicians had charge of army bands, including Friedrich A. Reissiger, the brother of the composer, and Ole Olsen who became inspector of music of army bands.

During the last quarter of the nineteenth century, the United States of America jumped to the forefront of the world of military music. Doubtless the ordinary regimental bands were inferior but there were some extraordinary combinations which gained merited esteem. The first of these was the band of the 22nd Regiment (New York Militia) under that amazing entrepreneur Patrick S. Gilmore. He had already organized the music at the Peace Festivals of 1869 and 1872 at which he assembled thousands of players. Adopting similar showmanship when he toured the famous 22nd in Europe with sixty-six performers, he took audiences by storm. Less spectacular, although a far greater musician, was Arthur A. Clappe’, who had been bandmaster of the Canadian Governor General’s Foot Guards. In 1888 he took charge of the band of the United States Military Academy, on which he left his mark, for he was unrivalled as a teacher and trainer. His greater contemporary was the “March King” John Philip Sousa. He came to the when he was bandmaster of the Marine Band in 1880 but when he formed his own combination of forty-nine masterly players in 1892, with which he toured the world, Sousa won undying fame. Two other American bandmasters also deserve recognition-Frederic N. Innes and Victor Herbert.As ancient Ovid taught us, there is nothing stronger than custom; and it was that which troubled the military band in Britain, where so many clung to the ideas of pre-Sax days. Despite the introduction of the euphonium, Mandel, in his Instrumentation of Military Bands (circa 1859) Kneller Hall textbook-was still accepting the ophicleide and the bass horn. On the other hand the trumpet rightly continued to find a place alongside the more popular cornet even in the brass band, and both combinations favoured the E flat soprano cornet and the flugelhorn. Both the E flat bombardon and the BB flat bass had become fixtures. The oboe had been vastly improved at the hands of Barret of Kneller Hall, the mechanism to be soon applied to the clarinet. As early as 1848 the E flat alto saxophone was taken into the Royal Artillery Band; the B flat tenor followed about six years later. That they did not secure a permanency is evident from the fact that they were removed before 1863 and replaced by the tenor and bass clarinets, the saxophones not being again recognized until the twentieth century, although elsewhere they had found a footing. The sarrusophone, invented by a French bandmaster in 1863, also made its appearance in this same band in the sixties, but although the contrabass of this instrument gave the lowest note in the wind, it never became a permanency in this country. In France, Belgium and America the saxophones, in full choirs, remained a feature.

Of course Kneller Hall, as the Royal) Military School of Music is popularly named, ought to have been the overruling authority in matters of instrumentation. We must remember, however, that although this school began its teaching in 1857, it was twenty years before it received official financial recognition, and another twenty years elapsed ere one could say that it had a commanding influence on military music. The first two directors-Schallehn and Mandel-were Germans with old-fashioned notions. Charles Cousins, who followed, had not the initiative. This latter did not come until Samuel C. Griffiths took control (1890), when his book on The Military Band became the textbook. He was followed by Arthur J. Stretton (1895), Hector E. Atkins (1921), the author of another textbook on the band, and Meredith Roberts (1943). Today Kneller Hall continues to train bandmasters and musicians for the British Army.

Although of more recent date, much the same may be said of the States’ Army Music School in its beneficent influence on American music. In the early days there was only a rough-and-ready school for 1 men, and it was not until 1911, under the persuasion of Damroscl America inaugurated its Army Music School at Fort Jay New York, under Arthur A. Clappe himself a Kneller Hall graduate. This school was primarily for the training of bandmasters, although a course for bandsmen was introduced later. It did excellent service during the First World War but for reasons of economy, was closed in 1928. When the clouds of another were blowing towards the States in 1941, it was found necessary to this school which did magnificent work during the last war.

(7) Bands of the Nineteenth Century

The nineteenth century was an important time for the development of wind instruments in general, and subsequently, the rise of the military (or wind) band throughout western Europe as exemplified by the bands of Britain. At the same these developments began to give composers a new medium for large ensemble composition.

Works by Traditional Romantic Composers

1840 Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770-1827): Ecossaise and Polonaise

1815 Ludwig Spohr (1784-1859): Nocturne in C, Op. 34

1816 Beethoven: Military Marche

c. 1820 Johann Nepomuck Hummel (1775-1837): Three Grand Military Marches

1824 Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholody (1809-1847): Military Overture in C, Op. 24

1836 Mendelssohn: Funeral March, Op. 103

1840 Hector Berlioz (1803-1869): Grande Symphonic Funèbre et Triomphale, Op. 15

1844 Richard Wagner (1813-1883): Trauersymphonie

1846 Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864): Torch Dance (No. 1)

1865 Anton Bruckner (1824-1896): Apollo March March in Eb

1860 Edvard Grieg (1843-1907): Trauermarsch

1869 Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) Orient et Occident

1892 Pyotr Chaikovsky (1840-1893) Marche Militaire

Works

Spohr: NoctornoThis piece was written for the wind band of Prince Güntter Friedrich of Schwarsburg. It is in 6 movements: Turkish March, Menuetto, Andante con variazioni, Polacca, Adagio and Finale. According to Richard Goldman in his book “The Wind Band”, the Spohr piece, “is the first interesting nineteenth century work… composed for Wind Band and Turkish Music (i.e. percussion).” Spohr scored this work for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, post horn, trombone, bass horn, bass drum, cymbal, triangle.

Hummel: The Three Grand Military Marches.This work is scored for a slightly larger band than the Spohr. The original scoring calls for 4 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, piccolo clarinet in F, clarinets in C, bass horn, bassoon, horn in C, trombone in C, bass trombone, percussion.

Mendelssohn: Military OvertureMendelssohn composed this work for the band at the Dobberan resort on the Baltic Sea. He wrote it at the age of fifteen.

Berlioz: Grande Symphonie Funèbre Triomphale The French Government commissioned this work as a part of a celebration to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the French Revolution. According to Berlioz, “It seemed to me that for such a work the simpler the plan the better, and that only a large body of wind instruments would be suitable for a symphony which was to be heard – the first time at any rate – in the open air.”

Berlioz scored this piece for 208 players with the option of adding a chorus in the third and last movement. At a later date, Berlioz also added optional strings. Berlioz describes the first performance, “Habeneck would again liked to conduct, but I prudently reserved that function for myself I had not forgotten the episode of the snuff box.”

He continues, “Despite the volume of sound produced by a wind band of this size, very little was heard during the procession. The only exception was the music played as we went along the Boulevard Poissonniere, where the big trees- still standing to this date – acted as reflectors. The rest was lost.”

Wagner: Trauersymphonie Wagner composed this work for the transfer of the remains of Carl Maria von Weber to Germany. Wagner based the symphony on two themes from von Weber’ 5 Euryanthe. The piece is scored for a band of seventy five pieces plus muffled side drums.

Grieg: Trauermarsch Grieg composed this work on the occasion of the death of his friend Richard Nordaak. Grieg originally composed this piece for piano in the key of A minor. He later scored it for band and transposed it to G minor.

(8) The British Band

1799 Grand Military Piece is composed by J. R. Hoberecht for the Harmoniemusik ensembles that had been popular, and standard, in Britain and the rest of Europe. Harmoniemusik was a chamber wind ensemble famous in the court of Louis XIII of France in the seventeenth century, which became the basis for instrumentation of military bands across Europe: 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 horns, 2 bassoons. Flutes, English bass horns, serpents, ophicleides, trumpets, trombones, and percussion were occasionally added to the Harmoniemusik combination during the early years of the nineteenth century.

1800 Numerous Military Bands across the country of various instrumentation, size and repertoire

1820 The Royal Artillery Band, a British military band established in 1762, serves as a good historical reference due to Henry George Farmer’s ‘History of the Royal Artillery Band”.

1839 Instrumentation of the Royal Artillery Band

1845 Wessel and Stapleton’s Military Journals are published, each subscription including music of a light character and some contributions of British composers. Other journals follow, but the variety of instrumentation between bands is only somewhat simplified.

1846-49 Royal Artillery Band’s Concert Program Most likely involved string instruments or was shared with an “orchestral band.”

1850 Concert Program and Instrumentation of the Royal Artillery Band.

1854 Scutari fiasco embarrasses British Military Band system. At Scutari, in 1854, the British troops, comprising the army of the east destined for the Crimea, held a grand review on the birthday of Queen Victoria. There were some 16,000 men on parade, and while their appearance and marching were perfect, and the cheering deafening, our band struck up “God Save the Queen”, not only from different arrangements, but in different keys. (This event lead to re-evaluation of the British military band system).

