Military music

Military music
Jeremy Montagu, Armin Suppan, Wolfgang Suppan, D.J.S. Murray and Raoul F. Camus

https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.44139
Published in print: 20 January 2001
Published online: 2001
This version: 29 May 2020

Updated in this version

Updated

Instrumental music associated with the ceremonies, functions, and duties of military organizations. The
function of military music was threefold: to give signals and pass orders in battle; to regulate the military
day in camp or quarters; and ‘to excite cheerfulness and alacrity in the soldiers’. Military music in the form
of bugle and trumpet calls together with drum beatings could identify friend or foe before the general
adoption of national uniforms.

The drum and trumpet, and latterly the bugle, were introduced to solve the problem of control in battle
once armies had grown too large for control by the human voice to be effective. With the advent of the all-
weather metalled road, it became possible for the large-scale movement of formed bodies of troops to be
planned and performed to a timetable. For this a uniform and even marching beat was required and the
military band, consisting of brass, woodwind (mainly reed), and percussion instruments, was evolved,
supported by the drum and six-keyed flute (corps of drums) combination, and in Scottish regiments by
that of the drum and bagpipe. This role has now disappeared with the increasing mechanization of modern
war.

Before the days of radio and television military bands could be employed to project a positive image of the
military in their relations with the civilian population, and were so used in the war-time recruiting
campaigns that were a feature of the ‘nation in arms’ concept. This aspect has diminished in scope and
appeal with the progressive reduction of armed forces, and today military music is only heard in
connection with ceremonial occasions and, rarely, in public concerts given by service bands, while the use
of music on the field of battle has been obsolete since the conclusion of the South African War of 1899–
1902. (Pipers were used in World War I to play on the line of march to and from the trenches: the practice of
playing attacking troops ‘over the top’ was stopped early on due to the high casualties among pipers.)

This article discusses the origins of European military music, and especially its use in Britain and North
America. For more detailed discussion of the history, instrumentation, and repertory of military bands, see
Band; see also Feldmusik and Harmoniemusik; for military calls and signalling, see Military calls; Signal;
and Tuck, tucket.

1. Antiquity.
Jeremy Montagu

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Military music

In ancient times instruments – most commonly trumpets and horns – were used in warfare or other
military contexts mainly for signalling or to frighten the enemy. A well-known example is the horrible
noises made by the Celtic trumpets that are depicted on the Gundestrop cauldron in Judges vii. 16–22 which
refers to Gideon’s night attack with shofarot (rams horns) and torches. There are many illustrations of
Egyptian soldiers holding trumpets similar to those found in Tutankhamun’s tomb, and Numbers x. 2–10
describes the manufacture and use of similar instruments. The few Mesopotamian reliefs which may
depict military scenes show no instruments besides trumpets.

The only instrument shown in the hands of a soldier in ancient Greece is the salpinx, represented by a
somewhat dubious instrument in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which resembles none of the ancient
iconography and has no secure provenance, and by short pottery instruments, some 30 cm long, from the
Archaic period in Cyprus. The Roman army used three different trumpets: long and straight (tuba), long
and curved (buccina), and short and curved, made of oxhorn (cornu); the J-shaped lituus seems to have
been a civilian or cultic instrument. A very few of these trumpets have survived, along with a much greater
number of mouthpieces. Because the two longer instruments were portrayed on mosaics together with the
organ in the circus, it has been suggested that they were used in concerted music; however, it seems more
likely that the trumpets signalled while the organ provided the musical elements.

There are extensive accounts, dating from Greek and Roman times, of military calls blown on trumpets,
horns, and other wind instruments (see Walser, 1972). Tacitus, for example, speaks of them in his
Germania. Drums, commonly thought today to be the most essential military instrument, seem not to have
been used by European armies until about the 13th century CE. However, the Roman salii, or military
dancers, accompanied their dances by beating on their figure-eight-shaped shields, a custom which has
been recorded among the Zulus and elsewhere. Vigetius (De re militari, c300 CE) and other writers testify
that Roman soldiers, apparently unique among early European armies, marched with a step measured both
in time and in length. There is no evidence for any Roman accompaniment to the march, though the men
may have sung chants such as those still favoured by drill sergeants today. Military music was also used in
Roman times to accompany ceremonial displays: for instance, a ceremony with musical accompaniment
called the classicum was performed at the solemn conclusion of a festive day in front of the praetorium, or
commander’s lodgings.

Drums seem to have been equally rare in western Asia until slightly before the 13th century. The
commonest military instruments were horns of various types: sometimes large S-shaped instruments,
rearing above their players’ heads like the trunks of elephants, sometimes C-shaped, and often straight.
The use of drums and bells for signalling and giving orders, as well as for emblems of status, is attested in
China from at least the 7th century BCE. Not only were normal drums used but bronze skeuomorphs,
instruments similar to the metal drums still associated with the Karen peoples of Myanmar and known
from the Dong-son culture of South-east Asia, were awarded to successful generals.

