TO write a general history of military music, one 1 embracing a continuous and coherent account of its progress, is no easy task; for the simple reason that its development has not been general, but has proceeded on different lines in different countries. The growing interest in the subject manifested in Britain during recent years is perhaps not the least encouraging feature noticeable in connection with the spread of general culture, the best wind-band combinations now attracting vast audiences on concert platforms formerly considered the exclusive monopoly of the grand orchestra. There is on all sides, an acquaintance with music, vocal or instrumental: and whilst much of this may be of only an elementary character, there is, and that more widely diffused than is perhaps generally known, a very high standard of musical culture indeed abroad. During the past half-century, literature in all other branches of musical art has grown enormously and is still being poured out at a bewildering rate—yet works treating of military music, of its history, or of its theory, are conspicuously rare, and may be counted almost on the fingers of one hand.
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