1855 Concert Program of the Royal Artillery Military Band.

1857 Royal Military School of Music is founded in the model of the French Ecole Militaire.

1863 Catalog of the Royal Artillery Band’s music library and instrumentation of the military band.

1865 Government takes over the Royal Military School of Music. Founded in 1857, the Royal Military School of Music served to provide uniform instruction for musicians in the service, while eventually ridding the British military of foreign band masters. Its influence resulted in the standardization of band instrumentation and repertoire. It commissioned most of the significant compositions for band at the turn of the twentieth century.

1881Examination requirement added for admission to Royal Military School of Music.

1890 A commissioned officer is placed in charge of the Royal Military School of Music.

1901 The Spirit of Pageantry, a grand march by Percy Fletcher (1879-1932) was published.

1902 The Worshipful Committee of Musicians sponsors a contest for the best march written for the coronation of Edward VII.

Concert Program of the Royal Artillery Band on March 22nd 1902.

1904 Lads of Wamphray’ March, was composed by Percy Granger (I882-l961).

1909 First Suite in Eb.[or Military Band] Op. 28 No. 1 by Gustav Holst begins a series of important commissions by the Royal Military School of Music. These commissions include: Gustav Holst, “Second Suite in F for Military Band,” and “Festival Choruses;” Dame Ethel Smith, “The Wreckers Overture;” Bertram Walter O’Donnell, “Three Humoresques”; Ralph Vaughan Williams, “English Folk Song Suite” and “Toccata Marziale.” Cecil Forsyth, Frank Bridge, Edward German, and Haydn Wood also contributed compositions. Most of these works were commissioned by either Hugh Somerville or J. A. C. Somerville, commandants of the Royal Military School of Music.

(9) The Music of The People

Britain and America, have many things in common, including their inordinate interest in the military band. This becomes 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, and there was no appreciable change in the early years of the present century. Still, there were some excellent bandmasters 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 (2nd 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 an 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 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 old-fashioned in instrumentation and scoring, which for a long time was 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 hand performances were mostly outdoor, 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 what 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 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 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 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 before 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 Holst 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 held, 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 of duty of this sort implied. A two months’ journey thousand 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.

I 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, whilst 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 battlefront. 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, whom 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, Gibralter 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 a 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.

(10) The Turkish band

In studying the history of military music one often comes across the expression’Turkish music’. What it actually means is the campaign music of the Janissaries. Sultan Orkran (l326-l359) was the first to employ Janissaries as his personal guards. The word is derived from two Turkish words: veni (new) ehir (army). Strictly speaking, “Turkish music” is synonymous with the characteristic sound and rhythm produced by kettle drums, cymbals, tambourine, triangle and the Schellanbaun or “Jingling Johnny”. The purpose of such clashing noises was not merely to turn their own warrior wild but, primarily, to strike terror into the hearts of the enemy with the ear-splitting row.

This type of martial music was heard early on in Europe, during the Turkish wars of conquest in the West, which ended at the gates of Vienna in 1529 and1683. It was also heard in more peaceful circumstances. In the History N”’seu, in Vienna, there is an account, dating from about 1665, of the arrival in Vienna of the Turkish Ambassador which describes the Turkish band as:

“The Turkish military hand of shawms, small kettle drum’, then also four trumpeters (whose trumpets were in the form of trobones, hut narrow and short), two of brightly ringing cymbals of silver (in the shape of two dishes- so they were struck one upon the other, by which means a great ringing sound was made). The drn~rs whose drums were draped with red cloth, beat their druris at the front with a stick like a knobbled, crooked root and at the rear with a little stick or rod.”

The prominence of percussion in the Turkish military bands, as we ought to call this basic Collection of instruments used in Janissary music, confirms the great Significance of rhythm in the culture of the Levant. To the West, the Near East is the nearest self-contained culture. The frequent Contact, in peace and in war, brought about a very intensive cultural exchange – above all in music – from which Europe gained the most. The traces of these Contacts are extremely easy to follow because the musical tradition of the Near East is so completely different from that of the West.

This can be demonstrated by small examples, such as the description of a fresco from the middle of the 11th Century on a staircase in the Cathedral of St Sophie in Kiev, in which Byzabtine jugglers and musicians are depicted. On the frontispiece of the 9th Century Golden Psaltery in St Gallen there is a picture of King David playing a stringed inatninent and musicians with finger cymbals. There are similar percussion instruments in illustrations from the 9th to 11th Centuries, in which may often be seen a smaller pair of cymbals fastened to the end of a sprung fork. They were swung from one hand whilst the other was playing another instrument. The two-handed pair of cymbals came some time later. All evidence of Near Eastern culture, which may be pursued right up to the classical music of medieval Spain.

There can he no doubt that the instruments of the Ottoman were intended to demoralise their enemies, as is described in an entry in a Turkish diary for 18 July 1683 during the Siege of Vienna: “each time after prayers, at sun-down, at night and at dawn, the bands played so that the earth and heaven trembled from the great noise of the drums, oboes, pipes, hand drums and cymbals which were like the roar of cannons and muskets…” And on the afternoon of 25 July there took place before the city walls ” a clashing of cymbals, little bells and shawms as if they were playing a dance, or were preparing for a grand festival…” This was combined with an attack by the besiegers, in response to which and to inspire morale, the defender of the city, Ernst Ruediger von Starhemberg a couple of days later “had the trumpets and kettle drums played right merrily” from the Carinthian Bastion.

There was already in the early Middle Ages a Western institution the purpose of which, to urge on their own troops at the critical moment, was directly comparable with the Turkish band. This was the bell carriage, also known as the flag carriage, (Italian: Carrocio, German: Glockenwagen or Fandenwagan), a Palladium which was also the army’s symbel of honour. It consisted of a waggon on which a bell was hung from a frame, pulled by luxuriously harnessed oxen. This was rung whenever danger threatened or when the whole army had to attend a religious service. Here the banners were also stored. They were regarded as the army’s most sacred property to the defence of which armed troops were summoned by the field calls of the trumpeters. Of the Italian carriages, that of the Milanese was particularly splendid. In 1138, the Archbishop of Milan, Aribert, described its design and furnishing as a real showpiece.

There was during the retreat of the Turkish Army into the Balkans at the end of the 17th Century quite a number of instruments from the Janissary bands fell into the hands of the victorious troops. At the Battle of Petrovaradin in 1697,the Starhemberg Regiment captured a complete Turkish “banda” as they stood end requisitioned them straight into Imperial Service.

This kind of ‘campaign’ music’ appealed to European rulers and generals, so gradually bands were established in the Turkish style, at first from released Turkish musicians who amazed the population everywhere they went.

In this way the Turkish band had found its way by 1699 (1720 according to another source) into the military music of Poland through the Prince Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, Augustus the Strong. In 1725 it had reached Russia, and Austria in 1741 through Maria-Theresia – as is well known, after the historic march past of the Trenck Pandur Regiment on their way to Silesia – and, at roughly the same time it was introduced into Prussia by their only artillery regiment.We may safely assume that those ‘bandas’, which were not made up of captured Turkish musicians, did not imitate or seek to imitate real Janissary music.

The existing bands (shawms or oboes, bassoons, horns and, later, trumpets) supplemented with the percussion of the Turkish music, were often simply called Turkish bands’. Around 1800 they were at the height of fashion. Their strong rhythm provided by the bass drum, side drum, cymbals and triangle appealed to us.This percussion ensemble was also specified in the original scores of the prescribed performances of Prussian Army marches.

Later the triangle, an instrument without a range of notes, was replaced by the Glockenspiel, or lyra, which provides its own unmistakable range of sound. By the middle of the i9th Century the Schellenheum (Jingling Johnny) which was also known as ‘Mohemaed’s Banner’ had lost its usefulness as a rattling instrument and it became in Germany and Russia alone the traditional insignia of the band. But it is an undisputable fact, as the author himself can testify, that the rhythmic jingling of the little bells and chimes of a band’s Schellenbaum, whilst playing a parade march at full blast, provides a memorably stirring experience.

The Turkish band,supplananted with the hitherto unknown piccolo, extended into classical music, firstly in the so called ‘Turkish operas’, for example Gluck’s ‘The Pilgrim from Mecca’ with one drum (1764), ‘Iphlgenia on Tauris’ with cymbels; triangle and drum (1779), Moxart’s ‘The Flight from the Seraglie’ with the same instruments (1782) and Weber’s ‘Abo Hassan’ (1812).

In Mozart’s time the upright drum was played on both sides by one man using a wooden baton like ‘a knobbled crooked root’ on the right and a bundle of brushwond, the ’switch’, on the left. The latter was really a predecessor of the side drum which was unknown at that time in its present form. A glance into the orchestra pit at the opera house during a performance of ‘The Flight from the Seraglio’ would confirm that the drum is still played in the same manner today, except that a normal wooden drum stick has replaced the baton end instead of the brushwood, there is a bundle of thin sticks. Cymbals also became thinner and of a smaller diameter.

