INDEXES

▼

Sunday 5 March 2023

Military drummers - the music


From time immemorial, the world of the French infantryman, whether in camp, at drill, or in the heat of battle, had been punctuated by the rhythmn of drums.  The  primary function of the drums was to transmit orders through a series of  set duty-calls, the  "batteries d’ordonnance" (the cavalry similarly had its trumpets and timpani).   During manoeuvres, the rhythm of the drum served to regulate step and would often be accompanied by simple tunes on the fife, or oboe (hautboi).   

Given the highly personalised command of the Ancien Régime army, the organisation of military drummers was far from uniform.  A typical Regimental "batterie" consisted of a dozen drummers under  the direction of the Drum-Major (Tambour-Major), seconded by a Drum-Master (later Drum-Corporal). Drummers were selected from among the ordinary soldiers,  with  the Drum-Major and Corporal ranking as non-commissioned officers. 

On the parade ground the drummers would normally take up position on the flanks;  on the march some would be  posted at the front of the column and the others bring up the rear.

Watteau, Three studies of a military drummer, 1713, Frick Collection
https://www.frick.org/exhibitions/watteau/225

The Instruments

The instrument itself  ["la caisse"] also changed in the course of the centuries.

Prior to the Seven Years War drums were made of wood, characteristically chestnut, painted blue then embellished with the regimental arms.  From 1767 brass drums became standard. (Wooden drums were once again to be adopted during the Revolution for the National Guard and Volunteer battalions and remained in use into the Napoleonic period). Under the Empire the army was equipped with a standard "1805 model" with a brass barrel and sky-blue trimming) 

 The 1767 Règlement also laid down a standard size (46 cm diameter x 38 cm high). Previously, as can be seen on drawings, military drums were bigger and had to be carried under one arm.  They could now be carried at the front,  level with the left arm.  Perhaps this made them easier for young boys to manage  - but according to historical reenactors, they are still pretty cumbersome and tiring to march with.


Early 18c. European military drum.
[Collections du Musée de Musique]

Evolution of Drum-Calls   

Thanks largely to the researches of  Thierry Bouzard, quite a lot is now known about the evolution of  the "batteries d'ordonnance". Drummers and fifers were first introduced into the French infantry under Francis I but there was no attempt until the late 17th-century to impose uniformity and drum-calls were learned by rote rather than written down.  

In 1670 an Ordinance of Louis XIV introduced a new signal, the générale, into the repertoire. No formal notation was supplied but in 1683 the King himself sent out the drum-major of the French Guards  to teach the new call.   The "générale de la garde française" was attributed to Lully himself.  The initiative  heralded the intervention of command in the repertoire and marked an  important step towards standardisation.   The first significant  musical information comes from  manuscript dating from 1705 in the municipal library in Versailles, part of the collection amassed by Philidor the Elder, garde de la Bibliotheque de musique du Roi.  MS 1163, "Marches and batteries de tambour" contains notation for almost sixty different drum-calls, with accompaniments for fife and oboe (hautboi).

A sustained move towards regulation across the whole army had to wait another fifty years, until the Instruction pour les tambours  of 1754 (promulgated by  Royal Ordinance on 1st May 1755). This document was the fruit of  several years of experimentation on the plain of Sablons, carried out under the aegis of the comte Henri-François de Bombelles, lieutenant-général des armées du roi. The score for the batteries was the work of his son Joseph-Henri, a major in the French Guards. It was not to be  superseded until introduction of the bugle in 1831.

As well as standardising signals, the Instruction sought, after the Prussian example  to regulated military pace by laying down a standard marching tempo. This move had been strongly advocated in print by Bombelles since 1717 and by the Maréchal de Saxe since 1739.  In his Rêveries sur la Guerre the hero of Fontenoy assimilated Takt, the German for musical measure, with "tactics" and argued that it was impossible to to charge vigorously against the enemy without the rhythm imposed by drum.

