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66 MILITARY MUSIC AND ITS STORY. |
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marriage of the Duke of York to Princess Frederica of Prussia in 1791. Herr Georg Thouret, the editor of the collection, makes some interesting remarks on English military music of the period which I will quote, together with others from Burney, Parke and Pohl, as a foil to Kappey's depreciation.
"From the year 1750," says Thouret, "English military music made rapid and successful strides." Twenty years later: " English military music had no need to fear comparison with that of the Continent." He also says that " the English military march .... served as a model for Europe and made the graceful 6-8 time for marches popular."
The importance of English military bands of this period may be argued from the fact that such eminent musicians as J. C. Bach, William Crotch, William Shield, Renaigle, Dibdin, K. F. Horn and Malchair, of Oxford, wrote for them.
Rousseau had paid a great compliment to the bands of the Germans, and indeed it was the general impression that military music had reached its highest development with them. Yet, that our English bands were as good as anything on the Continent, we have it on the authority of no less a person than the eminent musical historian, Burney. In his " Present State of Music in Germany," he writes under Mannheim (1772) : " The first music I heard was military. I lodged on the Place d'Armes, or parade; the retraite had only drums and fifes; and in the morning there was nothing worth listening to. If I had had an inclination to |
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