‘Turkish music’ was not only a way of expressing the oriental flavour which had enjoyed such popularity after the Turkish wars, it was also a means of portraying the warlike and military. For example in Haydn’s ‘Symphonie militaire of 1794 and Beethoven’s ‘Wellington’s Victory or the Battle of Vittoria’ of 1813 which has an additional side drum and rattle to illustrate the noise of battle. At the first performances of this work on 8th and 12th December 1813, soon after the Battle of Leipzig, Beethoven himself stood on the rostrum. The Turkish band of that orchestra was played by three young, and later quite celebrated, musicians; Johann Nepomuk Hummel, the piano virtuoso, Giacomo Meyerbeer, the composer of grand opera, and lgnaz Moacheles, who arranged the piano part of Beethoven’s ‘Fidelio’.

The popularity of the Turkish band was such, that in about 1800, even piano-fortes were equipped with a so-called ‘Janissary feature’ which sought to reproduce the Ottoman bells and cymbals, and, by heating a clapper on the sound board, the sound of the bass drum was imitated.

To end let us take a stroll in Vienna’s Prater. Even today, the ponies in the Hippodrome will only start to trot when the orchestrian’s Turkish band starts to play!

From a translation by Mr Peter Bull from a booklet called ‘HISTORISCHE ARMEEMARSCHE’.

Editors Note:The later practice of displaying their Sacred Property evolved into the use by Western Armies of Trooping the Colours,Presentation of Colours,and Laying up of Colours

(11) Regiment des Gardes Suisses 1616-1792

When considering military music we distinguish instruments used to transmit commands – drums, fifes, bugles and trumpets – from those of the hand with its variety of instruments to enhance military ceremonial and entertain the soldiers. The differences also marked by bugle calls (signals) being sounded by company personnel, whereas the band musicians are administered by the unit headquarters, with their own rates of pay and terms of service.

Armies have always used instruments for orders and field calls. During the Burgundian Wars of 1474-1477 (1) mercenaries of the Swiss Gantons were organised as regimental units which were sub-divided. The unit was the Banner and the sub~units the Fahnlein nunbering from 50 to 150 men. Each banner was accompanied by 3 musicians who played the fife, the drum and the bagpipes. These were paid by the Carnmanding Officer. The wind instruments for the cantons of lucerne and Uri were, however, the ‘harsthorner’.

Although German mercenaries ware the first to adopt the fife, it was also used by Swiss mercenaries in France. It is also generally agreed that the fife was re-adopted in France for the regiments of Francis I (1494-1547). The ‘tambourin was encased in wood and was about 2 feet high in diameter: carried on the left side of the body, this was also adopted. Although used in earlier times, it was in the reign of Francis I that the French military forces were supplied with fifes and drums from ordnance.

It is clear that from its formation the French royal household Regiment of Swiss Guards had drums and fifes. In March 1640 there was one instrument of each kind per company. Twenty-five years later these were augmented by three drums (May1665). Later the establishment became 1 drum and 5 fifes. In May 1692 the ‘Mercure Galant’ reported the presence of 40 drums of the Swiss Guards at the siege of Narmir (2).

In spite of successive ordinances regulating salutes and signals for the Corps of Drums in French regiments, the Swiss Guard retained their own original ones and were this distinct from other Royal troops. Precise details of the established ordnance of the Corps of Drums in the Regiment are lacking, but by an Order of May 1754 a Corps of Drums was made obligatory for all French regiments. An earlier Order of 6 June 1745 records the establishment of a drum-major for each headquarters. However, it must be recognized that such an appointment had existed before that date, the title having been given to the chief drummer of a regiment by a decree of 4 November 1651.

When the Swiss Guard carried out Guard Duties ‘Outside the Louvre’ (3) a company of 100 Swiss also formed a part of the guard ‘Inside the Louvre’. In their magnificent Spanish style uniforms (there would come a time when they would be vilified as ‘untellable lackey-soldiers’), the hundred Swiss would march in front of the King with their fife and three drums. They played when the King attended Mass; also on the mornings the sovereign took Communion, usually on the eves of Easter and Christmas; and when ha attended the ceramony of touching the sick (4). The General Salute was writtenonly for the Blessed Sacrament, the King and the Queen. The dks were beaten, without rolls, for the daupoine and marshals of France.

In 1758 the drum-major was paid 600 livres (1 livre = 1 franc), a sergeant-major 540 and a captain 6000. By an ordinance of 25 April 1767 the size of the drum was defined as 33 centimetres high and 37 in diameter. In future the barrel would be of brass, weighing 3½ kilograms.

It was on 24 August 1762, in the recommendation of the colonel, the Duc de Brion, that the King authorised the formation of a band of musicians for the French Regiment of the Guard, which already had a small band of 4 oboes, 2 bassoons and 2 horns. Officially the band would in future comprise 4 oboes, 4 clarinets, 4 horns and 4 hassooms. It is possible that the Swiss Guard had maintained some musicians, but no unit could include musicians in the rolls of authorised personnel. Musicians, whether supernumerary or under contract, were paid by the colonel and/or from officers’ contributions.

We can date the organisation of the band of the Swiss Guard from the end of 1762. Brigaded with the French Royal Guard, the Swiss also had 16 musicians and the authorised number of instruments. In an ordinance of 28 April 1763 and a regulation of 1 June determining the reorganisation of the Regiment, one notes the mention of the drum -major, whose pay was 800 livres. Also the establishment of 16 musicians in the headquarters, each to be paid 900 livres a year, plus 166 livres as clothing, instrument maintenance and heating allowances – making a total budget of 2666 livres for the allowances. We note for 1769 the mention of Cholet as drum-major and his son as junior drum~najor. We now find the marching column being headed by the regimental pioneers (in 1808 to be designated sappers) and the artillery, with the drums, fifes and band following. This change is illustrated in the pictures of Noreau the Younger and in the water colours of Louis La Paon.
With those of the French Guards, the band of the Regiment took part in official festivals, notably those of 16 May 1770 for the marriage of the future Louis XVI (5). Chroniclers noted that the two bands of the Brigade of guards rendered fanfares and were dressed in Turkish fashion and ‘making a great noise’. The band of the Turkish Janissaries was very much in vogue in Europe at that time and had been copied to some extent by the addition of cymbals, triangle and the ‘jingling johanie’ – all visible in the bands, hut not in the rolls of accounts of the Treasury.

Records of the band organisation are contradictory. In 1774 the headquarters company held 16 official musicians (and 21 instruments) quartered at Versailles but, on the other hand, one finds that the band accompanying the guard mounting numbered 21 musicians, including 10 clarinets. Yet it is also stated that in 1774, the same year, there were 12 clarinets, 2 trumpets, 4 or more flutes, horns and bassoons, led by the music-major. In another document we read of 16 authorised musicians of the headquarters corpany and also the military band comprising 23 men. After 1774, however, the names of 16 instrumentalists are recorded.

Around 1780 the journals refer to evening concerts given by the hands of the French and Swiss Guards on the terrace at Versailles and in Paris; also of ‘serenades sur le boulevart’ (sic). This custom was a foretaste of music ten years later for the great public festivals which were to be so dear to the revolutionaries, aiding the develornient of the military band and leading to improvements in the making of wind instruments. Both Guards bands took part in the rendition of the Te Deu’m in 1783 at Notre Dame de Paris on the occasion of a consecration service for the treaty Which granted independence to the young American Republic (6). Louis S. Norean (1740-1814) in his ‘Nouveau Paris’, published in 1799/1800, records that the Swiss Guard took part in the preparation of the Champ de Mars for the festival of the Federation on 14 July 1790 (7), saying “they arrived to the sound of their band”. By then the regulation drum had been re-standardised. In the Regulation of 1 October 1786, well known to uniformologists for militarydress and details, we read that the bass drum must be 32.5 cms high and 37.9 cms in diameter. In referring to the drum we mention that the children of members of the Guards were, from the age of 7, ‘enfants de troupe’. Clothed in the colours of the colonel, they were fifers or drummers and subject to military discipline.

The repertoire of the bands of the Guards was chiefly derived from arrangements of music from opera-comique or songs, such as ‘a Belle Gabrielle, Malbrouk, Aupres de ma Blonde and others. The Swiss Guard marched past to the sound of rolls ‘a’ la Suisse’ and then to La Marche de Colin-Tampon, whose slow rhythm corresponded to that slow tenpo for a march past which endured for many years but is now used only by the French Foreign Legion.

We know of several marches played by the band of the Swiss Guard, including two by Andre Philidore (curator of the Royal Music Library); two by Michel Delalande (1657-1726); one by Michel Corette (1709-1795); one by an officer of the Regiment, Christian Zimmermann of Lucerne, and one by Martini (under his real name Schwarzendorff – 1741-1816) composer of the famous Plaisir d’Amour. His march gained a prize, having been won in competition when chosen by theDuc de Choiseul(8) It was forbidden, under the pain odf death for members of the Swiss Guard to sing the celebrated Ranz des Vaches because this melancholy song, recalling their homeland caused nostalgia which might encourage desertion or even suicide. This fact(9) is confirmed by J Rousseau (1712-78) in his Dictionnaire de La Musique.

