Marches

Marches can be written in any time signature, but the most common time signatures are 4/4, 2/2 (alla breve [although this may refer to 4/2 time up until the time of Brahms] or cut time), and 6/8; however, some modern marches are being written in 2/4 time (although this is not always considered standard). The modern march tempo hovers around 120 beats to the minute (the standard Napoleonic march tempo); however, many funeral marches conform to the Roman standard, 60 beats to the minute.

In addition to the instrumentation, time signature and tempo, other features are characteristic of most marches (though many exceptions exist). Marches usually consist of several strains or sections, usually of 16 or 32 measures in length, and usually repeated at least once during the course of the march. Marches generally have a strong and steady percussive beat reminiscent of military field drums. Marches frequently change keys once, modulating to the subdominant (and occasionally returning to the original tonic key). Or if it begins in a minor key, it modulates to the relative major. Marches frequently counter melodies introduced during the repeat of a main melody. Marches frequently have a penultimate dogfight strain in which two groups of instruments (high/low, woodwind/brass, etc.) alternate in a statement/response format. In most traditional American marches, there are three strains. The third strain is referred to as the “trio”.

A military music event where various marching bands and units perform is called tattoo.

History

Marches were not notated until the late 16th century; until then, time was generally kept by percussion alone, often with improvised fife embellishment. With the extensive development of brass instruments, especially in the 19th century, marches became widely popular and were often elaborately orchestrated. Composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, andGustav Mahler wrote marches, often incorporating them into their operas, sonatas, or symphonies. The later popularity of John Philip Sousa’s band marches was unmatched.

The march tempo was adapted by Napoleon Bonaparte so that his army could move faster. Since he planned to occupy the territory he conquered, instead of his soldiers carrying all of their provisions with them, they would live off the land and march faster.

March music originates from military, and often are played by a marching band. The most important instruments are various drums (especially snare drum), horns, fife or woodwind instruments and brass instruments. Marches and marching bands have even today a strong connection to military, both to drill and parades. Marches, which are played at paces with multiples of normal heartbeat, can have a hypnotic effect on the marching soldiers, rendering them into a trance, This effect was widely known already in the 16th century, and was employed to lead the soldiers in closed ranks against the enemy fire in the 16th and 17th century wars.

American march music

Main article: American march music

The true “march music era” existed from 1855 to the 1940s as it slowly became shadowed by the coming of jazz. Earlier marches, such as the ones from Ludwig Van Beethoven, Wolfgang Mozart, and George Frideric Handel tended to be part of a symphony or a movement in a suite. Despite the age of these marches, the history it holds and its performance in the United States, they are generally not thought of as “typical American march music”.

American march music cannot be discussed without mentioning the “March King,” John Philip Sousa. Some of his most famous marches include Semper Fidelis, The Washington Post March, The Liberty Bell, and Stars and Stripes Forever. Another popular march composer utilized by American High schools and colleges was Karl King.

A specialized form of “typical American march music” is the circus march, or screamer, typified by the marches of Henry Fillmore and Karl King. These marches are performed at a significantly faster tempo (140 – 200 beats per minute) and generally have an abundance of runs, fanfares and other “showy” features. Frequently the low brass has one or more strains (usually the second strain) in which they are showcased with both speed and bombast. Stylistically, many circus marches employ a lyrical final strain which (in the last time through the strain) starts out maestoso (majestically — slower and more stately) and then in the second half of the strain speeds up to end the march faster than the original tempo.

European march music

Many European countries and cultures developed characteristic styles of marches. Some of the styles and characteristics are

British marches

British marches typically move at a more stately pace (ca. 112-120 beats per minute), have intricate countermelodies (frequently appearing only in the repeat of a strain), have a wide range of dynamics (including unusually soft sections), use full-value “stingers” at the ends of phrases (as opposed to the shorter “marcato” stinger of American marches). The final strain of a British march often has a broad lyrical quality to it. Archetypical British marches include those of Kenneth Alford, such as the well-known Colonel Bogey March.