2. Europe from the Middle Ages.

Armin Suppan and Wolfgang Suppan

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Military bands, in the sense of a diverse group of instruments playing some form of concerted music, first
seem to have appeared in India or the Middle East in the 12th century. This can probably be linked to the
adoption of the shawm, the only melodic instrument of that period powerful enough to stand up to the
groups of long trumpets and kettledrums portrayed in Moghul and medieval Persian iconography. While
signalling was certainly part of their duties, the main function of these bands seems to have been to
produce a loud, sustained noise which would encourage their own forces and perhaps disconcert the
enemy. These bands were encountered, and then to some extent emulated, by the Crusaders, and this led to
the establishment of town bands and Stadtpfeifers of later medieval Europe.

In his account of Richard I’s crusade to the Holy Land, Geoffrey of Vinsauf wrote, in 1188: ‘The Turkish
army appear around on every side with trumpets, drums, and horrid clang, ready to attack’, and in 1191:

In front came certain of their admirals, as was their duty, with clarions and trumpets; some had
horns, others pipes and timbrels, gongs, cymbals and other instruments, producing a horrible
noise and clamour. The earth vibrated from the loud and discordant sounds, so that the crash of
thunder could not be heard amid the tumultuous noise of horns and trumpets. They did this to
excite their spirit and courage, for the more violent the clamour became, the more bold were they
for the fray.

Geoffrey’s description of the battle for Constantinople dwelled on the drowning out of the city’s alarm
bells by the horns, trumpets, and many percussion instruments of the advancing Turks. As late as 1526, at
the battle of Mohács in southern Hungary, where the Christian army suffered a devastating defeat, their
only musicians – the cavalry trumpeters and kettledrummers, and the infantry musicians playing fifes and
drums – were solely employed in playing calls, while the Turks fielded a whole band playing trumpets,
oboes, cymbals, and drums so loudly that the sound rose above the din of battle.

The 13th century saw the introduction of more sophisticated wind instruments made of expensive metals,
and of families of instruments in various sizes. In Arezzo in 1240, the German Emperor Friedrich II
commissioned ‘four tubae and one tubecta’ to be made of silver. The tubecta was probably similar to the
instrument known to Dante as the trompetta, but throughout the European Middle Ages there was some
vagueness about the naming of instruments and their grouping in families of trumpets, horns, trombones,
and tubas. Wood and metal wind instruments existed in many hybrid forms. At the smaller European
courts various wind and percussion ensembles, including the alta (see Alta), provided music for ceremonies
and entertainment, hunting, and military purposes. By the time of Emperor Maximilian (1459–1519) the
shawm family dominated German military music. Hans Burgkmair’s woodcuts for Maximilian’s triumphal
procession (Triumphzug Maximilians I, 1526) show a variety of instrumental ensembles. Henceforward the
combination of fife and drum was referred to as the kleines Feldspiel; it began to be distinguished from the
grosses Feldspiel (i.e. wind band) in the 19th century. The use of fife and drum by Swiss and German
mercenaries in the early Renaissance as an aid to marching in step led Arbeau (Orchésographie, 1588) to
calculate the number of drum patterns to the league and to emphasize the essential requirement that the
rhythmic pattern, however complex it became, must always show clearly which foot was which.

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No clear chronology can be drawn up for the institution of permanent ensembles and regionally
standardized music for calls and ceremonials. The first guilds specifically for trumpeters and
kettledrummers were founded under Emperor Charles V (1500–58). The introduction of gunpowder in
Europe in the 14th century and the development of hand-held firearms increased the volume of sound in
battle. In the cavalry the ‘instrument of command’ became the trumpet; in the infantry, the drum. A code
of calls for the trumpet and beats for the drum was devised which covered most of the manoeuvres likely to
be required in battle; other calls were designed to indicate the nationality of the troops concerned. Two
trumpet calls feature in Jannequin’s chanson La bataille. My Ladye Nevells Booke (1591) contains imitations
of what were presumably the usual trumpet calls of the time in England. Machiavelli in his Libro della arte
della guerra (1521) and Zarlino in Le istitutioni harmoniche (i, 1558) cast light on the use of trumpets,
kettledrums, and flutes in Italian military music, and their function in providing a marching rhythm. The
notes on calls and other musical pieces made by Hendrich Lübeckh and Magnus Thomsen (c1600) are of
Danish provenance. Cesare Bendinelli’s trumpet tutor Tutta l’arte della trombetta (1614) contains trumpet
calls, as does Mersenne’s Harmonie universelle (1636–7). However, these examples are by no means
characteristic: military calls necessarily had to be kept secret, and new signals for specific events had to be
devised so that they would be understood by the musicians’ own side but not by the enemy.

By the 17th century European armies distinguished between two types of musical units, the ‘field music’
and the ‘band of music’. The field music consisted of the company musicians of a battalion or regiment.
When assembled, the field music was under the command of a drum-, fife-, or pipe-major, who was part
of the headquarters staff. Its principal function was to sound the signals and commands that governed
military life. The band of music, on the other hand, served ceremonial and social functions. It was
composed of professional musicians, often civilians, and was a separate unit under the control of a music
master or bandmaster. Its members frequently were capable of playing a number of different string and
wind instruments. In many cases military bands were paid by the officers’ corps as their personal
employees; this was true of military bandmasters in Austria-Hungary up to the beginning of World War I.