 "The Battle of Fontenoy, 1745"" by Félix Emmanuel Philippoteaux (1873" )  [Wikimedia]

The initiative finds its place within the wide-ranging debate on tactics and troop movement  which took place  under the comte d'Argenson, as Secretary of State for War in these years,  thus contemporary with the first volumes of the Encyclopédie.  The longstanding difficulties of troop movement caused by introduction of bayonets had been amply demonstrated in the War of the Austrian Succession: hence an urgent need to regulated military pace and standardise the batteries. The Instruction pour les tambours,  completed  two earlier Ordinances promulgated in 1754 and 1755 on the "exercice de l'infanterie". Their high importance is shown by the personal involvement of King.  

Military camps held in the Autumn of 1753, 1754 and  1755 served to test then teach the new infantry regulations. To disseminate the batteries the drum-majors of the regiments, 112 in total,  were called to Paris and placed under the direction of the drum-major of  the Gardes françaises, Jean Boureaux, who instructed them for three months on the esplanade of Les Invalides.  On 1st December 1754, in a splendid ceremony,  he led them to Versailles where they beat the ordonnance under the windows of the King, in the presence of the whole Court.  

Instruction des tambours et diverses batteries de l'ordonnance, gravée par Melle Vendôme 
 https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k15020356/f15

The Instruction provided notation for suite of twelve drum-calls,  with directions for the proper positioning of the drum and the signals to be given by the Drum-Major. The drummers were to begin their march on the left foot and finish on the right.  In order to provide a constant rhythm they must beat continuously, passing without interruption from one call to the next. The music provided a standard marching pace of 60 steps per minute. 

 Recreating historic duty-calls

Nowadays, ironically enough, we have more idea of how 18th-drummers looked than how they sounded.   The complexities of recreating French historic drum-calls can be appreciated from the website of  John Chapman, researcher and drum instructors at the Old Niagara Fort in the U.S.
In his  section  on "Performing French Duty Calls" John has begun the work of annotating each of the 1754 calls, defining their function and recreating them  You can also hear expert French recreations on the Theatrum Bellum website. (See References below)

Here is another rendition from YouTube:





Drums in 18th-century Military Music 

  From as far back as the 15th century, there are records of military musicians   - drums, timpani, trumpets and fifes - who performed for the officers and troops. By the mid-17th century music had became an integral part of military life, accompanying the call to arms, and embellishing public parades and ceremonial.  Military bands became more organised; in an age of pomp, colonels often maintained, at their own expense, the music in their regiments.  According to Michel Brunet, author of the classic history:

"We are not speaking of a new creation.  For a long time the use of musical instruments in the armies had assumed the double meaning which former ages had foreseen and which the modern time was to keep up and make more precise: the adoption on one hand of a sonorous language translating in rhythms or in musical intervals the words of command, and, on the other hand, the cooperation of the symphony in the embellishment of military life, by richness of sounds added to richness of arms, and appeal to their power of stimulating energy, to the synonymy of the notes of a melody and of the colours of a standard." (Brunet, "Military music under Louis XIV", p.341)


Most texts distinguish general military music from "celeustic" music - the “art of transmitting orders using musical instruments”.  According to Thierry Boulard,  the term "march" originally referred to an assemblage of batteries and sonneries, which supplied the cadence to regulate the steps of the soldiers. By the end of the 16th century each nation had its own characteristic drum-march, hence "French", "German" or "Swiss" marches.  Soon, the simple military marches took on a musical life of their own. The drum-calls of the infantry were readily embellished with virtuoso elements, or additional instrumentation, initially fifes, then oboes. 

In the age of the Sun King, military music reached new heights of splendour.  Louis XIV himself led by example: the Court composers, including Lully, were assigned to endow each corps of the King's  Household - the Musketeers, French Guards, Swiss Guards and Régiment du Roy -  with their own marches and with a bespoke repertory of drum-beats and instrumental pieces.   The composers of the day, Lully, Philidor, Couperin or Charpentier also wrote marches, with and without drums, for the different regiments.  Many of these compositions survive today in Philidor's collection.