Scots-Irish Marches

Scots-Irish move at a similar paces with British marches, but are distinctly different from them in that they incorporate traditional instruments of the Scots and Irish, as well as their respective Celtic and Scot harmonies. Notable Scots-Irish march performers that carry on the indigenous march traditions are The First Battalion Irish Guards, The Gordon Highlanders, Scottish Military Tattoo, and contemporaries Flogging Molly, and the Dropkick Murphys.

Marches can be written in any time signature, but the most common time signatures are 4/4, 2/2 (alla breve [although this may refer to 4/2 time up until the time of Brahms] or cut time), and 6/8; however, some modern marches are being written in 2/4 time (although this is not always considered standard). The modern march tempo hovers around 120 beats to the minute (the standard Napoleonic march tempo); however, many funeral marches conform to the Roman standard, 60 beats to the minute.

In addition to the instrumentation, time signature and tempo, other features are characteristic of most marches (though many exceptions exist). Marches usually consist of several strains or sections, usually of 16 or 32 measures in length, and usually repeated at least once during the course of the march. Marches generally have a strong and steady percussive beat reminiscent of military field drums. Marches frequently change keys once, modulating to the subdominant (and occasionally returning to the original tonic key). Or if it begins in a minor key, it modulates to the relative major. Marches frequently counter melodies introduced during the repeat of a main melody. Marches frequently have a penultimate dogfight strain in which two groups of instruments (high/low, woodwind/brass, etc.) alternate in a statement/response format. In most traditional American marches, there are three strains. The third strain is referred to as the “trio”.

A military music event where various marching bands and units perform is called tattoo.

European march music

Many European countries and cultures developed characteristic styles of marches. Some of the styles and characteristics are

British marches

British marches typically move at a more stately pace (ca. 112-120 beats per minute), have intricate countermelodies (frequently appearing only in the repeat of a strain), have a wide range of dynamics (including unusually soft sections), use full-value “stingers” at the ends of phrases (as opposed to the shorter “marcato” stinger of American marches). The final strain of a British march often has a broad lyrical quality to it. Archetypical British marches include those of Kenneth Alford, such as the well-known Colonel Bogey March.

Scots-Irish Marches

Scots-Irish move at a similar paces with British marches, but are distinctly different from them in that they incorporate traditional instruments of the Scots and Irish, as well as their respective Celtic and Scot harmonies. Notable Scots-Irish march performers that carry on the indigenous march traditions are The First Battalion Irish Guards, The Gordon Highlanders, Scottish Military Tattoo, and contemporaries Flogging Molly, and the Dropkick Murphys.

German marches

German marches move at a very strict tempo, and have a strong “oom-pah” polka-like/folk-like quality resulting from the bass drum and low-brass playing on the downbeats and alto voices such as “peck horn” and the snare drums playing on the off-beats. This provides a very “martial” quality to these marches. The low brass is often featured prominently in at least one strain of a German march. To offset the rhythmic martiality of most of the strains, the final strain (“trio”) often has a lyrical (if somewhat bombastic) quality.

Notable German and Austrian march composers include Franz von Suppe, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Georg Fürst (Badenweiler Marsch), Carl Teike (Alte Kameraden), and Johann Gottfried Piefke (Preußens Gloria).

French marches

French military marches are similar to German ones. Examples would be Saint Cyr, Marche de la 2eme DB/March of the Second Armored Division, Le Regiment de Sambre et Meuse

Dutch marches

Dutch marches are quite different from their main European counterparts. Typically they feature a heavy intro by the trombones, euphoniums, drumms, and sousaphones, followed by a lighter section, a lighthearted trio and a reasonably fast and somewhat ‘bombastic’ conclusion. Some well known Dutch march composers are Willy Schootemeyer, Adriaan Maas, Johan Wichers andHendrik Karels.(musical examples of Dutch marches: Dutch Royal Constabulary and Royal Dutch Marine Corps)

Italian marches

Italian marches have a very “light” musical feel, often having sections of fanfare or soprano obligatos performed with a light “coloratura” articulation. This “frilly” characteristic is contrasted with broad lyrical melodies reminiscent of operatic arias. It is relatively common to have one strain (often a first introduction of the final strain) that is played primarily by the higher-voiced instruments, or in the upper ranges of the instruments’s compass. A typical Italian march would be “Il Bersagliere” (The Italian Rifleman) by Boccalari.

