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.

Historically recordings, both audio and video, of military music events have captured the

final perfect — or otherwise — performance. The existence of facilities such as YouTube

afford us a chance to observe the rehearsals and drill that are required prior to final

perfection. As I’ve mentioned before, I find such reports equally as fascinating as the final

performances. Also, corps of drums and fifes/flutes are quite rare in regular

army duty. Apart from our featured corps, I’m only aware of such units existing on a

standing basis in the British infantry and the Swedish army. Please let me know if I’ve

missed anyone.

Rehearsals for the Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps were particularly important as the

unit would have nearly 60 musicians on parade, rather than the usual 25 to 33.

Here’s the TV report that sparked my interest.

CNN — Fife and drum extravaganza set for Inauguration Day

Note that the individual incorrectly identified as the unit commander CW4 Gregory

Balvanz is actually Head Drum Major MSG Russell Smith.

The music being played is The Bath Medley.

Some history of the Bath Medley

The Bath Medley (score)

Here are several other reports on the preparations

2: Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps Rehearsal

Note the remarks about their signature “troop step” which appears to be the

standard slow march “balance step” used by the British and Commonwealth

military as well as, among others, the Norwegian army. Compare:

Coldstream Guards Corps of Drums

More rehearsal

3: Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps Rehearsal

4: Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps Rehearsal

5: Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps Rehearsal

And here they are on Inauguration Day.

President Obama reviewing his honour guard at the Capitol prior to the return to

The White House. Following the Fife and Drum Corps is the Commander-in-Chief’s Guard, also a unit of

the Old Guard. Note the musicians wear the reverse colours of those of the infantry soldiers.

Presidential Review of Honor Guard

The band that leads off the march past is The United States Army Band “Pershing’s Own”

The U.S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own”

The parade

Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps makes an appearance about 2 minutes 40 seconds on,

playing the Bath Medley.

And finally you can find links here for the Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps in a

performance at the 2007 Virginia Military Tattoo

VIRGINIA MILITARY TATTOO 2007

My thanks to SSG Rebecca Davidson and SFC Richard Ruddle of the Old Guard Fife

and Drum Corps for assistance with this article.

Meanwhile 12,000 kilometers away

India ’s Republic Day is celebrated each year on January 26. After a massive parade in

New Delhi , the day concludes with a Beating Retreat ceremony. Alas this year the death

of the former president of India R.Venkataraman, resulted in cancellation of the Beating

Retreat ceremony as well the termination of the final dress rehearsal. Here’s an earlier

rehearsal.

Rehearsal for Beating Retreat 2009

And some of the actual parade, with an emphasis on the many military bands

Republic Day Parade 26 January 2009

No 5: WHO? WHAT? WHERE? WHEN?

It all started with a YouTube video labeled on-site simply as Austrian Military Parade.

Austrian Honour Guard

The less than two-and-a-half minute video had no other information attached.

It appeared to be some foreign dignitary receiving a salute and the playing of

national anthems. Now the anthem was one I had not heard before and I found

it very dramatic and it intrigued me. That anthem was followed by that of Austria .

So the first step was trying to track down the nationality of the anthem. After listening to

most of the anthems on a number of sites, I got lucky with this one:

National Anthems – United States Navy Band

It was the national anthem of Kazakhstan . To verify I searched on those terms and found

corroboration here:

National anthem of kazakhstan performed at presidential inauguration

More searching revealed that the anthem had been used only since 2006. The first anthem

collections I had visited were not quite up to date.

My Kazakhstan (anthem) – Wikipedia

Exploring Austrian government sites revealed the woman with the Kazakh dignitary was

the Austrian Foreign minister, Dr. Ursula Plassnik. Now who was the Kazakh official?

I started by assuming he might be the foreign minister or president of that country.

Searching for images of those officials using both English and Cyrillic, quickly showed

that he held neither of those positions. But he did show up in photos several steps behind

them. A bit more work gave me the information he was the former deputy foreign minister

just appointed as Ambassador to Austria , Kairat Abdrakhmanov. He presented his

credentials to the president of Austria on October 2, 2007 . So that is the WHO ,

WHAT and the WHEN.

