United States military bands
Most bands of the U.S. armed forces reconfigure into combat units during wartime during which they have non-musical responsibilities, including guarding prisoners of war and defending command centers.
[2] According to research by the U.S. Armed Forces School of Music, the first complete military band in the American colonies was organized in New Hampshire in 1653 with an instrumentation of 15 oboes and two drums.
[2] The exposure of Americans to martial music increased with the growth of the number of British Army units being rotated through the colonies; most British infantry regiments had military musicians attached, consisting of both field music units that sounded signals during combat, as well as "Bands of Musick" that performed for special and ceremonial occasions.
"[3] 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.
Among the most noted American military musicians during the revolutionary period was Barzillai Lew whose fifing during the bloody Battle of Bunker Hill has been credited with keeping troop morale high.
[7] (A shortage of bearskins in the late 1880s caused the price of the hats to skyrocket, with the New York Times then reporting their use might be phased out entirely.
"It can readily be seen what a price has to be paid for keeping up a custom which is rather old, it is true, but is practically a useless one save for the purpose of military display," the newspaper opined.
[7]) At the time of the American Civil War, U.S. Army bands had a normal strength of 24 musicians for infantry units, and 16 for cavalry.
The proposal was shelved in the face of opposition from officers and soldiers, however, a trimming of bandsmen occurred by eliminating some regimental ensembles in favor of brigade-level bands.
John Partridge, a soldier in the 24th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment, recorded in a letter home the value the men in his unit placed on the regimental band, formerly a civilian orchestra from Boston led by Patrick Gilmore: I don't know what we should have done without our band ... every night about sundown Gilmore gives us a splendid concert, playing selections from operas and some very pretty marches, quick steps, waltzes and the like ... thus you can see we get a good deal of new music, notwithstanding we are off here in the woods.
[10]In the post-war era, 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.
[13] The regimental bands of these newly formed units were frequently led by Black blues and jazz musicians experienced performing in the clubs of New York and Chicago.
[14] During World War II, the US Army Air Forces recruited Glenn Miller to lead its band.
NVA forces were, reportedly, so confused by the impromptu parade that they withdrew from the area, allowing American infantry to seize the road without opposition.
The proposal ultimately became stalled in a larger debate about trimming $1 billion from the Strategic Defense Initiative and did not move forward.
In 2011, Rep. Betty McCollum, responding to a proposal she opposed that would curb funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, called for 40-percent of military band budgets to be slashed.
[18] The McCollum bill was initially defeated, but reintroduced by the congresswoman a second time, when it narrowly passed with bipartisan support.
[20] In 2016, U.S. Representative Martha McSally introduced an amendment to the defense spending bill to remove $430 million in funding for military bands to eliminate their performance at concerts, parades, dinners, and other public events.
[23][24] Beginning in the 1840s, the U.S. Army attempted to standardize the eagles used on drums and, by the Civil War, stencils were issued to bands to apply the authorized designs, though some flair continued in the finishing and painting of the final product.
Such groups are configured and commanded in a way intended to attract the highest-quality musicians available and competition for enlistment is typically fierce.
During combat operations, bands are responsible for rear-area defense, reorganizing as the security platoon for the divisional or wing command center.
The Navy has nine "fleet bands" in addition to its two premier ensembles, six of which are located in the Continental United States, the remaining three based in Hawaii, Italy, and Japan.
The 100 plus member pipe and drum band provides bagpipers and drummers for Coast Guard ship commissioning, change-of-command ceremonies, funerals, and for other public safety related events.
The Arizona Band Flotilla[35] of USCG Auxiliary and Coast Guard Academy "Windjammers" Drum and Bugle Corps are also maintained through private funds.
Merchant Marine Academy, maintain cadet-staffed bands for ceremonial support and performance at athletic events.
These formations can be traced back to the long years of British rule, due to the corps of drums made up of fifers and drummers that arrived in what is now the eastern United States together with the infantry regiments of the British Army that arrived in the colonies, together with locally raised militias and local defense regiments later on in the 17th and 18th centuries, and later on in the drum and bugle corps of Army, Marine Corps and Navy units that came in the 19th century.