Spanish marches

The most characteristic Spanish march form is the Pasodoble. Spanish marches often have fanfares at the beginning or end of strains that are reminiscent of traditional bullfight or flamenco music. These marches often move back and forth between major and (relative) minor keys, and often show a great variation in tempo during the course of the march reminiscent of an exaggerated or prolonged Viennese rubato. A typical Spanish march would be Amparito Roca by Jaime Texidor.

Czech marches

Czech (Bohemian) march composers include František Kmoch and Julius Fučík, who wrote Entrance of the Gladiators.

Turkish marches

Modern Turkey’s march is İstiklal Marşı. It has power and anger with an aggressive tune. But generally, old Turkish marches at the times of the Ottoman Empire are aggressive in the lyrics and more confident in the tunes, but still frightful to enemy, e.g. Mehter Marşı. It is notable that Mozart and Beethoven also wrote popular Turkish marches.

Authorized marches of the Canadian Forces

Military cadence

Marches of Kenneth Alford

The Thin Red Line, The Vedette, Colonel Bogey, the Great Little Army, On the Quarter Deck, The Middy, The Voice of the Guns, The Vanished Army, The Mad Major, Cavalry of the Clouds, Dunedin, Old Panama, HM Jollies, The Standard of St George ,By Land and Sea, Army of the Nile, Eagle Squadron, Lillibulero, A Life on the Ocean Wave, Vesper Hymn.

Massed bands in Concert

First performed in Britain in 1851 for Chelsea Pensioners at the Royal Hospital and was under the patronage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert

Massed Bands in Italy

Massed military band programs have been held in Rome and Modena since 1993

Military Bands

A military band is a group of personnel that perform musical duties for military functions, usually for the armed forces. A typical military band consists mostly of wind and percussion instruments. The conductor  of a band commonly bears the title of Bandmaster or Director of Music.

The military band should be capable of playing ceremonial and marching music, including the national anthems and patriotic songs of not only their own nation but others as well, both while stationary and as a marching band. Military bands also play a part in military funeral ceremonies.

There are two types of historical traditions in military bands. The first is military field music. This type of music includes bugles (or other natural instruments such as natural trumpets or natural horns), bagpipes, or fifes and almost always drums. This type of music was used to control troops on the battlefield as well as for entertainment. Following the development of instruments such as the keyed trumpet or the saxhorn family of brass instruments, a second tradition of the all brass military band was formed.

During the American Civil War most Union regiments had both types of groups within the unit. However, due to changes in military tactics by the end of World War I field musical had been mostly phased out in favor of the brass bands. These performed in a concert setting for entertainment, as well as continued to perform drill and martial events. In the United States, these bands were increased in instrumentation to include woodwinds, which gives us the modern military band in the United States, as well as the basis for high school and college marching bands and concert bands.

Field music is still popular at ceremonial functions, with many organizations such as police, fire, and veterans groups maintaining pipe and drum, fife and drum, or drum and bugle corps.

In the United States Army, the band is attached to the headquarters element and one of its duties is to provide security for the command post. Regular British Army musicians are all members of theCorps of Army Music. As a secondary role they are trained to work in NBC ‘Casualty Decontamination Areas’. Modern-day military musicians often perform a variety of other styles of music in different ensembles, from chamber music to rock and roll. During World War II, The Royal Air Force Dance Orchestra, better known as The Squadronaires, served to entertain troops and support morale.

In the United Kingdom, massed military bands perform at Trooping the Colour, an annual ceremonial held every June on Horse Guards Parade to mark the official Queen’s Birthday celebrations.

The term “military band” may also be applied to civilian marching bands that play military-style music, march in mostly straight-line formations and have similar instrumentation.