The WHERE we know is Vienna . The words Adlerstiege (Eagle Stairs) on the wall next

to the door from which the officials have exited, confirms the location as the Hofburg in Vienna .

The former imperial palace and now the location of the offices of the president of Austria .

Hofburg Wikipedia

and in English

Hofburg Imperial Palace –Wikipedia

But there is still more WHO. The military presence is the Guards Regiment of

the Austrian Army. And the band is the band of the Guards.

Osterreichs Bundesheer – Waffengattungen – Garde– Austrian Army Guards

Austrian Army Guard and band of the Guard–photo

Austrian Army band of the Guard –photo

Military band resources on the web seem to be growing at a rapid rate. As is indeed, the web itself. This website is an indication of that trend. Many bands of all sizes have their own sites or pages. And Wikipedia is an amazing source of information –in many languages—on everything from individual marches to the structure of national military organizations.

But nothing has shaken up my own experience of military music more than the exploding availability of videos on sites such as Google, YouTube, AOL, news organizations and governments. I’ve discovered more new marches—new to me—in the last three months than in the previous ten years. Not to mention the bands, regiments and ceremonies associated with music.

So much music that sadly doesn’t travel far from its native land. Videos are filmed by tourists, news cameras and government agencies. My favourites are what I call “family movies”. That is videos made by the performing organization itself and that cover events that normally are not for public consumption. For example, change of command ceremonies, drill, cadet graduations and the whole range of daily activities within the unit. Even if the video is the product of traditional media, you are very likely to find the comments are written by a member of the band or parent unit. You’ll read: “I’m the trombone on the left” or “lovely march, but after playing it three times a day for eight months….”

To get started you can search Google Videos or YouTube using terms such as parade, army, band, guard change. You’ll get some great starting videos. If reports of national day or remembrance parades show up they’re a great introduction to national styles of military music. The other choices Google or YouTube will suggest will get you on the way.

Now the fun really begins. You’ll be watching videos in any one of dozens of languages. The description and comments by viewers will be in as many languages. To try and discover the names of the marches played or more details of the bands you’ll need some help. Google, for example, can search in and translate 34 languages. The quality of translations has improved explosively in the last few years. If you are sufficiently obsessive, you can proceed from the names of the marches to discovering the name and biography of the director of music, the uniform regulations of the army or navy in question and the history of the music. Hint: when using translation resources on the web, I test the accuracy of the translation by putting key words in a foreign (to me) language into Google Image Search and hoping the photos that show up have some connection to the word I wanted.

If anyone has any comments or corrections to anything I’ve written below or can offer the names of any of the marches heard in the videos that follow, please contact me at: meadowlands1937@gmail.com

Now here is a small sample of the videos I’ve found over the last few months.

Leonard Greenberg Montreal, Canada

Romanian Military Parade 1st of December 2007 5/5

Romanian ceremonial guard

Russian music is both abundant and shows the range of historical range available. As well as being a passion of mine since childhood.

You can watch the 1945 parade marking the end of World War II and then watch the 2008 version.

Moscow– Victory Day Parade 2008 5/7

Moscow–Victory Parade 1945 1/4 in colour

I’d grown used to the Preobrajensky March being performed by the Royal Marines and The Life Guards, having been presented to them by Lord Mountbatten. Here you can hear it back where it originated and played by the successors to the original Preobrajensky Guards.

Russia–Presidential Guard

An older performance conducted by the son of the founder of the group.

Soviet Army Choir –Nightingales –Boris Alexandrov conducting

Although I’d been listening to Russian military music for years, I’d somehow missed one of the most famous marches dating from pre-revolutionary times.

I discovered it as the lead off march in the 2008 Moscow parade. And then I wanted to know more.

Farewell of Slavianka – Wikipedia

Finding this WWII version, I’m now trying to track down the specific version of the lyrics. Once again, Google translation and transliteration come to the rescue

Farewell of Slavianka

As an indication of other types of resources available

SovMusic.ru – Military marches and songs

For a change of pace

Mongolian Army Central band- MMF Berlin 2007

The Vatican–The Swiss Guard drums in concert

Now for one of my favourite finds since I discovered YouTube. Norway’s Hans Majestet Kongens Garde (His Majesty The King’s Guard).