In 1792 12 musicians were quartered at Courbevoie. The band was not present in the Tuileries on 10 August. Not so the drummers and fifers attached to the cosrpanies, who suffered the cruel destiny of the massacre. The musicians were then imprisoned in the Palais Bourbon, but we may suppose that they were later freed. A famous bandmaster in Revolutionary and Napoleonic times, Michel Gesture, had entered the band of the Swiss Guard as in instrumentalist at the age of 14. He was a Chapel Royal alto at 20 and in 1791 was a membur of the band of the Paris National Guard. Later he became bandmaster of the Consular Guard and then of the Grenadier Regiment of Foot of the Imperial Guard.served in all the campaigns of the Corps but was among those lost in the Russian Campaign of 1812. He composed over 200 works for military band.

(1) Burgundian Wars: The conflict arising from c)iarles the Bold (Duke of Burgundy) disputing the overlordship of Louis XI of France.

(2) NEaur was besieged in 1692 and 1695. In the first siege victory went to the French hut they were expelled by the English and Dutch in the second.

(3) Louvre: A Royal Palace in Paris.

(4) Touching the sick: Evidently a simllar ritual to that concerning the‘King’s evil’ in EngIrid, a scrofulous disease formerly supposed to be healed by the touch of the King.

(5) Louis, the Dauphin, married the Princess Marie-Antoinette, daughter of the Briperor Francis II and Maria Theresa of Austria.

(6) American Republic: France had played a vital part in the American War of Independence arid without her massive military and naval assistance it is hardly conceivable that the colonies would have become independent as early as the Eighteenth Century.

(7) 14th July 1790: This was the first anniversary of the Fall of the Bastille, the first great event of the French Revolution, but Louis XVI was still on the throne. It is ironic that royal troops should have beensnployed to help prepare the venue for a grand revolutionary celebration, but such cooperation was clearly prudent.

(8) Etienne Franc, nis Choiseul-Amboise (1719-85) a favourite of Madam de Poutry adour. He became a Lieutenant-General in 1748 and later, in 1758 the Du( de aloiseul and Foreign Minister. He remained in office until 1770, whe’ La Pompadour’s successor, Madame Duharry, procured his dismissal.

(9) Ranz de Vaches: The doleful omens connected with a Swiss pastoral song recall similar fears associated with a short violin composition widelyplayed in Europe in the years between the two World Wars, under such tit (depending on the country) as Irauriger Sonntag, Fmsamer Sonntag, Sombre Dimance and Gloomy Sunday. This tune, as well, was said to induce suici( and it has been alleged that one country banned it.

(12) The History of Danish Military Music

Military music was originally just a method of communication and when, during the course of the 16th and 17th century, warfare developed to be more theoretical and complex then it had been previously, the need for unmistakably loud and clear signals for the move forward, retreat or attack was needed. Although the Roman Armies used trumpeters and drummers and the lur (1) was played by the Vikings, these were mainly used ceremonially.

Originally the Infantry used fifes and drums as their way of signaling and the Cavalry trumpets and the kettledrum. These were also used on ceremonial occasions, especially those of a Royal nature. At a later date the Infantry started to use the bugle and it was often young boys that played both the bugle and the drums and there are not many Danes that have not seen the Monument or -heard of “The Little Bugler”. (Little Hornblower!). During this century the advent of radio naturally rendered the bugle and drum signals superfluous but the sounds of the Reveille and Retreat can still be heard at certain Garrisons and occasionally members of the Royal Family or High Ranking playing. Many of these Historical Regimental signals can be found as part of the official march of these Regiments.

During the 16th century the ‘shawm’ began to emerge as a military musical instrument and it was then that the musical side became more important as the rather brittle sound of the shawms could hardly be used as a signal. The shawm was later replaced by the ‘hautbois’, (known now as the oboe) and the musicians that played these instruments were called ‘Hautboys’. Later this term was used to describe all military musicians irrespective of whether or not they played this particular instrument.

The 17th century brought important changes, in that the discovery was made that by adding holes and flaps to a trumpet tones other than a natural ones could be provided. This meant that melodies could be played using whole and half notes. The other significant innovation was the arrival in Europe of the Turkish musical tradition with its cymbals, rattles, tambourines and drums.

During the beginning of the 18th century all of these instruments were merged together, oboes, trumpets, drums and the Turkish Janizarian music to that we know today as the wind hand.Up until this time Danish military music did not differ too much from the rest of Europe but let us now concentrate on the developments in Denmark. At this time during the beginning of the 18th century -Danish regiments competed with one another in producing the biggest, best and most colorful hand as possible. More often than not it was the Officers of the Regiment that paid out of their own pocket to maintain the bands. A number of the members of the hand were German in origin and many musicians and composers who were later to become famous started their career in a military band. Carl Nielsen and Hans Christian Lumbye to name two of the most well known.

In 1842 guide lines were drawn up by the Danish Government for military music in Denmark, uniforms were standardized unfortunately at the expense of the many varied and colourful uniforms. But there was also a cut back on the number of military bands. The end result was five brigade bands and the band of The Royal Danish Lifeguards. The complement of the six bands consisted of thirty-five musicians each and all were wind bands with brass and woodwind, but there were also twenty battalion bands of sixteen musicians each and these were brass only.

It was here that the very special Danish military music tradition began and has continued until the present day, where the Regimental ‘Musikkorps’ consist of less than twenty members and are still all brass.

Musically there is a disparity when comparison is made with a complete wind band but this meant that a very special Danish military music tradition was provided with its own instrumentation, style and composers. A tradition that was also adopted by a number of civilian hands during the beginning of this century and it should be noted here that the Danish brass tradition cannot be compared to the British type brass bend. Both instrumentation and not least the playing ‘style’ are very different.

It is true that in 1842 the cutbacks were critical but at least there were more than six hundred musicians involved in military music – today there are only about one hundred left.

It was the Royal Lifeguards ‘Musikkorps’, the five brigade hands and the smaller battalion bends that were musically to play an important role during the Schlesvig-Holstein wars of 1848-49 and in 1864. After the war of 1864, further cuts were made in the defence budget and once again military music was badly affected, in that in 1867 the number of hands were halved. The five brigade hands disappeared completely and the Royal Lifeguards remained as theonly wind band. Many of the battalion bands were axed and of the remainder these were reduced to nine musicians. Permission was granted though that two bands could play together ‘on special occasions’.

Changes were also made in 1880. The Royal Lifeguards were retained but the remaining bands were re-organized into ten regimental bands of twenty musicians, apart from the Artillery and the Mounted Bands that only received a quota of ten. Once again apart from the Lifeguards, these were all brass.

Less than 30 years later, in 1909, everything went completely wrong. The Parliament decided that all Danish military music was to be disbanded and that as from 1st April 1911 all Danish military musicians were to be given their discharge.

It was not particularly wise that more than a year was to pass before this was implemented, as this time was naturally used in protesting against the decision. These protests came not only from the military musicians themselves but also by prominent people from all walks of life. Military music was, for a lot of people, their first taste of ‘live’ music. Radio and records were still in its infancy and most people could not afford to go to Symphonic Concerts and to the Opera but the march through the town by a military bend, followed by concerts in the market place or the local park could be enjoyed by everyone and were extremely popular and fulfilled the musical requirements of the population; and they were free!

The protests against the decision by the Government culminated in January 1911 in a huge demonstration through the streets of Copenhagen to the Parliament at Christiansborg

he Government refused to bow to the wishes of the demonstraters and protestations. Military music was to be abolished and in March 1911 the regimental bands gave farewell concerts throughout the land. Amazingly, when the dismissals had already come into effect, telegrams were sent out from the Ministry of War on the 1st April to all military musicians saying that their discharge had been cancelled. Military music in Denmark had been reprieved.

Reductions though, were inevitable and the regimental bands were reduced to nine musicians and three in reserve (either conscripts or musicians on contract). The Mounted Band and the Artillery had to make do with just nine permanent musicians. This situation was to continue for some ten years and caused a number of problems. Notwithstanding the individual musicians prowess, how could 10 – 13 band members produce a sound that really carried -a forceful sound? This was felt in particular during the celebrations of the re-unification of the South of Jutland with Denmark in 1920. The local population had been used to the big German military wind bonds numbering over fifty and these were now being replaced by a Danish military hand, all brass, of only thirteen musicians! An agreement was reached that resulted in two regimental bends playing together to form a more acceptable 25 – 26 piece band. During 1922 conditions improved a little in that the number of musicians were increased to fifteen. This meant that some hands could expand with a couple of clarinets and a flute.