Hans von Fleming’s Der vollkommene Teutsche Soldat (1726) gives the first clear account of the state of
military music in Germany: when and for what purposes military musicians were employed, and which
musical ensembles were attached to a unit. Fleming states that military music was necessary in both war
and peace, to assist the order of marching in battle and in retreat (the cavalry tattoo), and to accompany
ceremonies of mourning and rejoicing. Soldiers could be recruited with the aid of music (the Hungarian
verbunkos dances of the time of Maria Theresa were famous in this capacity), and music helped to keep the
men cheerful and ready to fight. According to Fleming the musicians serenaded their colonel in the
morning and evening with marches, entrées, and minuets. Besides the older groups of fifes and drums he
mentions the ‘regiment’s Hautbois and drums’, and three different kinds of trumpeters – court
trumpeters, field trumpeters, and ship’s trumpeters. Of these, he says, some could read music, while some
blew calls and trumpet pieces that they knew by heart.

In the 17th and 18th centuries clearly defined types of ensembles emerged in the West to play military
music, influenced by the mehter – the wind and percussion bands of the élite janissary troops of the
Ottoman Empire – encountered during the wars with the Turks. By the end of this period the concept of
‘Turkish’ music was well established in German-speaking countries, both as a type of composition (music

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alla turca and ‘Turkish marches’ by Gluck, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and other composers) and as the
term for a military band comprising brass, woodwinds, and ‘Turkish’ percussion instruments such as the
Turkish crescent, cymbals, and bass drum. Forms of military bands and wind bands (see Harmoniemusik)
thus merged with ‘Turkish music’ (see Janissary music) to create the basis of the modern symphonic wind
band (see Band, §II, 2, (i) and Band, §III).

During the first half of the 19th century the military band evolved from an ensemble serving a purely
military function to one capable of performing a wide range of musical and cultural tasks, helping the
army to make contact with the civilian population. This evolution was accompanied by a gradual growth in
the size of bands, and by far-reaching developments in the design of brass and woodwind instruments. By
the mid-1800s the band repertory included original works and arrangements by leading composers of the
day.

3. Britain.
D.J.S. Murray

In the days before the general adoption of national uniforms the identification of friend or foe was a
perennial difficulty, and this gave rise to the composition of drum beatings and calls designed to indicate
the nationality of the troops concerned, of which the English and Scots marches have survived.

The continental wars of the 16th and 17th centuries involved units of English and Scottish mercenaries.
The fife, the ‘Almain whistle’ made famous by the Swiss and German Landsknechten (mercenaries), began
to be heard in the British army. In the later years of King Charles II’s reign it was gradually ousted in favour
of the hautboy. From 1746, however, the fife began to return as the instrument of the infantry, and found a
role accompanying the drum in signalling the four principal events of the soldiers’ day: Reveille, Troop,
Retreat, and Tattoo.

On each of these four occasions the drums beat and the fifes played a prescribed sequence of tunes around
the camp or through the streets. The tunes were laid down in The Drum and Flute Duty, the earliest edition
of which appears to have been issued in 1759. At Reveille the soldiers lay in bed until the drums ceased.
When the Troop was beaten, the soldiers paraded, the colours were trooped down the line, and the troops
marched off to drill or other training. Retreat beating had to continue for at least 15 minutes to allow
soldiers to make their way home before the roll was called and the camp gates locked. At Tattoo the drums
beat and the fifes played for half an hour to allow the soldiers time to drink up and return to their billets
before the music ended.

The first date in England for a military oboe band (with horns or trumpets) has not been established, but
horns were usual by the mid-18th century. Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks (1749) illustrates the
scoring and orchestration then possible for an open-air wind ensemble (24 oboes, 12 bassoons, nine
trumpets, nine horns, and three timpani). In 1762 the Royal Artillery raised a ‘Band of Musick’ consisting
of eight men playing ten instruments: pairs of trumpets, horns, and bassoons, and ‘four hautbois or
clarinetts’. Such ensembles were the predecessors of today’s military bands. The officers financed the
bands themselves by subscribing to a fund from which musicians were engaged and instruments

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purchased. As the musicians were not enlisted soldiers, they could, and often did, refuse to play for an
event that fell outside their contract. In 1783 the officers of the Coldstream Guards wished their band to
accompany an ‘acquatic excursion’ to Greenwich. The musicians resigned en bloc; a replacement band was
recruited from Hanover, organized on German lines and consisting of enlisted musicians playing clarinets,
horns, oboes, and bassoons. Other regiments were quick to follow the example of the Coldstream in
recruiting German musicians.

The raising of volunteer regiments at the end of the 18th century much increased the number of small
bands, which usually consisted of two clarinets or oboes, two horns, two bassoons (often played from one
part), one trumpet, and commonly a serpent. Their repertory comprised marches and quicksteps varied by
an occasional military rondo, often composed by local bandmasters. Much of this music was published at
the time. Haydn, who was the first Harmoniemusik conductor at Eszterháza castle in Eisenstadt, wrote
marches for this combination on his first visit to London. Sometimes there were extra parts for small flutes
in B♭ or for flutes in F, and for a small Turkish percussion ensemble of long drums and cymbals.