HMKG for short (and that’s an excellent search term). Considering the band, drums and bugles and the drill team are all in their

teens and the whole unit begins anew each year with fresh recruits, an amazing group and great marches.

Norway-King’s Guard-Swedish MilitaryTattoo 1/2

Norway-King’s Guard-Swedish Military Tattoo 2/2

Norway—King’s Guard–Norwegian Military Tattoo 2002

Norway-King’s Guard –Full Drill 2005 1/3

More Google translation for me

Polish Independence Day Ceremony – Święto Niepodległości, Kraków 2007 1/3

Band of the Krakow Garrison, and even more translation

The Regulares are a regiment originally raised in Spanish Morocco, hence the uniforms. Their instruments are drums, bugles and the medieval oboe-like chirimía.

The Spanish Legion and The Regulares–León, Spain

When you search for something like “corps of drums” you’ll get the expected

Grenadier Guards corps of drums 2008

Guards Division Corps of Drums Black Sunday 2008

but you are also likely to find the following. Not the usual image.

Corps Of Drums 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards – Baghdad 2006

Now back to our world tour

Indian Army band at Japan Self-Defense Forces marching festival 2006

The Indian Army Chief&apos’s Military Band at 2008 Edinburgh Tattoo

Athens — changing of the presidential guard

Mehter (Ottoman Janissary Band)–Istanbul

The French 14^th of July parade in Paris (aka Bastille Day) is always a good bet.

First the traditional

French Foreign Legion– Paris 14th of July, 2008 1/6

and the not so expected: the band of the Brazilian Marines and the cadets of The Academia Militar das Agulhas Negras (Military Academy of the Black Needles)

Band of the Brazilian Marines–Paris 14th of July, 2005

For further information

Academia Militar de Agulhas Negras – Wikipedia

From Dublin, a commemoration ceremony that took place in July 2007 at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham. Guard of honour and band of the Irish Defence Forces — Óglaigh na hÉireann.

The march is described in the comments to the video as being “Molly Bloom” a reference to a character in James Joyces’ novel Ulysses and comprises four tunes associated with Dublin. The commentator seems to be calling the music“Milly Bloom”. Now it may simply be the pronunciation in Irish, but Milly Bloom is also a character in Ulysses – Molly Bloom’s daughter.

Can anyone give me more information on the absolutely delightful music?

Irish Army Presidential Salute

The state funeral for a former president of Ireland , Patrick Hillery, which took place in Dublin in April 2008. The funeral march that begins the procession is superb. Can anyone provide more information ? Also note the kepi worn by the band.

State funeral of former president of Ireland 1 of 2

State funeral of former president of Ireland 2 of 2

A documentary filmed in 2006 and 2007 to mark the 350^th anniversary of the

founding of the Grenadier Guards. Originally broadcast as three one-hour episodes, it is found on YouTube as three sections of five parts each.

The first segment of each episode is shown below. The band receivesparticular attention.

Guarding the Queen 1 — 1 of 5

Guarding the Queen 2 — 1 of 5

Guarding the Queen 3 — 1 of 5

1^st Battalion Welsh Guards trooped its colour in 2008. The full ceremony which took place Saturday 14 June 2008 is on the web as nine segments of 10 minutes each. Great camera work. Watch for close-ups of Queen Elizabeth tapping her foot to the music.

The parade marches off Horse Guards to a new march “Advance to glory” composed by WOI Gregory Machin, bandmaster of the Band of the Coldstream Guards. The expert commentary was done by LCol Bob Owen, former Director of Music, Scots Guards and former Senior Director of Music, Household Division.

Trooping the Colour 2008 1 of 9

I’d no idea there were so many military music festivals and tattoos happening on a regular basis around the world. I’ve counted and found video for at least 24 and the number is increasing daily. The festivals and their videos are presented in noparticular order. As usual the quality of the videos vary widely. Many of the official sites have their own video links, frequently associated with DVDs for sale.

Where available I give a link to the official organization site as well as links to representative videos on the web. There are often many more videos available.