 Regimental musicians were distinct from the drummers and fifers, who belonged to the regular troops.  They were employed on contract, and paid for at the colonels' and officers' expense.  They were not soldiers; nor were they expected to be present on the battlefield.  It is not known how many musicians were included in a typical infantry band in the armies of Louis XIV, but Royal Ordinances dated 10th March 1672 and 18th January 1683, attempted to limit their numbers, mainly to reduce the financial burden to company commanders of rival bands within the same regiment.  Oboes were forbidden altogether -  at first sight a strange move when royal musicians were endeavouring to create a military repertoire for the instrument. The Royal Treasury took upon itself the expense of only one drum per company, and one fife-player per regiment.(Brunet, p.355-6)

Despite the official proscriptions, the existence of additional instruments  had become general by the mid-18th century.  In the 1740s the Lancers of the Maréchal de Saxe and the regiments of the French Guards went to war with oboes, bassoons and cymbals.  The French infantry borrowed the clarinet from the Germans and the horn from the Hanoverians, and also  adopted the outsize bass drum, which had been imported from the East into the Northern European armies (p.118-9).  Nonetheless, French military music fared badly in comparison with the splendours of the Prussian marching bands. Both Rousseau in his Dictionnaire de Musique, and subsequently the Encyclopédie  complained that the French army had few poor quality instruments and only a few marches of inferior composition. 

In response the Crown for the first time took on the expense of the regimental bands. 

Drum-Major of the French Guards under Louis XVI (Hoffman)

The move began first with the French Guards  In 1762 their colonel, the  Maréchal de Biron obtained royal permission to double the number of his musicians to sixteen (4 bassoon; 4 hautbois;  4 cors-de-chasse; 4 clarinets) at a cost to the Royal Treasury of 24,000 livres per annum. The numbers increased to  twenty-four in 1788 and thirty-two in 1789.  In April 1766 this provision was extended to the whole of the army.  Musicians were  not assigned to a particular company, but to the general-staff of each battalion; they wore a distinctive  regimental uniform and were paid from regimental funds. Their role was  purely ceremonial. The renewal of military music was confirmed when the Marche tactique of the Chevalier de Liron, based on the 1754 ordonnance with musical score, was performed before the King on the plain of Sablons. 

 
Paon, "March-past of the Royal Household troops, before Louis V on the plain of Sablons" (detail) [Wikimedia]


Despite the protestations of old soldiers like Turpin de Crissé (see Readings), popular enthusiasm continued to encourage the military bands.  After the Seven Years War the French Guards did not again go on campaign but remained in Paris.  On summer evenings members of the public could mingle with the Court at open air concerts on the terrace at Versailles given by the French and Swiss Guards, and performances  were offered for the delectation of visiting dignitaries, like the Grand Duke Paul of Russia in 1782.  The same musicians participated in the Te Deum sung at Notre-Dame to celebrate American Independence in 1783.  In the boulevards of Paris "sérénades militaires" attracted crowds of onlookers and performances were given in private houses; according to Mercier,  the music of the Gardes-françaises lent the Regiment "an air of distinction which makes it well-loved."

It is a poignant evocation of the last years of the Ancien Régime, this - the drummers of the Royal Household, in all their innocent splendour, beating time under the setting sun of Versailles, or entertaining appreciative concertgoers in the streets of Paris.




References

Tambour (musicien_militaire)" on Wikipedia.fr:
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tambour_(musicien_militaire)

Les musiques militaires françaises", Defense-zone.com, post of 26.01.2023.
"Musique d'ordonnance",  Grenadiers à  pied - Garde Impériale (website)


Drum-calls:

De Musicae Militari reproduces various articles  by Thierry Bouzard ("Musique celeustique - Le Tambour")
The text the of 1754 "Instruction pour les Tambours" is also available on this website

Recreations:
John A. Chapman - Historic Drumming: 18c. French drumming.

"L’Instruction pour les tambours de 1754, une partition fondatrice sort de l’oubli" Theatrum Bellum, 26th April 2013.  Drum-calls of 1754  recorded in March 2013 by Adjudant-chef Lebreton, tambour maître and Axel Chagnon, tambour à la musique de la Gendarmerie Mobile 
https://theatrum-belli.com/linstruction-pour-les-tambours-de-1754-une-partition-fondatrice-sort-de-loubli/


Development of military music:

Georges Kastner, Manuel général de musique militaire à l'usage des Armées Françaises, vol. 1 (1848)

Michel Brenet and Mariola Chardon. “French Military Music in the Reign of Louis XIV.” The Musical Quarterly, 1917,  vol. 3(3): p.340–57. [Open access article on JSTOR] 
______, La musique militaire (1918) [Internet Archive]

Thierry Bouzard, "Les premiers orchestres militaires réglementaires",  De Musicae Militari [website]



Readings


The role of drummers at the time of Louis XIV 

The Drummer is a person who, by the noise of his drum, warns the Soldier of his duty, or of some new Order.
The Drum ("Caisse") is a military instrument made from one or two planks of chestnut, jointed and turned to form a cylinder, hollow inside and covered at each end with hide...

