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10 MILITARY MUSIC AND ITS STORY. |
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Crecy and Agincourt was not forgotten by the chroniclers.
Horns and trumpets were the only instruments of martial music, until the Crusaders returned with newer and better ideas from the East. Richard of Devizes tells us how, when Richard " Cceur de Lion " harangued his soldiers at Messina, he directed that " every man, according to military discipline, be disposed in line in exact array, and on the third day, at the sound of the horn, let them follow me." Thus it is clear that the horn was a signalling instrument, yet we are told that the troops were led to battle by the trumpet. The same chronicler says: " The King of England proceeds in arms; the terrible standard of the dragon is borne in front unfurled, while behind the king the sound of the trumpet excites the army."9
With regard to signals by horn or trumpet, it appears that no distinct calls were sounded, but were dependent for their significance on orders previously issued,10 as we find in the chronicle of Geoffrey de Vinsauf (concerning the Crusade of Richard I): "It had been resolved by common consent that the sounding of six trumpets in three different parts of the army should be a signal for a charge, etc."1 This might be noted in connection with Mr. W. Barclay Squire's statement (Grove's " Dictionary "), that it is in the thirteenth |
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* Bohn's "Chronicles of the Crusades."
" Fortescue, "History of the British Army."
' Bohn's " Chronicles of the Crusades." |
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