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74 MILITARY MUSIC AND ITS STORY. |
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"sable" musicians into "Old Mortality," and I have seen a negro kettledrummer in a battle picture, " Blenheim, August 18, 1704," by R. Caton Woodville. A negro trumpeter in state dress, of the Royal Horse Guards (1742) is also shown in R. Simkin's "Our Armies."
We may rest assured that our marching regiments soon recognised the enormous value of this "Turkish music," for the better regulation of the march. This was always a question of the highest importance in our service, and at the beginning of the nineteenth century, stringent regulations were issued to general officers of districts to report half-yearly whether bands in their command could "play in correct time." For the guidance of drum-majors and others it was ordered that "they should be attentive not to deviate in the most trifling degree from the time which will allow, within the minute, the exact number of steps prescribed by H.M. regulations."9 To acquire the precise step the drum-major was compelled to practise his musicians to the "plummet,"10 whilst on the march he ensured a regular pace by a systematic motion of his staff or baton, which by the regulations he was required to turn " with an easy air one round, so as to keep time, and plant it at every fourth pace."1
Such excellent pace-makers as the bass drum a. d |
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' "Regulations for the Army," 1811.
" " Regulations for the Army," 1811.
'James's "Military Companion," 1805. |
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