In 1844 it was conceded that ‘the formation of a band of music [was] essential to the credit and appearance
of a regiment’ (The Kings Regulations, 1844). By then the invention of the valve had released the brass
instruments from the restrictions of their natural harmonic range, and the appearance of the tuba and its
associated family of instruments in 1835 had further increased the musical potential of the band. The cost
of the band was still borne by the officers, to whom the new instruments meant additional expense. One
way in which they could obtain some return on their outlay was by hiring the band out for paid
performances. To secure these the band had to play to an acceptable standard, and it thus became
customary to engage a civilian musician, frequently from Germany, to train and conduct the band. Not
until the establishment of the Military School of Music at Kneller Hall, Twickenham, in 1857 was the army
able to produce its own qualified bandmasters.

In the mid-18th century the British army adopted the cadenced step, and marching music was therefore
required. Although marches were being composed in the 17th century, and illustrations of the period show
troops marching in step, the scarcity of level areas on which troops could manoeuvre, together with the
total absence of metalled roads, would seem to indicate that such music was restricted to formal
ceremonial occasions. Even in the 18th century the size of parade grounds was limited and so marches did
not need to be very long. Most marches of the time consisted of two simple sections in common time
played at 72 beats to the minute, the ‘ordinary step’ of the British army, the Parademarsch of the Prussian,
and the pas ordinaire of the French.

The situation changed radically with the appearance of the macadamized road surface in the first decade of
the 19th century. It was now possible for columns of troops to march in time and step for long distances,
and music became essential to ensure that an even rate of progress was maintained. Longer marches both
for the band and for the fife and drum combination began to be composed, with the ‘trio’ now an integral
part of the march. The rate of marching was also increased to 108 paces to the minute, the ‘quickstep’ of
the British, the Geschwindmarsch of the Prussian, and the pas redoublé of the French. The improved
instrumentation available to the military band also enabled more ambitious concert pieces to be
performed, and selections from popular operas and operettas as well as arrangements of classical and
symphonic music came to feature regularly in band programmes.

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Military music

The concept of the regimental march, that is a marching tune associated with one particular regiment, is
common to most armies. The British army is unique, however, in that the tunes which its regiments and
battalions played when passing in review order, when entering barracks, and at the end of every band
programme tended to be arrangements of folksongs associated with the counties and districts to which
regiments were linked in 1881, although a few played marches specifically composed for them by their
bandmasters.

During the 19th century the keyed marching flute evolved from the simple six-holed fife. By 1868 flutes
and piccolos in different keys were being issued to the Corps of Drums, as well as bugles which had taken
over the role of ‘instrument of command’ from the drum at the beginning of the century. This enhanced
flute component permitted a wider range of music to be played, and marches on the same melodic scheme
as those of the military band began to be composed. On the line of march, the band and the Corps of Drums
played alternately, but the beating of Reveille, Retreat, and Tattoo remained the province of the Corps of
Drums until the custom lapsed in the years between the two world wars.

Pipers were first authorized for highland regiments in 1854, although they had been a feature of these
regiments since their first raising in the 18th century. Over the 19th century the fife gave way to the
highland bagpipe in all the Scottish regiments, and the band of bagpipes and drums replaced the Corps of
Drums, except in the Scots Guards, by 1918. An essential step toward standardization of the military bands
of the British army was taken at the Instrumentation Conference held on 7 December 1921 at the Military
School of Music. It was agreed to take the tenor horn out of use and introduce the saxophone. Well-known
composers were encouraged to write original works for military band, following the example of Holst’s
Suites nos.1 and 2. The challenge was taken up by Vaughan Williams (English Folk Song Suite, 1923; Toccata
marziale, 1924) and Gordon Jacob (William Byrd Suite, 1923). Holst also wrote Hammersmith (1930).

The altered conditions of the second half of the 20th century led to the abolition of the military band in the
infantry and cavalry regiments of the line. However, representative bands were formed for the infantry and
the Royal Armoured Corps, infantry units retaining their Corps of Drums and pipe bands.

4. North America.
Raoul F. Camus

In North America, as in Europe, armies distinguished between the ‘field music’ and the ‘band of music’.
The principal function of the field music was to sound the ‘camp duties’, a system of musical signals and
commands which all personnel were expected to recognize and instantly obey, and which regulated
military life. The drum was used in the infantry, while mounted units used the trumpet. During the colonial
period British signals were used; in the Revolutionary era the basis for American practice was Friedrich von
Steuben’s Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States (1779). This ordered nine
‘beats’ of the drum into use: ‘The General’, ‘The Assembly’, ‘The March’, ‘The Reveille’, ‘The Troop’, ‘The
Retreat’, ‘The Tattoo’, ‘To Arms’, and ‘The Parley’. Also included were 12 signals that were not regulated
by the clock, or did not apply to the whole army. (For a full explanation of these and other calls, see Camus,
1976.) As the Regulations contained no music, the Continental Army’s musicians depended on British

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practices and on the teachings of the army’s Inspector of Music, John Hiwell, and regimental drum-
majors. The drum beats gave the signals and command, with fife melodies added by the last third of the
18th century to make the signals more easily recognizable. In ex.1 an interpretation of the ‘Drummer’s
Call’ is combined with a fife melody found in a manuscript of Giles Gibbs (1777).

Ex.1.

