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Military Music History |
In a military context, music can serve to create and maintain a warlike spirit, act as a means of communication, assist movement, and enhance morale. During the course of the 16th and 17th century warfare developed to be more theoretical and complex than it had been previously. The need for unmistakably loud and clear signals for the move forward, retreat or attack was needed. Music produced by the human voice has been used for such purposes by fighting men of many different countries, times, and cultures. In the armies of classical Greece, the paean or war-chant was the standard opening to set-piece battles. European military instruments were brought to the New World and used in much the same way as they had been in the mother countries. As militias formed in the towns and villages of colonial America, drummers played an important role in summoning men from rural areas to take up arms. The drum, the simplest of musical instruments, was still in use for various military purposes by tribal warriors in Africa, Asia, and North America at the close of the 19th century. The side drum is first known to have existed in Switzerland, perhaps as early as the fourteenth century, and was soon found throughout Europe. Its earliest use by the troops of civilized states appears in wall-friezes depicting the armies of Ancient Egypt, who may have adopted the drum from their campaigns in the Sudan or Ethiopia. By the start of the Civil War, many towns and villages had their own bands, and often sent them along with their militia units. The bands, like the young fighting soldiers, were a symbol of pride for communities large and small across the North and the South. For their part, the soldiers and officers wanted them because they were key to maintaining high morale and were also the primary source of entertainment. Trumpets of various types were used in organized armies from Ancient Egypt onwards, to give signals in camp or battle and to sound fanfares on ceremonial occasions. The bugle, a smaller and less shrill instrument, emerged in the mid-18th century as the trumpet of light infantry, who found that the infantryman's drum was not suited to a body of rapidly moving skirmishers. During the beginning of the 18th century all of these instruments were merged together, oboes, trumpets, drums and the Turkish Janizarian music to that which we know today as the wind band. 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. |