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United States military music customs are the traditional, regulatory, and statutory provisions that guide performances by United States military bands during drill and ceremony and state occasions. ==History and evolution== For hundreds of years, military forces have used music to signal their troops. The use of musical signalling in modern armed forces retains an important place in diplomatic protocol and military courtesy and figures centrally in the conduct of official events such as state funerals, military parades, naval christening, officer commissioning, armed forces promotion ceremonies, and other ritual occurrences. Unlike other English-speaking nations, United States military band ceremonial music is not largely drawn from British military customs but is, rather, a mix of original styles and compositions and - to a lesser extent - French traditions. At the outset of the American Revolution, United States military units primarily relied on fife and drum corps for musical support. Americans were first introduced to the bugle horn (forerunner to the modern bugle) during the Battle of Harlem Heights, when British infantry used the instrument, causing Joseph Reed to later recall, "the enemy appeared in open view, and sounded their bugles in a most insulting manner, as is usual after a fox chase. I never felt such a sensation before—it seemed to crown our disgrace." Some American cavalry units adopted bugle horns during the war, however, a shortage of brass in the Thirteen Colonies largely limited use of the instrument to the opposing British and German forces, with American troops continuing to rely heavily on fifes, drums, and even - at the Battle of Saratoga - turkey calls. The modern bugle was first introduced to American military units around the time of the War of 1812. During that conflict, only the Rifle Regiment was authorized to use the bugle. All other American forces were required to continue using the traditional American fife. Gradually, however, bugles became more widely adopted by the United States military. American bugle calls have largely been based on early French bugle calls (the notable exception is ''Attention'' which is taken from the British bugle call ''Alarm''). The dawn of the "march music era" hastened the downfall of the fife and drum corps (today, the U.S. armed forces field just a single fife and drum corps among its nearly 150 bands). Aided by the large body of work being created by prolific American composers such as John Philip Sousa, Henry Filmore and Edwin Eugene Bagley, American military and military-like bands became known for performing a unique style of quick-tempo marches with thundering brass and heavy percussion. One music critic, writing about the Boston Jubilee of 1872, contrasted the "velvety smoothness" of the invited Band of the Grenadier Guards to the follow-up performance orchestrated by U.S. Army bandmaster-general Patrick Gilmore which involved "a heterogeneous choir of nearly twenty thousand, an orchestra of about a thousand instrumentalists of decidedly mixed abilities, an organ blown by steam power ... a drum of the most preposterous magnitude, and a few batteries of artillery." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「United States military music customs」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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