Then in 1932, the situation from 1909 was finally realised and this time there was no reprieve. One hundred and seventy-four musicians lost their jobs, only the Lifeguards Band were allowed to continue as before. This period was to last for ten years and both the population and the National Defence Forces sorely missed their military music. This was a time when one could meet a company of soldiers marching behind a loudspeaker van playing marches, an undignif ied sight and a parody of military pride.

1941 brought the re-introduction of military music in Denmark, possibly as a counter balance to the presence of the big, well playing bands of the occupying German Forces, Four regimental bands were formed, each of fifteen musicians. During the last Sunday in April 1941, a concert was held in a park in Copenhagen to celebrate the return of military music and was seen by over fifty thousand people. on the 1st May, the bands were re-united with the Garrisons and they were welcomed wholeheartedly.

During the period from the 29th August to Liberation in 1945, these bands continued to function but as ‘Civilian’ hands.In 1953 one more hand was re-established, hut in 1973 another one was disbanded. The tradition from 1842 of all brass hands have been kept, apart from the Royal Lifeguards, which has survived all these crises.

The situation today is that Danish military music consists of The Royal Danish Lifeguards Band in Copenhagen, the hand of The Life Regiment of Zealand in Ringsted, the band of the Life Regiment of Funen in Odense, the band of the Slesvig Regiment of Foot in fladerslev and the band of The Princes Life Regiment in Viborg.

Apart from this, the Navy has a Fanfare Band, which in spite of its name is in fact a complete all-brass hand. These musicians are either conscripts or on short-term contracts. This also applies to the Fifes and Drums of the Royal Danish Lifeguards.

Since its formation in 1949, the Territorial Army or Home Guard have formed a number of ‘Musikkorps’, some as wind bands and others as afl brass. Many have a high musical standard and often fill the gap left by decades of reductions of the professional hands and it is not unusual to see a military parade being led musically by a Territorial Army Band. It should also be noted here that the only hand associated with the Danish Air Force is in fact a Territorial Band as is the Womens Naval Service Band and also the Womens Army Corps, who have their own Fife and Drum Band.

Finally it should be mentioned that many amateur orchestras, company bands, Boys and Girls Guard Bands, Boys Brigade and Scout Bands often play military music, though of varying quality. One of the most distinguished, is of course, the Boys Band of the Tivoli Guards, with a very high musical standard.

(13) An Outline of the Evolution of Military bands in France

In common with military bands generally those of France have their origins in the music of War, and beginning with a romantic example, we mention the sound of Roland’s horn at Roncevalles, in AD 778. This French soldier, killed by the Basques during Charlemagne’s invasion of Spain, subsequently became the hero of the 11th century Chanson de Roland. At Hastings (1066) a Norman warrior, Taillefer, rode out from the ranks and entertained his comrades with some of its verses, dispatching two foes apparently not appreciative of music, before being slain himself. It was a Norman custom to sound trumpets if they triumphed in battle, or at a siege, and we may conclude that the practice was not confined to Norman France alone. However, this feudal custom was the prerogative of royalty and nobility. In France, as elsewhere, trumpeters were members of royal household and usually exempt from the normal military service. Their training and employment was often regulated by the trade guilds. As a rule trumpeters headed any royal procession or progress, even by water as on one historic occasion. On Nay 18 1588 when England was threatened by the Spanish Armada, Queen Elizabeth decided to visit her troops assembled at Tilbury. Both London and Tilbury being on the River Thames, the Queen’s Majesty entered her royal barge, hard by St James’s Palace, preceded by her musicians blowing loudly on silver trumpets, and the procession of barges proceeded down river on the ebb tide, cheered by the citizens who lined the foreshore, this stretch of the river being tidal.

For use in battle the primary instruments ware the horn or bugle ( the Roman bucan) and the drum, made of wood or metal with skin or parchment strained and tightened by crossover cords. Their function was to sound calls sod rallying signals; to frighten or annoy the enemy; to encourage troops on the march, and to set the pace. Relieving Orleans in 1429, Joan of Arc made a triumphal entry to music, probably played on tambeurs (drums) and trumpets or bugles. We know that the tune was a Scottish air, which France had adopted and called La Marche de Robert Bruce. In the medieval wars Scotland and France usually united against their hereditary foe, England. This tune is more wide known as Scots Wha Hae Wi’ Wallace Bled, from verses written after a lapse of about four centuries by the poet Robert Burns (1759-96). Sir William Wallace, a Scottish patriot who had been executed in 1305, was a staunch henchman of Robert the Bruce, who is said to have used the tune at Bannockburn (1314). Le Marche de Robert Bruce is still played by French Service bends and it has been recorded by La Musique Principale des Thoupes de Marine, in tones more dulcet than Joan of Arc and the Orleans populace would have heard.

The passage of time saw the development and growth of regiments and armies in Europe and, with these, the introduction of core varied instruments that emanated chiefly from Asia, via those countries of Eastern Europe exposed to the depredations and invasions of the Ottoman Empire. The first example to arrive in France is believed to be a kettledrum from Turkey, presented to the Court of France by an embassy from Hungary, in 1471. It was described as a ‘tambeur des Perses’, but the Persian name was ‘timbale’ and by that name the instrument has been known in France ever since. Another Turkish innovation, the fife, was first seen in the hands of Swiss Mercenaries in France towards the end of the 15th century. Fifes came into use fairly quickly, but they were not used for drill purposes but as ‘instruments of pleasure’. Poring the reign of Francis I (king from 1519-1547) the large bends of trumpets sod kettledrums were favored, but by 1588 there had had been a marked change. On Nay 12 1588 a later king, Henry III, gave the people of Paris the opportunity of indulging in what was to become one of the capital’s most popular pastimes in the ensuing centuries – the erection of barricades. The king had ordered his Swiss and French Guards to take up positions at vantagepoints in the city.

The outcome was a disaster that sent the king scurrying off to Chartres, but an account of the day’s events includes a reference to the Guards marching along the Rue St Honore to ‘the rolling thunder of 20 tambours and the shrill squealing of a score of fifes’. Another very important introduction was the oboe, derived from the Turkish zurna. In archaic English this double wood reed woodwind instrument was called the hautboy (pronounced 0 Boy!), from the French hauthois, which I shall not presume to translate.

Coming to the 17th century we find further innovation and development. Louis Quatorze (1638-1715) is justly praised for the enhancement of military music but he was only five when he became king and there had been noteworthy progress during the reign of his father, Louis Treize, who had assumed the royal power in 1617. The infantry fife and drum bands had remained but the trumpet and drum were of prime importance to the cavalry. The King’s Trumpeters only numbered four, plus a kettle drummer but, in addition, there were the musicians of the Garde du Corps, amounting to 28 trumpeters and four kettle drummers. Of far greater musical importance was the King’s Hauthois Band, of eight hautbois (2 treble, 2 alto, 2 tenor and 2 bass), two cornettes and two trombones. It seems that the idea came from the shawm, zurna and drum bends of the Turkish Janissaries. Before the end of the reign several regiments had hautbois bands, and this may be regarded as a turning point for the military band as we know it. Nevertheless, the trumpet retained its prominence and before leaving Louis Treize we refer to two trumpet fanfares of this period -La Guet (a watch or look-out) and La Cavalquet (a mounted scout).

During the infancy of Louis Quatorze the country was ruled by Cardinal Mazarin, as France had been ruled in the previous reign by another cardinal, Richelieu. After Mazarin’s death, in 1661, Louis never appointed another first minister but took full control himself, in concert with his own saying, “L’e’tat c1est moi’. He took great interest in the music of his regiments and saw the bands were organised to his liking. He engaged the celebrated Jean-Baptiste Lully to supervise the army bands and to compose suitable music. The King’s Musketeers were allowed three hautbois and five drums per company, and by 1672 the Dragoons were similarly equipped. The Garde du Corps had its bands playing in choirs, viz. using music written in four parts. Among the military music written by Lully (1639-87) was La Marche des Mousquetaires du Roy which has been recorded by La Musique da la Garde Republicaine. There is also a fanfare version and this can be heard on record by the Fanfare Trumpets of the French Air Force.