The first printed drum manuals in America appeared in the early 19th century; in these, as in early
manuscripts, drum beats were not notated conventionally, but rather described. David Hazeltine, in his
Instructor in Martial Music (1810), described the ‘Drummer’s Call’ as ‘a ten and a stroke, a flam and a stroke,
and one flam, twice over; then a ten and a stroke, then a flam and a stroke, five times over; then one flam’.
Comparison with contemporary British and American works shows that his ten-stroke roll more often
consisted of seven or nine strokes, and by the time of the Civil War it had become an 11-stroke roll. (For a
listing of fife tutors of this period, see Warner, 1967.)

The fife and drum were used to sound the camp duties until well after the Civil War. The orderly drummer
would beat the ‘Drummer’s Call’ to assemble the company drummers and fifers for one of the day’s
routines, such as Reveille, Troop, Retreat, or Tattoo. By the end of the 19th century, when the bugle
supplanted the fife and drum, a new set of signals was developed. US Army manuals of 1957 list 20 calls and
four ceremonial compositions, but except for ‘Taps’, which is still played at funerals, these have fallen into
disuse.

The colonial field music evolved from English models. Each infantry company included one or two
drummers and fifers, and each troop of horse had a trumpeter. An American infantry regiment with eight
line companies might have a field music of as many as 16 drummers and fifers. Irish and Scottish settlers
sometimes used bagpipes instead of fifes, and bugles were later used by light infantry and detached
mounted parties. Black Americans, required to serve but in many colonies forbidden to bear arms, were
often musicians. Field musicians, who were paid and ranked as corporals, were usually given rudimentary
rote training by the battalion’s drum- or fife-major. While primarily signalmen, they were required to do

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duty as soldiers. In battle the drummers remained with their companies, beating signals as required, and
normally marching immediately behind the advancing line. The musicians were expected to attend the
wounded after battle, and were responsible for carrying out punishments. Boys, especially the children of
soldiers or widows, were taught the fife and drum (for one such veteran’s fascinating reminiscences, see
Meyers, 1914). Because of their importance as signalmen, military musicians in the 18th century were
usually dressed in the reverse colours of the regimental uniform (the musician’s coat being the colour of
the regimental facings). This enabled their commanders to locate them quickly in the smoke and confusion
of battle.

During the colonial and Revolutionary periods the military drum was a snare or side drum between 38·1 and
45·7 cm in height and diameter. A two-headed cylindrical wooden shell with two or more gut cords
stretched across the bottom membrane, the drum was normally emblazoned with the arms or crests of the
king or colonel, and later the American eagle. When not in use it was suspended from the shoulder by
means of a plaited cord, or drag rope. The bass drum, adopted by European bands near the end of the 18th
century with the vogue for janissary or Turkish music, did not become a part of the American field music
until the early 19th century. Kettledrums were rarely included in the field music, but mounted regimental
bands could use timpani instead of snare and bass drums.

The early fife was a one-piece, wooden transverse flute about 60 cm long; it had six finger-holes and was
pitched in D. In the late 18th century C and B♭ fifes became standard, but most military music continued to
be written in the keys of G and D. The trumpet, a cylindrical tube made of brass or silver, usually had two
rings to which an emblazoned banner could be attached. Early trumpets were in D, but by the Civil War the
regulation trumpet was in F. Confined to the natural harmonic series, its range for military purposes was
from the 3rd to the 9th or 10th partial. The bugle horn, a short, curved, wide-bore horn, was used in the
late 18th century by light infantry and dismounted units to differentiate them from the line infantry. In the
early 19th century the conical tubing was lengthened and coiled, resulting in an instrument pitched in C or
B♭. The bugle or field trumpet gradually replaced the fife and drum, and by the end of the 19th century was
the principal military signalling instrument; at this time it was pitched in G with a tuning-slide to F for use
when performing with bands.

Technological advances in the 20th century relieved the field music of the duty of sounding signals, and
with some exceptions the units were disbanded. Some vestiges of earlier practices remain: the US Army
Band’s Herald Trumpets, for example, open ceremonies and announce the arrival of the president and
other dignitaries. Many traditions of the field music are carried on in revived ‘ancient’ fife and drum units,
pipe bands, and modern drum and bugle corps. The Company of Fifers and Drummers in Ivoryton,
Connecticut, coordinates the activities of more than 150 traditional fife and drum corps throughout the
USA and Canada, and maintains a research library and museum. The US Marines maintain a drum and
bugle corps, and Canada supports ten pipes and drums bands.

For a general discussion of the development and instrumentation of the band of music, see Band, and
Band, §IV, 4. Each branch of the US armed services (the army, navy, marines, air force, and coast guard)
has a special band, often with its own traditions. The US Marine Band is the oldest in continuous operation
(since 1798); the army and navy also have special academy bands. These bands, which may have as many
as 165 members, frequently comprise one or more marching units, several small groups, a chorus, and a

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Military music

chamber orchestra, as well as the full symphonic band. In addition, in the late 1990s there were 38 regular
army, ten navy, 13 Marine Corps, 16 air force, 19 army reserve, 55 National Guard, and 11 Air National
Guard bands.

Canada maintains four 45-piece Regular Force professional brass and reed bands. Canada also has seven
Regular Force voluntary brass and reed bands, five naval reserve bands, 42 land forces reserve bands, and
three Air Reserve bands. Every military band is required to function as a concert as well as marching band,
and to provide small jazz, rock, and popular combos for social occasions.

