The following chapters concern the development of bands of musical wind instruments in Europe and America. These groups may be most conveniently divided into two main classes of bands, military and civilian. Military bands may be defined as those organizations directly under governmental or army rule. This large class of bands includes: brigade bands, regimental bands, post bands and service bands. Brigade bands in early English history comprised two or more regimental bands, each regiment maintaining several bands. These groups were also popular in colonial America. In turn, each regiment of the military (army) had units of companies including troops, batteries, or cavalries. The units were authorized to maintain bands in their respective companies; fife and drum bands were also included. Certain bands of these companies were stationed permanently at military headquarters; these are referred to as post bands. In this country an increase in the number of regular army bands (infantry, cavalry, and artillery) has been marked since the latter part of the nineteenth century. These army bands and those of other branches (navy, marine corps, air force, coast guard, etc.) are included under the general name of service bands. The second main class includes a large group of civilian bands. As the name implies, the organizations are composed of civilians and are independent of the military groups. This class includes: circus bands, fraternal bands, industrial bands, organized militia bands, professional bands, school bands, and town or independent bands. The militia bands were bodies of citizens enrolled as military forces for a period of instruction; they were not called into active service except in an emergency. These other civilian, groups perform for civic functions, ceremonies, etc. History shows that the civilian bands have imitated the military bands in instrumentation and repertoire. It is quite apparent that the original army or military band gave rise to the origin of the civilian type of band. Today it is quite common to refer to a civic group as a "military" band, the term actually meaning the size of instrumentation rather than the personnel. Other terms describing instrumentation are "concert" and "symphonic" which may apply to either of the two main classes of bands.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc662989 |
| Date | 08 1900 |
| Creators | Lee, Noah Aquilla, Jr. |
| Contributors | Gibson, O. Lee (Oscar Lee), Hibberd, Lloyd |
| Publisher | North Texas State College |
| Source Sets | University of North Texas |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | viii, 76 leaves : ill., music, Text |
| Rights | Public, Lee, Noah Aquilla, Jr., Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights |
Page generated in 0.002 seconds