The Drum-Batteries are different according to the different occasions. The most common are the Diane, the Assemblée, the Marche etc. 

The duty of the Drum-Major is to present himself  morning and evening to receive orders from the Major, so that he can advise the other Drummers of the Regiment of the required drum-calls.  

In a troop review the Drum-Major positions himself, with his cane in his hand, to the right of the Drummers of each Company and leads them before the presiding Commissioner or Prince.

On the day of Battle it is he who, on the order from his Colonel of the Major, is responsible for the Charge or the Retreat being beaten. 
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=VRYPAAAAQAAJ&n&pg=PA12#v=onepage&q&f=false
Allain Manesson-Mallet, Les travaux de Mars, ou l'Art de la guerre  (1696)

 
In 1681 the Jesuit Claude Le Menestrier, in a learned book on music, observed that drums were a great aid not only to convey commands to infantry on the march but also to "animate  the soldiers" and "give them courage to attack and fight the enemy"
Le Menestrier, Des représentations en musique anciennes et modernes (1681), p.123.


The Maréchal de Saxe on the utility of drum rhythms

The way to obviate [the inconvenience  of ill-coordinated troop manoeuvres]  is very simple, because it is dictated by nature: it is nothing more than to march in cadence, in which alone consists the whole mystery, and which answers to the military pace of the Romans.  It was to preserve this, that martial sounds were first invented and drums introduced; and in this sense only is to be understood the word "tactic"...

By means of this, you will be always able to regulate your pace at pleasure;  your rear can never lag behind, and the whole will step with the same foot;  your wheelings will be performed with celerity and grace; your men's legs will never mix together; you will not be obliged to halt, perhaps, in the middle of every wheel to recover the step; nor will the men be fatigued in any degree equal to what they are at present. Nothing is more common, than to see a number of persons dance together during a whole night, even with pleasure; but deprive them of music and the most indefatigable amongst them will not be able to bear it for two hours only.  This sufficiently proves, that sounds have a secret power over us, disposing our organs to bodily exercises, and, at the same time, deluding, as it were, the toil of them. - 
If anyone, thinking to ridicule what I have advanced, asks me what particular air I would recommend to make men march; I will readily answer, without being moved by his raillery, that all airs, in common or triple time, will produce such an effect; but only in a greater or less degree, according to the taste in which they are severally set; that nothing more is required than to try them upon the drum, accompanied by the fife, and to choose such as are best adapted to the nature and compass of those instruments. - Perhaps it may be objected, that there are many men whose ears are not to be affected by sounds.  But this is a falsity; for the movement is so natural, that it can hardly be even avoided.  I have frequently taken notice, that, in beating to arms, the soldiers have fallen into their ranks in cadence; without being sensible of it, as it were; nature and instinct carrying them involuntarily; and without it, it is impossible to perform any evolution in close order.
Rêveries, ou Mémoires sur l'Art de la Guerre (1756; English translation, 1759), p.22-23.
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=E8gOAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA22#


Rousseau on the limitations of French military music

FANFARE:  Of all the Troops of Europe, the Germans have the best military instruments; thus their Marches and Fanfares sound admirable.  It is of note that in the whole Kingdom of France not a single trumpet sounds true; and the most warlike nation in Europe has the most discordant military instruments. This is not without inconvenience. During the last wars, the peasants of Bohemia, Austria and Bavaria, all  born musicians, were unable to believe that regular troops could have such false and detestable instruments and so mistook our old guard for raw troops whom they held in contempt. Who knows how many brave men have lost their lives through faulty instruments and unskilled musicians!  It is a great truth that, in war, nothing should be neglected that works upon the senses. 