Bibliography

A: General
E. Neukomm: Histoire de la musique militaire (Paris, 1889)

J.A. Kappey: Military Music (London, 1894)

S.C. Griffiths: The Military Band (London, 1896)

G. Parès: Traité d’instrumentation et d’orchestration à l’usage des musiques militaires (Paris, 1898)

J. Damanski: Die Militär-Kapellmeister Österreich-Ungarns (Leipzig, 1904)

H.G. Farmer: The Rise and Development of Military Music (London, 1912/R)

G. Miller: The Military Band (London, 1912)

H. de Lafont: Historique des musiques militaires (Paris, 1914)

M. Brenet: La musique militaire (Paris, 1917)

B.G. Seton: The Pipes of War (Glasgow, 1920/R)

J. Mackenzie-Rogan: Fifty Years of Army Music (London, 1926)

R.B. Reynolds: Drill and Evolutions of the Band (Annapolis, MD, 1928, 2/1943)

H.E. Adkins: Treatise on the Military Band (London, 1931, 3/1958)

C. Hoby: Military Band Instrumentation: a Course for Composers and Students (London, 1936)

C. Preite: Strumentazione per banda (Milan, 1936)

L. Degele: Die Militärmusik: ihr Werden und Wesen, ihre kulturelle and nationale Bedeutung (Wolfenbüttel, 1937)

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

H.G. Farmer: Military Music (London, 1950)

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Military music

D. Dondeyne and F. Robert: Nouveau traité d’orchestration à l’usage des harmonies, fanfares et musiques militaires
(Paris, 1969)

A. Hofer: Studien zur Geschichte des Militärmarsches (Tutzing, 1988)

W.H. Rehrig: The Heritage Encyclopedia of Band Music: Composers and their Music, ed. P. Bierley (Westerville, OH, 1991–
6)

B: Ancient
W.P. Yetts: The George Eumorfopoulos Collection: Catalogue of the Chinese and Corean Bronzes, Sculpture, Jades,
Jewellery and Miscellaneous Objects, ii, Bronzes: Bells, Drums, Mirrors, etc. (London, 1929)

G. Webster: The Roman Imperial Army of the First and Second Centuries A.D. (London, 1969/R, 3/1985/R)

G. Walser: ‘Römische und gallische Militärmusik’, Festschrift Arnold Geering, ed. V. Ravizza (Berne, 1972), 231–9

S.A. Rashid: Mesopotamien (Leipzig, 1984)

R. Meucci: ‘Roman Military Instruments and the Lituus’, GSJ, 42 (1989), 85–97

C: Europe (from the Middle Ages)

W. Dilich: Kriegsbuch (Kassel, 1607, 2/1689 as Krieges-Schule)

H.F. von Fleming: Der Vollkommene Soldat (Leipzig, 1726)

A. Sundelin: Die Instrumenterung für sämtliche Militär-Musik-Chöre (Berlin, 1828)

G. Kastner: Manuel général de musique militaire (Paris, 1848/R)

P. Streck: Kurzgefasste practische Anleitung zur Militär Musik (Munich, 1861)

H. Saro: Instrumentations-Lehre für Militair-Musik (Berlin, 1883)

W. Wieprecht: Die Militair-Musik und die militaire-musikalische Organisation eines Kriegsheeres (Berlin, 1885)

A. Vessella: Di un più razionale oridamento delle musiche italiane (Rome, 1894)

A. Pfannenstiel: Die Erhaltung der Militärkapellen: eine Kulturfrage (Berlin, 1914)

M. Chop: Geschichte der deutschen Militärmusik (Hannover, 1926)

G. Kandler: Die kulturelle Bedeutung der deutschen Militärmusik (Berlin, 1931)

L. Degele: Die Militärmusik: ihr Werden und Wesen, ihre kulturelle und nationale Bedeutung (Wolfenbüttel, 1937)

H. Palecziska: Die Entwicklung der altösterreichischen Militärkapellen (diss., U. of Vienna, 1939)

G. Kandler: Deutsche Armeemärsche: ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Instrumentariums, des Repertoires, der Funktion,
des Personals und des Widerhalls der deutschen Militärmusik (Bad Godesberg, 1962)
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Military music

R. van Yperen: De Nederlandse militaire muziek (Bussum, 1966)

J. Toeche-Mittler: Armeemärsche (Neckargemünd, 1966–71)

T.E. Warner: An Annotated Bibliography of Woodwind Instruction Books (Detroit, 1967)

H. Powley: Turkish Music: a Historical Study of Turkish Percussion Instruments and their Influence on European Music
(diss., U. of Rochester, 1968)

R.F. de Latore: Antología de la música militar de España (Madrid, 1972)

W. Suppan: Lexikon des Blasmusikwesens (Freiburg, 1973, 4/1994 with A. Suppan)

S. Strand: Militärmusikern i svenskt musikliv [The military musician in Swedish musical life] (diss., Stockholm U., 1974)

J.M.M. Imrie: The Military Band in South Africa (Pretoria, 1976)

P.C. Marten: Die Musik der Spielleute des altpreussischen Heeres (Osnabrück, 1976)