Louis Quatorze was succeeded by his great-grandson, Louis Quinze, whose indolence and frivolity were coupled with misgovernment and unsuccessful wars, leading to increasing discontent and laying the foundations for the French Revolution, which finally erupted in 1789. By then military music had reached a low ebb in France, but it was to have a phenomenal revival during and after the Revolution, when the pre-eminence of French bands caused astonishment and admiration in the rest of Europe. The Revolutionary leaders seem to have had little to learn as regards the value of audio-visual instruction in educating the new citizenry and consolidating the revolution. The process often took the form of great national fetes, such as the Fête Funbrés for Mirabeau and Voltaire, or such philosophical and doctrinal events as the Fête de la Federation and the Fête de la Raison. Held in the open air, with monster bands and choirs, they were spectacular. An outstanding feature at these fetes was the band of the National Guard, massed with other bands. This band had been raised in 1789 by Bernard Sarrette, with 45 performers and in the following year was taken over by the Paris Municipality. The massed bands for the fetes were enormous. At one there were 10 flutes, 30 clarinets, 18 bassoons, 4 trumpets, 2 tubae curvae, 2 buccins (bass trombones 12 horns, 3 trombones, 8 serpents, 10 percussion, bass, side and kettle drums; cymbalists and triangle beaters. 300 drummers could be added for the more prodigious occasions. The National Guard and their band also attended the numerous ceremonial plantings of ‘Trees of Liberty’ by the mayors of the various communes and we read of the accompanying brilliant ceremonial music’. The National Guard was not a police force but it had obligations to help maintain public order. In Paris it was commanded by one not unknown in America, Marie Joseph Gilbert du Motier, marquis de La Fayette, until his hurried departure for Austria in 1792 after his attempt to restore the monarchy.

Returning essentially to the military music scene, the regiments of the Revolution soon discarded much of the music of the old regiments, whose fine uniforms gave way to the blue great-coats of the new demi-brigades. The popular revolutionary songs were played by the bands and we can have a taste of them by listening to some verses of La Garmagnole, then to be combined instrumentally with the rabble-rousing Ca Ira and to be followed by the emotive La Marseillaise, which Rouget de Lisre (1760-1836) wrote for France’s Rhine Army but was adopted by all revolutionary France. Two years after the Paris Municipality had taken over the band of the National Guard they decided to disband it, to economise. Fortunately, Sarrette was able to create from it the Ecole Gratuite de Musique de la Garde Nationale Parisienne, which in 1795 was amalgamated with the old Ecole Royale, at the Conservatoire de Musique. Both the Ecole and the Conservatoire were the mainstay of military music in those stirring times and supplied all the French armies with their bandsmen. As recommended by the Conservatoire at this time a military band comprised one flute, six clarinets, 3 bassoons, one trumpet, two horns, one serpent sod bass drum and cymbals. There had been a temporary eclipse of the oboe by the clarinet, because the latter instrument, played with the reed uppermost and open embouchure (as in jazz bands today), produced a clarino high trumpet tone. The trombone and serpent gave greater weight to fundamentals. In spite of the various forms of administration which succeeded each other in the unsettled final decade of the 18th century in France – the National Assembly, National Convention, Committee of Public Safety, Directory and Consulate -military music never flagged and the emergence of Napoleon Bonaparte was to ensure even greater vigour. Much had been owed to such composers as Gossec and Nehul. The latter, in collaboration with the poet Marie-Joseph Chenier, had written the famous Chant du De-part to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the Fall of the Bastille. It rivaled La Marseillaise in popularity.

(14) Part 2
An Outline of the evolution of the Military band in France

If the turning point in the development of the modern military band was the hautbois hand, 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 bends, stationed in public places near the hospitals, where they were to play 1various 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 GDNSULAIRE has had several arrangers but original composer is never indicated. The march is said to have bean performed at the Battle of Marengo (1800), the ‘Pas de Charge’ being in the trio. The outcome was an important victory for France hut it is ironical that the dispositions he had made caused Bonaparte to he 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’ a 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 Governaent 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 bend 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 cymbels. 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 bend in Prance. 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 bat 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. Regret tably, little of their music, and music for bend by Mehul and Charubini (whom Napoleon disliked, as being too independent!) is ever played. The bend music of these ‘composers of the Revolution’ deserved a better fate at the hands of the later conductors of bends, whose prograemes 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 bends remained very much a part of the French scene, reflecting the country’s martial ardour and desire to re-capture ‘La gloire’, as well as her colonial aspirations. As the years progressed a greater diversity developed amongst the Army bends and the heavy stateliness of the earlier marches no longer predominated. A regiment or battalion had its military bend (L’Harmonie) bat it also had a separate musical unit known as a ‘clique’. With Infantry regiments the clique comprised drums and fifes, bat 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 bends) 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 manoeuvres bat, through ~ 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 modernising of its bends and its members included Auber, Carrefois, Onslow, Spontini and Adam. As a result the Infantry were allowed fifty-four players per bend 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 bends 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 beck in favour 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 Trurpet-Major Jean Paulus, who composed a special fanfare for the presentation of Colours 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 bend 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 bends during the Crimean War (1854-56) and many went to the Front, to gain high praise from her Allies whose own bands were organised far less effectively than the French. They continued to receive strong support, as a Decree of 1854 allowed a bend 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 bends at Inkerman did as much to drive beck the Russians as the bayonet. Yet after the war in Italy (1859) there were drastic cuts and in 1867 the cavalry bends 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 bend was Bavaria’s – fifty-one. Austria had seventy-six, but Prussian combined two bends to make eighty-seven players. The judges were Ambroise Thomas, Leo Delibes, Fe icien Cesar David, Franz von Bulow, Hansluck and Kastner.

France’s agonising 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 u a am) theatre and café life in the capital was hardly affected. The bends 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, Ricketta, 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 Las Gardiens de la Paix de Paris and La Police Nationale. These high standards of rendition arise from the meticulous organisation 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.

(15) The 24th Regiment band

The earliest reference to a 24th regimental band appears in ‘Records of the 24th Regiment’ and reads: “Dublin, 16th May 1771 – the regiment has a band of music”, but how effective this was may be open to doubt when one sees in a Return of Musicians for 1801 (Appendix A) by Mr. Hugh McBride, Master of the Band, that the Band consisted of 11 bandsmen, 2 fifers and a drummers, the youngest being 11 years old with four years’ service and the oldest 50 with 36 years’ service!! In another List of Bandsmen dated 1812 (Appendix C) there are interesting features in the remarks column alongside the musicians’ names one reads “Very lame and not likely to be much better” and another “not likely to play”!! Perhaps one should say “from little acorns big oak trees grow”.

In 1840 the bend are described as being dressed in white double breasted coatees, collar cuffs and turn backs of green, large epaulettes of green worsted, white stripes on trousers and shako ornamented with a red bell. In about 1873 white clothing for the hand was discontinued.

Prior to 1881 when the Regiment first became associated with Wales, the Regimental march was The Warwickahire Lads after its connection with that county in earlier years. This march was composed by Charles Dibdin about the year 1768. From 1881, the quickstep of the Regiment was The March of the Men of Harlech, an old tune which appeared as a Welsh Harp Air in the 1794 edition of Edward Jones’s ‘Relics of the Welsh Bards

On 16th March, 1878, the band of the 1/24th was left at King William’s Town to be drilled in artillery and left that station with two seven-pounder muzzle loading guns for Itelezi and Mount Kempt where they did good service with the newly arrived 2nd Battalion of the Regiment. An extract from a letter from Horse Guards dated 5/6/78 and signed by R.C.H. Taylour, O.A.G., reads:

“H. R. H. has specially noted that two guns were manned by the bend of the 1st /24th Regiment during the action on April 30th , and he considers that the cheerful spirit thus evinced for the general good and benefit of the public service is must creditable”.

In the Zulu War of 1879 the band of the 1st Battalion was in the camp at Isandhlwana which was annihilated, one of the six soldiers of the 24th who survived the battle being Bandsman E. Wilson (a copy of his personal account of the action and subsequent escape from the field of battle is held in the Regimental Museum). Prior to the Zulu attack the bandsmen had been detailed as ammunition carriers, cooks and stretcher bearers, and Wilson was one of the latter. The 2nd Battalion also lost members of their bend on that fatal day including their Bandmaster, Harry T. Builard.

A rather interesting point is brought to light concerning the Bandmaster of the 1st Battalion, who, as a result of his status, and unlike his counterpart Bandmaster Bullard of the 2nd Battalion, was not present at the battle of Isandhlwana. This man, C. G. Burck, became Bandmaster in 1871 and served with the 1st /24th in various stations prior to accompanying the Battalion to South Africa. The reason why Burck failed to accompany his Battalion on active service remained obscure until research indicated that he may well have been a civilian and not a member of the Regiment. It had long been the practice of certain regiments to engage civilian Bandmasters, usually German or French nationals as they were often considered to be better musicians, the payment for these men being borne by the Officers’ Mess funds. An Army Order of 1814 prohibited foreigners employed as Bandmasters from taking part in military

operations, and in the case of Burck this may have been a lifesaver. Following the Army Reform Act of 1881 and the possible rescinding of the order of 1814, or perhaps as the result of being granted British nationality, C. G. Burck was appointed to the rank of Warrant Officer on 5th September, 1882, and continued to serve as such until 4th September, 1889.