Military Band Journals

In the 19th and 20th centuries, several world publishers of band music printed many of their works in “journals”. The journals published in Britain were initially sold by subscription with the numbers usually running in sequence. Jullian’s Military Band Journal was the first to issue Journals which were available in a numbered sequence. The Jullien Journals featured works from Opera and were mostly the overtures with various arias  transcribed for military band instruments. Jullien was eventually taken over by Boosey whom became the most well known and respected publisher of military band journals in the world. Boose anglicized their  name in 1846 and undertook to produce numerous military band journals. Their publications had numbers assigned to each and many were the featured songs and shows of teh era. As an example in 1867 no.3 in the 43rd series was the selections from La Vie Parisienne by Offenbach. The journal was published until 1931  and contained an enormous variety of music from almost every milieu. They also marketed five additional journals, which included music for young bands, supplemental march journals and military band church journals. Much of the work was done by arrangers whom were on staff or retired British bandmasters. Some of the Directors of music from the Guards bands supplemented their earnings by producing arrangements for the journals. At the height of the golden age of military bands Boosey’s published over 500 arrangements and transcriptions of band music. The Chappel Army Journal first issued their military band music in 1858 and continued the practice well on into the 2oth century. 

Some of the music was from well known shows which included modern Broadway musicals such as The Music Man and West Side Story. All of their publications were by subscription. Chappel’s Army Journals were completely devoid of printing errors or inconsistent harmonies such  as existed in earlier military band journals. Much of their work remains to this day and may still be purchased through Edwin  F  Kalmus in Boca Raton  in Florida USA. The Hawkes company entered the military band journal field possibly as early as 1851. Although they produced over 300 journals the numbering system was difficult to determine. The quality of the music was excellent and they introduced a number of time honored pieces of music and marches.The LaFleur journal which was subtitles the Orpheus Military Journal was founded by Charles Godfrey. Many of the arrangements were by Albert Morelli but several other arrangers were employed. The editing in some of the journals was suspect and there were a number of printing errors in the later works. Boosey and Hawkes merged in 1931 and began to produce the Quarto series of military band music which lasted until 1981. 

The market for the military publications softened in the years after World War 2 because  the number of military bands were drastically reduced. The American publisher J.W. Pepper of Philadelphia also entered the military band journal field . In 1876, James (J.W.) published a variety of journals, the most noteworthy being the “Musical Times” and “Brass and Reed Band Journal.”Both journals featured quickstep marches and instrumental instructional materials. Business expanded to include the sale of musical instruments when Pepper’s first retail store opened for business at 832 Filbert Street in Philadelphia in 1877. Encouraged by the company’s success, a New York retail outlet was established in 1880. This location facilitated an affiliation with world renowned instrument maker, John Distin. With Distin’s help, Pepper moved aggressively into the instrument manufacturing and importing business. Another location followed in Chicago in 1886. The 1880s saw numerous patents secured for Pepper instruments and their various components. One of particular note is an improved bass drum pedal, which is the precursor of the system still prevalent in today’s drum set design. Many of these instruments are on display in the National Headquarters in Paoli, Pennsylvania.The company published and developed relationships with many leading composers through the turn of the century, including John Phillip Sousa, Charles Ives, Arthur Pryor, Max Drefus, T.B. Boyer, F. Von Blon, Harry Von Tilzer, W.P. Chambers, H.W. Petrie, and Pepper’s most prolific arranger/composer.  

Military Band Tragedies

1. Montevideo July 1st 1942

Every member of the 2/22 Battalion Regimental Band was originally a Salvation Army Bandsman. Of the twenty-four who enlisted, only one survived their deployment to New Britain in 1941.Jack Stebbings was killed on the 23 January 1942 while riding. William Haines and Ronald Cook died at Tol Plantation on 4 February 1942. A. Creed lost his life on one of the mountain tracks of New Britain. Frederick Meyer died on 27 April 1942 of illness at a mission station and Stanley French died on 15 February 1942.

Bandmaster William Gullidge and bandsmen Wilfred Trigg, Raymond Cairns, Kenneth Drew, Albert Fry, T. Henderson, Harry Harvey, Mervyn McPherson, Francis Meddings, B. Morgan, Stanley Parker, Harold Pannell, John Robertson, N. Smith, M. Thomas and Reginald Watkins were listed as being on board the Montevideo Maru when it was sunk on 1 July 1942.