E. Rameis: Die österreichische Militärmusik von ihren Anfängen bis zum Jahre 1918 (Tutzing, 1976)

J. Eckhardt: Zivil- und Militärmusik im Wilhelminischen Reich (Regensburg, 1978)

A. Iwanow: Die Militärorchester in Bulgarien (Sofia, 1979)

D. Whitwell: Band Music of the French Revolution (Tutzing, 1979)

E. Brixel and W. Suppan: Das grosse steirische Blasmusikbuch (Vienna, 1981)

F. Pieters: Van trompetsignaal tot muziekkapel (Kortrijk, 1981)

N.A. Trubnikov: Voyenno-dukhovaya muzïka v sisteme ideyno-ėsteticheskogo vospitaniya sovetskogo voina [Military
music in the eduction of the soviet soldiers] (diss., U. of Moscow, 1981–2)

E. Brixel and others: Das ist Österreichs Militärmusik (Graz, 1982)

P. Karch: Pest-Buda katonazenéje 1848-ban [Military music of Pest-Buda in 1848] (Budapest, 1983)

F. Rathner: Die bewaffnete Macht Österreich-Ungarns (1618–1918) in ihren Märschen (Kierspe, 1983)

W. Suppan: Blasmusik in Baden (Freiburg, 1983)

Z. Barcy and P. Karch: Hangászok, Hangszerek, Hangjegyek: trombita- és dobjelek az osztrák-magyar hadseregben és
haditengerészetnél, 1629–1918 [Trumpet and drum signals in the Austro-Hungarian empire, 1629–1918] (Budapest,
1985) [with Ger. summary]

G. Duthaler: Trommeln und Pfeifen in Basel (Basel, 1985)

A.O. Sollfelner: Die österreichische Militärmusik in der 1. Republik 1918–1938 (MA diss., U. of Vienna, 1985)

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Military music

A. Freundesberger: Beiträge zur Kulturgeschichte der österreichischen Militärmusik von 1851 bis 1918 (diss., U. of
Vienna, 1986)

P. Tuglaci: Mehterhane′den bando′ya/Turkish Bands of Past and Present (Istanbul, 1986)

A. Hofer: Studien zur Geschichte des Militärrmarsches (Tutzing, 1988)

R. Müller and M. Lachmann: Spielmann – Trompeter – Hoboist: aus der Geschichte der deutschen Militärmusik (Berlin,
1988)

G. Mössmer: ‘Funktion und Bedeutung des Feldspils der Landsknechte zur Zeit Kaiser Maximilians I’, Musik und Tanz
zur Zeit Kaiser Maximilian I: Innsbruck 1989, 47–58

C.M. Dall: German Military Music during the Third Reich, 1933–1945 (diss., Ball State U., 1990)

E.A. Ingskog, ed.: Norske Musikkorps (Oslo, 1990)

A. Masel: ‘Zur Geschichte der Harmonie- und Türkischen Musik im bayerischen Heer bis zum Jahre 1826’, Mit
klingendem Spiel, 13 (1990), 185–217

T. Polomik: ‘Quellen zur Erforschung der Tätigkeiten und Rollen von Militärorchestern in Bosnien und Herzegowina zur
Zeit der österreichisch-ungarischen Regierung (1878–1918)’, Musica Pannonica, 1 (1991), 111–36

F. Pieters: Blaasmuziek tussen gisteren en morgen (Wormerveer, 1992)

A. Griebel and H. Steinmetz, eds.: Mililtärmusik und ‘Zivile’ Musik: Uffenheim, 1993

B. Habla: ‘Das Repertoire von Militär-Blasorchestern vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg’, Festschrift zum 60. Geburtstag von
Wolfgang Suppan, ed. B. Habla (Tutzing, 1993), 349–76

H. Jüttner: Die österreichischen Märsche in der Preussischen Armeemarsch- und der Deutschen Heeresmarsch-
Sammlung 1817–1945 (MA diss., U. of Vienna, 1994)

L. Marosi: Két évszázad katonazenéje Magyorországon, 1741–1945 [Two centuries of military music in Hungary, 1741–
1945] (Budapest, 1994)

W. Biber: Von der Bläsermusik zum Blasorchester: Geschichte der Militärmusik und Blasmusik in der Schweiz (Lucerne,
1995)

E. Brixel: Anmerkungen zur Geschichte der Militärmusik im Südosten der Donaumonarchie (Graz, 1995)

F. Anzenberger: ‘Die Kapellmeister der Hoch- und Deutschmeister bis 1918’, 300 Jahre Regiment ‘Hoch- und
Deutschmeister’, ed. M. Senekowitsch (Vienna, 1996, 2/1999), 79–101

E. Brixel: ‘Musiksoziologische Aspekte im kulturellen Wirkungsbereich der altösterreichischen Militärmusik vor 1918’,
Blasmusik-Kongress: Mainz 1996, 59–103

B. Höfele: ‘Das öffentliche Militärkonzert im 19. Jahrhundert’, Blasmusik-Kongress: Mainz 1996, 49–57

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Military music

V. Valeš: ‘Die Militärmusik-Elevenschule Prag’, Mitteilungen der Österreichishen Gesellschaft für Musikwissenschaft, no.
30 (1996), 68–74

