Military Music And Its Story - online book

The Rise & Development Of Military Music

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	86               MILITARY MUSIC AND ITS STORY.
	was the recognition of the French horn, which was found useful in sounding the more elaborate signals, the "retreat" for instance. Combined with the
		trumpet, some "showy " flourishes could be obtained, and the authorities were not slow to observe the excellent results. All that was now required was a "bass," and so the natural complement to the trumpet family was requisitioned—the trombone. Then another instrument takes a place in mounted bands—the serpentcleide (a portable serpent), which in later years, when constructed in brass was known as the "bass horn." In Maclise's picture of the meeting of Wellington and Blucher at "La Belle Alliance," there is depicted a mounted band of a Prussian hussar regiment which consists of trumpets, French horns and bass horns. The date when mounted bands gen­erally came into vogue, cannot be
	Fig. 10. beepentcleide.	located with certainty. The last de-
	cade of the eighteenth century would perhaps be a fair guess. At all events, our two regi­ments of Life Guards had them in 1795. In these days there were no such things as "valves" in brass instruments, and their scale was therefore imperfect. So we can understand how limited the efforts of these brass bands were, being restricted