The only survivor was Fred Kollmorgen.

“The Salvation Army band, or should I say the Battalion band, continued to add colour to army life at Bonegilla. Occasionally the band would march around the camp in the early morning playing bright and happy tunes. On a few of those occasions the drummer, a short, rotund man with a big brass drum balanced out in front of him, would march along wearing only a towel. What a sight! The band, being Salvationists, naturally took part in the life of the local Salvation Army Corps. Some opposition arose from the military hierarchy regarding their playing at the Salvation Army open air meetings. Eventually the order came through that no Army personnel were to stand at street meetings. After that they marched around in big circles during the street meetings until they were finished”.

*Also see USS Arizona December 7th 1941

**Also to be published US Navy band loss in  plane crash 1960

Military Band of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army

The Military Band of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, which was founded in July 1952, is the only one large wind band in China. It is directly under the General Political Department of the PLA.

The Military Band aims at the nationalization, specialization and popularization of its art, and is characterized by its excellent performance, great variety, fresh style, compliance with all tastes and tremendous momentum. Its performing styles include various ensemble playing, duo, quartet, sextet, octet, solo of all wind instruments, vocal solo, part singing, march play and some other talk-shows. More than 200 works and l00 artist from the Military Band have won prizes in competitions home and abroad. Representative works include Symphony poem-Storm, Good Message arrives in Remote Village from Beijing, Funeral march, Long Live the Great Country, Shoulder to Shoulder with the Civilians, Athlete March Song, Cavalry March, Reba, Song of Ethnic Group and Dance Music of Ah Xi. In recent years, the Military and has paid visits to Japan, Thailand, France, Finland, Singapore, Italy, Holland and the regions of Hong Kong and Macao for competition and performance.

The Military Band has produced a number of artists of attainments, conductor including Liu Yubao, Lu Shuzhong, Cheng Yiming, Ma Wen, Yu Hong; composer including Li Tongshu, Li Yansheng, Zheng Lu, Wei Qun, Ji Cheng, Yan Xiaoou, Wang Hesheng; instrumental play performers Niu Zhanying, Sun Dafang, Zhu Yaozhou, Li Fu, Lu Jisheng, Luo Yanxi, Qi Jingquan, Pang FenCheng, Zhao Weiming, Li Changhu and singer: Han Zhiping.

Miller George John

b.1826 d. 1886 He became a band master(civilian) in 1858 after serving in various British Army bands as a cornetist. He was bandmaster of the 63^rd Regiment band when Kneller Hall, the Royal Military School of Music was established he refused to enlist in the army and his position was taken over by a Kneller Hall graduate.

Military Band Scores

The standard form of the score of military band music is broadly standardized with the woodwinds at the head and the brass and percussion following. The early band scores had doubled parts on the  scores such as solo and 1st clarinets and cornets. This was often a poor system because when the parts were individually printed they were difficult to read. Many of the scores that were provided by publishers were condensed scores, leaving  it up to  conductor to distinguish where a line would begin and end.  Numerous problems existed with this score format. A continuous series of notes were notated but would be shown in the context of such remarks as clarinet and horns after beats continue. The usual arrangement for full band scores is the piccolo, followed by flutes,  Oboes, Eb clarinet, Bb clarinets1-2-3, alto and bass clarinet , bassoons , saxophones-alto, tenor, and baritone. The horns are doubled into 1-2 and 3-4. Band scores showed cornets 1-2-3  and trumpets 1-2. Tenor Trombones are listed 1-2 and a bass trombone is also a single staff. Euphoniums and tubas are also on single lines followed by percussuion,  snare ,cymbals, bass drum and timpani. 

Musique de la Gendarmerie Mobile

The Gendarmerie Mobile is a military constabulary band in France  The band was formed  in 1791 and has a long history of musical excellence. Theer are eighty-two musicians in teh band whom are selected by audition. The band play a variety of French nationalistic music.