An old Sergeant-Bandmaster of the 1st Battalion from 1869 to 1878, Harry Rattray, became the oldest Chelsea Pensioner of the Regiment. He was killed through enemy action on 16th April, 1941, when Chelsea Hospital was damaged in the London Blitz. He was in his 102nd year. At the age of ninety he composed a march entitled The March of the Clansmen of the Braemar Gathering which was inspired from a photograph of three veteran members of the Braemar Gathering in 1929.

In 1914 the 1st Battalion Band want to France with the Regiment and during the retreat from Mons cane under heavy shell fire which caused many casualties in the Band.

A unique distinction to the Regiment is that the Bandmaster of the 2nd Battalion, Mr. P. O’Donnell (1882) had three sons who all joined the Regiment and want on to become Directors of Music. At one time the three brothers, P.S.G. O’Donnell, R. P. O’Donnell and B. Walton O’Donnell were simultaneously Directors of Music Royal Marines; one at Chatham, one at Portsmouth and one at Plymouth and all three brothers received the M.V.O.

Kneller Hall has on two occasions been commanded by officers of the Regiment. Colonel Farquhar Glennie in 1893 and Colonel Campbell-Miles 1951-1955.

Four of the most outstanding of the Regiment’s Bandmasters over the years have been Charles Ancliffe (1st Bn. 1900-18) whose Nights of Gladness waltz is world famous; D. J. Plater (2nd Bn. 1923-26) who was renowned for his march compositions. He became Director of Music Royal Tank Regiment in 1926 where he stayed until 1947 when he became the first Director of Music R.E.M.E.; Major W.G. (Polly) Willoocks (2nd Bn. 1926-37) who became Director of Music Irish Guards. During Polly Willcocks period with the 2nd Battalion this bend was without doubt one of the most outstanding hands in the whole of the British Army. In successive years 1932, 1934 and 1935 they had a Kneller Hall Inspection Report of Outstanding, a feat believed to be unsurpassed; and Lieutenant Colonel S.V. Hays who went on to become Director of Music in 1978, Director of Music Honourable Artillery Company.

On the outbreak of the war in 1939 Bandmaster Hays and the Band Boys of the 2nd Battalion, stationed at Londonderry at the time, were sent to Brecon and immediately set about forming a new bend known as the Infantry Training Centre Band, which became a first-class band and toured extensively in Wales and England and visited the 2nd Battalion in the front line in Holland. In 1947 the 2nd Battalion went into suspended animation and the War Office directed that this band should join the 1st Battalion, the 1st Battalion Band having become defunct over the war years. In November 1947 Bandmaster Hickaan, a few bandsmen and a number of hand boys set sail for Cyprus to form the 1st Battalion Band. In 1955 Mr. Hicknan was succeeded by Bandmaster Ollie Whiting who was to be the last Bandmaster of the 24th Foot for in June 1969 the 24th amalgamated with the 41st Foot to form The Royal Regiment of Wales.

Bandsmen have always been known as the “Gentlemen of the Regiment”. The following appears in the 1905 edition of 2nd Battalion Standing Orders: “Bandsmen being better educated, and in a position superior to the rank and file, must remember that more is expected of them. Their conduct should be beyond reproach and in their dress and bearing they should be the smartest men in the Battalion. A bandsman who was awarded a Regimental entry will be struck off the establishment of the Band for at least three months.”

LIST OF BANDMASTERS

1st Battalion 2nd Battalion

Mr J NoBride 1793-1802 Mr P Waters 1865-1878

Mr J Clarke 1863-1869 Mr H Bullard 1878-1879

Mr H A Rattray 1869-1878 Mr R Goodings 1879-1884

Mr G Tamplini 1878-1882 Mr A Preece 1884

Mr G C Burck 1882-1889 Mr P O’Donnell 1884-1905

Mr J A Caborn 1889-1890 Mr F Ripp 1905-1906

Mr C W Ancliffe 1900-1918 Mr J C Roberts 1906-1915

Mr T Taylor 1918-1922 Mr H Fenner 1915-1923

Mr J L Gecks 1922-1934 Mr D J Plater 1923-1926

Mr C Eldicott 1934-1941 Mr G H Willcocks 1926-1937

Mr W J Hickman 1946-1955 Mr S V Hays 1937-1946

Mr 0 R Whiting 1955-1969

List of Bandsmen 1/24th – 1812
Sgt Crofswell 1st Clarinitt & Bassoon occasionally
Jms Brett 1st Clarinitt & Flute occasionally
Jms McGuire 1st Clarinitt
Henry Herold 1st Clarinitt
Edward Worrall 2nd Clarinitt
Jumps Smith 2nd Clarinitt (very lame and not likely to be much better)
James Butler 1st Bassoon (on leave at present)
Michael McGuire 2nd Bassoon (likely to be a good hand)
James Love learning the Bassoon
M. Hinton Bass Horn (likely to be a good one)
W Routh 1st Flute
W Patten learning the Flute
Jms Herold 1st Horn
W Harrison 2nd Horn
Samuel Miller learning the 2nd Horn – not likely to play
Wm Collins Trumpet & Bugle (failing)
Jms Johnson Tambourine
Paul Maurice Bass Drum
Danl Frederick Cymbals

(16) The Black Musicians of the British Army

Perhaps the Crusades had given Negroes and other foreign percussionists a place in Western music. A 14th century British Museum manuscript snows a Negro as a cymbalist who, at the same time, carried a pair of kettledrums on his back for the drummer standing behind. At the College of Arms is the Westminster Tournament Roll (February 1509/10) which shows six mounted trumpeters, one of them wearing a green turban (the only one wearing headgear) being a coloured man.

Two hundred years ago it was the fashion amongst many regiments to employ drummers from Africa and the West Indies. From reports of Generals visiting garrisons at various times, one learns that they were rattling good drummers too. The verdict of Major-General Sir William Howe, when inspecting the old 29th Foot at Dover in 1774, reported the fact that the drummers and fifes “beat and play well.” One may well believe that, in the carrying out of their strenuous duties, these drummers made their presence felt , since there were no less than ten of them. Seventeen years later, another General put the same regiment through its paces at Windsor, bluntly remarking in his report that “The drummers black, beat and play well.”

The 1st Bn The Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment, to give the 29th its present day designation, had always made a speciality of its black drummers, an innovation which originated in rather curious circumstances. Admiral Boscawen happened to he the brother of its Commanding Officer in 1759, and at the surrender of Guadaloupe, siezedon the happy idea of securing ten boys, all of whom were eventually enrolled as drummers in his brother’s regiment. Some sixteen years later, a few survivors of this original group still remained with the regiment and in the estimation of a certain Colonel, they were all remarkably good drummers, a fact which probably stood as much to the credit of the British Drum-Major as to his pupils. Neither patience nor wisdom need be brought to bear in the tuition of drum “banging”, but in the “playing” of that primitive instrument a fair amount of both is necessary. When stationed at Tralee in 1824, the 29th had eleven boys specially brought over from Africa to fill the vacancies of its band. For over eighty years this regiment adhered to the custom of retaining black drummers, the last of whom passed away in the early 1840’s.

Africa was not the only land to which the military authorities looked for likely candidates for bands. The West Indies was also a good source of drummers as well.It was from this archipelago that the old 38th, now theStaffordshire Regiment, obtained most of its drummers, not altogether a matter for surprise considering the regiment was quartered there for almost sixty years. When its turn for departure came in 1765, it retained a squad of three black boys, but whether all the chosen ones relished the idea of leaving their native soil is nor recorded. Since the archives of certain regiments reveal the fact that at various times a “slave’ was posted to the drums, one may infer that the transfer in many cases was a hlessing in disguise for individual concerned. The Royal Fusillers was another marching regiment in which the foreign element was rather prevalent, all its drummers being blacks during the last nine years of the last century.

The cymbals and triangles had their place with “the drums and fifes,,’ and these members of the percussion family of musical instruments were sometimes played by quite juvenile black muscians. The bass drummer was invariably a burly black gentleman of imposing physique. In E Hull’s well known lithograph of the big drummer of the Grenadier Guards in 1829, one has a representation of a typical specimen of his type just in the act of producing his best from his instrument, and attired in white trousers, scarlet tunic, and a tall, gaily bedecked turban, the head-dress worn by most of his profession. The retention of the tiger and leopard skin aprons of the big drummers is a survival of the era when some of the drummers from Africa took the skins of wild beasts with them when they joined the British Army. jeined the British Army. Their fantastic uniforms were brought into greater prominence their outlandish evolutions when marching at the head of their regiments. Unfortunately, very little is known of any of the particular Black musicians of that era. However a man known as John Baptist is said to be the last of his fraternity in the Scots Guards. As a mark of distinction, a silver collar was worn by the last black drummer of the Grenadier Guards. Francis by name. This worthy drummer joined the great majority in 1838, the following year the Coldstream Guards dispensed with black musicians.These black Guardsmen were familiarfigures to the Londoners of those days, since their presence was necessary in the Court of St James’s at the daily ceremony of the Changing of the Guard.

