Canadian military bands
[1] Bands of the Music Branch are often badged with the unit or Canadian Forces base insignia that they support.
Regular Force musicians are selected nationally by competitive audition prior to enlisting.
Reserve force musicians are hired and trained at the discretion of the local unit to which they apply.
[3] The earliest known activity of a Canadian military band performing during the Trooping of the Colour at the Champ de Mars in Montreal on 18 July 1867, over two weeks after the Confederation of Canada.
[5] In 1909, an order by Minister of Militia and Defence, Frederick William Borden, provided the basis that Canadian bands were to never be unionized, during which a violation of this would result in the prolonging of outside engagements with the American Federation of Musicians.
[10] Alfred Edward Zealley, a Naval officer who was considered to be the "Father of the Royal Canadian Navy bands", became director of music of the RCN in 1939 after her created a permanent music band at no cost to the Naval Service of Canada.
Over the course of 4 years, he organized 19 navy bands for active service and oversaw the RCN School of Music in Toronto.
[11][12] During the Korean War there was a large expansion of the army, and the size and number of bands increased.
In 1994, the federal budget of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien resulted in the disbanding of five of the nine regular force bands.
As a result, many Scottish pipers immigrated to North America, often settling the bagpipe culture on the eastern coast in what is now Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
During the Seven Years' War and the American Revolution, the British government employed Scottish pipers.
[18] During this period, Canadian regiments often had pipe bands who played during battle alongside their units.
[19] By the time the Second World War ended, there was no full-time pipe band in the Canadian Army.
During the Second World War, many regiments maintained small corps of drums that were stationed at all major bases.
[21] Corps of drums have been historically been based on the front-rank tradition of the Royal Marines Band Service.
With the unification of the CAF in 1968, corps of drums in both the RCN and the regular army withered away as various bands were merged.
Members are not professionally trained nor educated in music and are instead active soldiers who have chosen to participate in the corps.
In July 2013, a five-sailor corps of drums in the Naden Band made a return to the public at the Victoria Day Parade.
Their influence was also a factor in the formation of the American and Canadian marching band culture, co-shared with the British tradition already in place.
The drum and bugle corps of these two regiments spawned countless other bugle bands around Canada and the northern United States, both military and civil, and several of these corps are active today in Canada, either as affiliated ensembles, or as part of the Canadian Cadet Organizations.
The military bands play ceremonial and marching music, including the national anthems and patriotic songs.
Military festivals and tattoos situated in Canada include: In addition to regularly scheduled events, the Canadian Forces' pipe and drum bands occasionally compete in civilian pipe band competitions with varying degrees of success.
The Air Reserve also maintains one brass and reed band, the Musique du 438e Escadron tactique d'hélicoptères, based in Montreal.
They have played at every Halifax International Tattoo since the mid-1970s, performed on Parliament Hill, at the National War Memorial, at Grey Cup parades, for royal tours and other events.