MARCH:  A military air which is played by Instruments of war, and follows the metre and cadence of the drums,  "the March" properly-speaking....
The Maréchal de Saxe has shown, in his "Rêveries", that the effect of Drums is not just a vain noise without utility: as the speed of the beat is varied, it naturally moves the soldier to press or slacken his pace.  Marches should have different characters, according to the purpose they serve;  this was the idea when they were first distinguished and diversified, one for the Générale, another for the March, another for the Charge etc etc.  It would be well to continue to profit by this principle. The tunes allow the metre be felt, and the drum beat to be clearly heard.  Today's Marches are often very deficient.  The French Infantry has very few instruments, other than fifes and drums, and very few Marches, most of them of poor quality.  Those of the German Army are admirable.

A former Lieutenant-General disapproves of military bands

Since only the drum and the trumpet are of use to signal manoeuvres to the troops, the music of horns, clarinets and bassoons, admitted into the Infantry regiments by the ordinance of 19th April 1766, serves no purpose other than to inspire gaiety in the Soldiers: but a Soldier will be happy and content when he is well, has good solid food, is not punished capriciously...In this case music is superfluous, an unnecessary luxury that ought to be suppressed; for the sake of economy, the majority of regiments, have done away with half their Drummers in order to have Musicians. There is now only one drummer per company; but a drum is far more essential than a clarinet, a horn or a bassoon.

 This sort of music cannot be counted upon on the field of battle.  The instruments would be badly played and sound discordant;  in any case, they would be too quiet to be heard above the noise of musketry and cannon.   Since the musicians would be absolutely useless, they should prudently be send  the rear with the baggage.  In all probability they would not wait for the order since, in all truth, their duty is to play instruments, not to fight.  Drums, fifes, kettle-drums and trumpets are all that is needed; they alone can be be heard, and this is absolutely necessary in the moment of action....   

This music has been allowed into the regiments only to entertain the Soldiers, and still more for the benefit of  Spectators at a review, or at a play or ball.  It is purely for parades.... It would be better to have good soldiers, armed, equipped and well- fed, than musicians who have no  purpose other than to show off the graces of some young officer or Colonel, who   dances a minuet much better than he can command  his regiment.
Lancelot, comte Turpin de Crissé (1716-1793), Commentaires sur les institutions militaires de Végèce, Volume 2, p.7-9 (First published in 1779). 


A new vogue for military music

A new form of entertainment has become established which is highly inappropriate, but which, happily, will cease after the summer season.  For a month, it has become the custom at about 10 o'clock in the evening for the bands of the Garde Francaise and the Swiss Guard, to perform on the grand terrace in the gardens at Versailles.  A crowd, including the ordinary people of Versailles, gathers on this terrace, and the royal family walks around in the midst of all this confusion, without retinue and almost, as it were, in disguise. 
Letter of the Austrian ambassador, Mercy-Argenteau, dated 12th September 1777. Quoted in Brunet,  Musique militaire, p.61. 

Chapter 427: The Band of the French Guards
A military band which has  recently featured in a number of public ceremonies.  The colonel allows his soldier-musicians to exercise their talents in all the respectable houses to which they are invited.

On fine days in summer, the band of the Guards performs serenades in the boulevards; crowds gather, carriages rush up, and everyone leaves very satisfied.  This band lends the Regiment an air of distinction which makes it well-loved. Formerly this regiment was hated for its indiscipline and bad behaviour; now it is highly regarded.  Its colonel has totally transformed it, and these same soldiers, who used to commit infinite disorders, have now become respectable and useful.

Nothing is more suited to attach the soldier to his profession than a military band.

Were have too often neglected military music.  Twenty-five years ago, there wasn't a single trumpet that sounded true, not a single drum that kept rhythm, not a clarinet  that was played correctly.....
During the last wars, the peasants of Bohemia, Austria and Bavaria, all of whom are born musicians, were unable to believe that regular troops could have such false and discordant instruments and so mistook our old guard for raw troops whom they held in contempt. Who knows how many brave men have lost their life through faulty instruments and unskilled musicians!  In truth, in war, nothing should be neglected that strikes the senses.
If, as the abbé Raynal says, the King of Prussia must owes some of his success to the speed of his marches, he also owes some to his truly warlike music.
Mercier Tableau de Paris, vol. 5. 1783

1 comment:

  1. Saige England18 August 2024 at 12:59

    Thank you, this is so interesting and useful to my studies of the period.

    ReplyDelete