Lest it might be supposed that the black musicians were all drummers and only to be found in infantry regiments, attention is called to the fact that the Royal Artillery at one time had black tambourine and cymbal players, the Turkish “Jingling Johnie” being also left to the tender mercies of a dark-skinned minstrel, whilst among the last of their kind in the service of the Crown were three black trombone players of the 2nd Life Guards, a circumstance which shows that the brethren of the redoubtable Francis were not unrepresented in the saddle, since the Household Cavalry had their African trumpeters as early as 1742, and in some of the old London prints a black kettle-drummer is depicted at the head of the band. His uniform was not unlike that still worn on ceremonial occasions by the bandsmen and trumpeters of these regiments, a three-cornered hat, however, taking the place of the blue velvet “jockey” cap now in vogue. Among the many fine military paintings hanging in Windsor Castle is an equestrian study of a black trumpeter in this very showy attire.

An Army Inspection Return of 1776, shows that a black kettle-drummer was employed by the 3rd Hussars at that period. “Bush” Johnstone of the 4th Hussars, was well respected and like the kettle-drummer and the trumpeters of the same regiment, he was an Indian, and, during the regiment’s twenty-year stay in the “Shiny East”, he held a proud position immortalized by Thomas Hardy, the Trumpet-Major. ‘Bush’ paraded for the last time with the old 4th Light Dragoons in 1842, when it is fairly safe to assume that the coloured element in our cavalry had disappeared.

Rumour has it that a few Militia units could boast of one or two black mulatto musicians as late as the Crimean War, but in confining this survey of the innovation as practised in the Regular Army, one is met with all manner of conflicting statements concerning the identity of the last black drummer, the manner of his exit, and the year in which he made his last bow to an admiring world. The early 1840’s could only muster a handful of these gentlemen, and the death in India on 15 July 1843, of George Carvell, the last black drummer of the “Ever-sworded Twenty-ninth”, removed one of the very last of this unique section of British Army musicians.

Tags: army bands, army field band, colonel jack, fifes, german airforce, military band music, military bands, military musicians, navy bands, regimental music, us army field
Posted in World Book G-I, World Military Book | 2 Comments »

World Book S-U

Surrey Yeomanry Association Band

The Band was formed in 1964 as the official band of the Surrey Yeomanry (Queen Mary’s Regiment). Successive defence cuts and re-organisation of the military led to the disbandment of the Surrey Yeomanry regiment and its band, but by the unanimous wish of its members the band kept together – at first in an unofficial capacity and then under the auspices of the Regimental Association.

The Band continues to be affiliated to the Regimental Association, although they play no part in managing or running the Band. A few of the original members are still playing in the Band; the rest of the members have joined since and have no connection with the Regiment or the Army. The Band is now managed as a regular concert band, but the name remains as a reminder of the Band’s origins many years ago. … Continue Reading »

Tags: army band, cavalry regiment, infantry regiment, marching band repertoire, military bands, prussian army, regimental marches, swedish army
Posted in World Book S-U, World Military Book | 2 Comments »

World Book V-X

Vinatieri, Felix

Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer chose Felix Vinatieri as leader of the band for the 7th Regiment of the U.S. Cavalry in 1873. Three years later, before he and more than 260 of his men met their doom at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Custer left behind the band. Military bands were important for morale . Reporter N.R. Knappen of the Bismarck Tribune traveled with Custer’s regiment and wrote, “When the band plays, the music dances on the mountain tops, dives into the caves, rushes through the valleys and is returned again by the charming echoes.”

Historians differ on why the band stayed back. Some think Custer wanted to take the band to battle but Gen. Alfred Terry would not consent. Others say Custer felt he needed to move more quickly than was possible with the band along.”It would be interesting to know if I’d even be here,” Adam says, “if (Felix) would have been along for the ride.” The answer is no. His great grandfather Ehrum was born in 1889, 13 years later.Felix was born in Turin, Italy, in 1834. In 1859, he immigrated to the USA and enlisted in the military as a musician, serving in the Civil War.

Vinatieri was sent west and was living in Dakota Territory when he was discharged in 1870. He settled in Yankton, where he married Anna Frances Fejfar. In 1873, Custer’s 7th Regiment came to Yankton, where a ball was given for Custer and his officers. Vinatieri led the band that night, and Custer, surprised at finding such sophisticated sound in the wilderness, offered Vinatieri a job as bandleader for parades, reviews, dances, funerals and expeditions.According to records at the National Music Museum at the University of South Dakota, which holds the Vinatieri archive, Mrs. Anna Vinatieri often told her grandchildren “of Custer’s love for band music.” Vinatieri composed dozens of pieces of original music with names such as Black Hills Polka and The Mosquitoes of the Dakotas Waltz .

Wind Band in the History of Swedish Music

Background and origins

Until 1971, professional wind music in Sweden was entirely a military phenomenon. That year the unique step was taken of transferring more than 500 musicians to a civilian national organization. Then, in 1988, the State decided to regionalize this resource to county council level, where in most cases it was given foundation status. However, already in 1982, the Music Platoon – recruited annually among new conscripts – was set up, mainly with a view to preserve traditions of military music. Today, with the former military bands discontinuing their activities, there are now four conscript formations. There are as well five professional bands in Sweden nowadays, two with part of their time dedicated to the military: The Navy band revived already in 1992, The Air Force Band in recent years. There are also three professional jazz bands: Norrbotten Big Band up in the far north of Sweden with trumpeter Tim Hagan as leader, Bohuslän Big Band situated close to Göteborg and Gotland Big Band in the Baltics. All three derived from the military!

Back to square one!

Tentative beginnings of military music already occurred in the 16th century, but a proper organization was not introduced until the latter part (1680-1720) of what is known as the Great Power Period, when infantry and dragoon regiments were allotted a small group of 4, 6 or 8 musicians, known as “oboists”. Finds from the warships Wasa and Kronan have shown that the Navy too had its trumpeters and drummers. Drums and trumpets, with their distinctive wartime and peacetime functions,occupied a special position in the musical and social life of the period.One typical composition from the period is Anders von Diiben’s Narva March, celebrating Charles XII’s victory over the Russians in the year 1700 in what is now Estonia.

After 1720, as a result of military disasters, only a few groups of musicians remained within the military organization, but eventually various regiments began recruiting, out of their own pocket, “harmonic music” resembling that which existed elsewhere in Europe.

The German “Harmoniemusik”, with its 2 oboes, 2 bassoons and french horn, was introduced in Sweden during the late 18th century. Clarinets were added, however, only a few decades later, and thus the forces of the “Harmoniemusik”, i.e. band, of the Södermanland Regiment in 1772 were: 3 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 french homs, 2 bassoons and one trumpet.

Woman’s Royal Air Force Band
In 1944 the Woman’s branch of the Royal Air Force applied to the War Office for permission to form a band. The first band was organized with volunteers and consisted of trumpets and Drums at Stanmore Park , in Middlesex.. In 1946 the band led the WAAF contingent in the victory parade and they appeared at the Royal Tournament . The band was converted to a brass band in 1949 with the trade of musician being officially recognized. The band was disbanded in December 1972. Woman were not accepted into the Royal Air force until 1991.

Tags: 7th regiment, band music, battle of the little bighorn, bismarck tribune, george armstrong custer, leader of the band, military bands, music museum
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Sights and Sounds of Military Bands on the Web

No 6: THE DRUMS — AND FIFES — OF JANUARY

The 3rd United States Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard), oldest active-duty infantry

unit in the U.S. Army, is the army’s official ceremonial unit and presidential escort.

The regiment is responsible for the Caisson Platoon and the guards at the Tomb of the

Unknown Soldier, both at Arlington National Cemetery . We will focus on another unit,

the Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps.

The 3rd United States Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard)

The corps, stationed at Fort Myer , Virginia , parade in uniforms patterned on those worn

by George Washington’s Continental Army.

The United States Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps

During the inauguration of the new U.S. president, the Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps

have the singular responsibility of immediately preceding the president on the procession

from The Capitol to the White House. They have had this role since the inauguration of

John F Kennedy. Although it should be noted that over 700 Old Guard soldiers

participated in the ceremonies in many other roles. … Continue Reading »

Tags: fife and drum, fife and drum corps, fifes, guard fife, military bands, old guard fife and drum corps, united states infantry regiment
Posted in Sights and Sounds of Military Bands on the Web, World Bands | No Comments »

Posts Tagged ‘military bands’

World Book of Military Music G-I

World Book S-U

Surrey Yeomanry Association Band

World Book V-X

Vinatieri, Felix

Wind Band in the History of Swedish Music

Background and origins

Back to square one!

Sights and Sounds of Military Bands on the Web

Sights and Sounds of Military Bands on the Web

No 6: THE DRUMS — AND FIFES — OF JANUARY

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