V. Valeš: ‘Die Prager Militärmusikschule und ihre Bedeutung für das kulturelle Leben Prags in der 2. Hälfte des 19.
Jahrhunderts’, Blasmusik-Kongress: Mainz 1996, 105–13

H. Lackner: Militärsignale in der symphonischen Musik (diss., U. of Vienna, 1997)

D: Britain
The Compleat Tutor for the Fife (London, c1759)

T. Simes: The Military Medley (London, 1768)

British Bandsman (1887–1900)

Orchestrals and Military Band Record (1901–6)

H.G. Farmer: Memoirs of the Royal Artillery Band: its Origin, History, and Progress (London, 1904)

I.H.M. Scobie: Pipers and Pipe Music in a Highland Regiment (Dingwall, 1924)

J. Mackenzie-Rogan: Fifty Years of Army Music (London, 1926)

A.E. Zealley and J.O. Hume: Famous Bands of the British Empire (London, 1926)

C. Malcome: The Piper in Peace and War (London, 1927)

P.L. Binns: A Hundred Years of Military Music (Gillingham, 1959)

L. Winstock: Songs and Music of the Redcoats: a History of the War Music of the British Army, 1642–1902 (London, 1970)

I. Kendrick: Music in the Air: the Story of Music of the Royal Air Force (Baldock, 1986)

M.J. Lomas: ‘Militia and Volunteer Wind Bands in Southern England in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth
Centuries’, Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, 67 (1989), 154

D. Whitwell: ‘Brief History of the BBC Wireless Military Band’, Kongressberichte: Oberschützen 1988 and Dobbiáco 1990,
79–86

J. McCormack: One Million Mercenaries (London, 1993)

D. Murray: Music of the Scottish Regiments: Cogadh no Sith/War or Peace (Pentland, 1994)

G. and A. Turner: The History of British Military Bands (Staplehurst, 1994–)

M. Byrne: ‘The English March and Early Drum Notation’, GSJ, 50 (1997), 43–80

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Military music

E: North America
F. von Steuben: Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States (Philadelphia, 1779, many
later edns)

A. Meyers: Ten Years in the Ranks, U.S. Army (New York, 1914/R)

Field Music (Washington DC, 1940) [US War Department pubn TM 20–250]

W.C. White: A History of Military Music in America (New York 1944/R)

The Band (Washington DC, 1957) [US Department of the Army pubn FM 12–50]

The Marching Band (Washington DC, 1957) [US Department of the Army pubn FM 12–50]

A.T. Luper, ed.: ‘Civil War Music’, Civil War History, 4/3 (1958) [whole issue]

S.V. Anderson: American Music during the War for Independence, 1775–1783 (diss., U. of Michigan, 1965)

K.A. Bernard: Lincoln and the Music of the Civil War (Caldwell, ID, 1966)

F.A. Lord and A. Wise: Bands and Drummer Boys of the Civil War (New York, 1966/R)

F. Fennell: ‘The Civil War: its Music and its Sounds’, Journal of Band Research, 4 (1967–8), no.2, 36–44; v (1968–9), no.1,
8–14; no.2, 4–10; vi (1969–70), no.1, 46–58

R.F. Camus: The Military Band in the United States Army Prior to 1834 (diss., New York U., 1969)

D.C. McCormick: A History of the United States Army Band to 1946 (diss., Northwestern U., 1970)

K.W. Carpenter: A History of the United States Marine Band (diss., U. of Iowa, 1971)

K.E. Olson: Yankee Bands of the Civil War (diss., U. of Minnesota, 1971)

W.A. Bufkin: Union Bands of the Civil War (1862–65): Instrumentation and Score Analysis (diss., Louisiana State U., 1973)

R.F. Camus: Military Music of the American Revolution (Chapel Hill, NC, 1976/R)

B. Lambert, ed.: Music in Colonial Massachusetts, 1630–1820 (Boston, 1980–85)

F.F. Mathias: G.I. Jive: an Army Bandsman in World War II (Lexington, KY, 1982)

E.K. Kirk: Music at the White House: a History of the American Spirit (Urbana, IL, 1986)

R.F. Camus, ed.: American Wind and Percussion Music (Boston, 1992)

R.M. Gifford: ‘The American March: the Development of a Genre from the Eighteenth Century to the Present’,
Internationale Gesellschaft zur Erforschung und Föderung der Blasmusik: Abony 1994, 189–203

H. Powley: ‘The Drum Tablature Tradition of American Military Music of the Early Nineteenth Century’, JAMIS, 21
(1995), 5–29

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Military music

B. Gleason: Sound the Trumpet, Beat the Drums: Horse-Mounted Bands of the U.S. Army, 1820–1940 (Norman, OK, 2016)

See also

Band (i), §II, 1: Before 1600

Battle music

Kmoch, František

Sousa, John Philip

Feldmusik

Fife

Fife calls

Harmoniemusik

Janissary music

March

Moscow: 1600–1703

Washington, DC, §4: Military bands

Military calls

Rome, §I, 3(i): Ancient: Secular music: Military music

Signal (i), §1: Military signals

Tuck, tucket

Uzbekistan, §1(vi): Urban traditions., i) Other performance genres.

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