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60 MILITARY MUSIC AND ITS STORY. |
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officers, in their "choice of music masters," the following hint was given them:
"They should be men whose regularity, sobriety, good conduct and honesty can most strictly be depended upon; that are most remarkably clean and neat in their dress; that have an approved ear and taste for music, and a good method of teaching; without speaking harshly to the youths, or hurrying them on too fast."
Another interesting sidelight on the requirements of bandmasters of the period, is an advertisement that appeared in the Daily Advertiser" in 1774:
"WANTED, immediately, a person qualified as a Master Musician to a Military Band of Musick, who is a perfect master of the French Horn, and performs on other wind instruments, as great encouragement will be given. None need apply who is not a perfect master, and can be well recommended as a Person of great Sobriety and good character."
Observe, how all these people harp on " sobriety " ! The "drunk as a fiddler" myth, was evidently still in full vigour at this date. In this connection, a reference to a most amusing article in James's " Military Dictionary" (1816) may not be out of place.
" It has often been asked why the dress of musicians, drummers and fifers, should be of so varied and motley a composition, making them appear more like harlequins and mountebanks than military appendages? The following anecdote will explain the reason as far |
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