MUSIC.

MILITARY BANDS.

THE primary function of military bands is admirably summed up in two lines in the " ..Eneid " in which Vergil speaks of a famous trumpeter,

"Quo non praestantior alter Aere ciere viros Martemque accendere cantu."

"Aere ciere viros "—that is the pith of the matter, and the testimony of modern as well as ancient generals confirms the

value of brass instruments as excitants or in restoring the flagging energies of weary soldiers on the march. But this is only one side of military music. In war, as Miss Johnston observes in Cease Firing, all music is military.

There is another aspect of military bands, or of bands constituted on the military basis, that was recently emphasized in the interesting lecture delivered by Mr. Mackenzie Rogan, who conducts the band of the Coldstream Guards, at the Royal United Services Institute, and in an article in the Times of the 14th inst. In times of peace military bands enter largely into the amenities of civil life, and in virtue of their constitution exercise a powerful influence on the progress of the musical education of the

masses. The military, or brass and reed band is the only thoroughly effective combination for the performance

of concerted open-air instrumental music. The balance of strings and wind needed for the highest type of symphonic music is impossible of attainment outside a concert hall, and the sacrifice of the most delicate and

emotional element, and of all that makes for the fine embroidery of orchestration, is inevitable in al fresco per-

formances. The clarinet is a beautiful instrument in its place, but its beauty is least noticeable in its highest register, and as a substitute for the violin it lacks the agility, the poignancy, the soaring quality of the king of instruments. It is con- stantly being forced to do something for which it is not intended, and that is never satisfactory. A famous conductor was once asked what he thought of the Isolde of a singer who had begun her operatic career as a contralto, and he replied that it was like listening to a violin concerto played by a viola.

The criticism applies with even greater force to a clarinet

assuming the role of a violin. A fortiori is this true of the cornet, which has never quite outlived its description as a " new

and nasty form of trumpet." It is the most undistinguished of instruments, as the violin is the most distinguished; it is almost impossible for a cornet player to convey sentiment without bleating. As a substitute for the trumpet, in view of

its greater fluency and accuracy, it is often indispensable. It is extremely useful in reinforcing sonority in tutti passages ; it can be bold, brutal, and truculent, but never delicate or tender. But in spite of these limitations, military bands have positive attractions and merits of their own. In music of a strongly rhythmical character, or in which the appeal is direct and straightforward, the impact on the senses

of a powerful military band is irresistible. Heard at close quarters it may at times be somewhat strident, but the refining effect of distance can lend it enchantment. A curious

fact about brass bands may be noted in this context. Some years ago a great competition was held in the Albert Hall,

at the close of which there was a performance of the massed bands. One might have thought that the effect would have been earsplitting, but, so far from this being the case, the reinforcement of sonority was attended with an increased mellowness and richness of tone which were altogether delightful. Again, while it must be admitted that the military or brass and reed band is not adapted for the performance of all kinds of music, it is the only means available for familiarizing the masses with concerted music of the better

sort, and it is on its value and responsibilities as a great demo- cratic engine of culture that attention needs to be concentrated. It is not comparable to the concert-room orchestra, but it is,

within its limits, a highly efficient substitute. Not only is a great deal of the best classical and romantic: music available

in transcriptions, but the actual cost of maintaining a mili- tary band is much less, as may be easily ascertained by comparing the value of the instruments. In a first-rate orchestra the amount of money invested in stringed instru- ments is very large indeed. No good orchestral player is content with a cheap violin; indeed it would not be difficult to equip an entire military band for the money paid for, say, ten violins actually in use in one of our leading orchestras. The economics of music are a most interesting and perplexing problem. In 'the higher branches of the art the tendency is undoubtedly in the direction of increased cost of perform-

ance, owing partly to the greater complexity of modern music and the larger number of players required, partly to the enhanced prestige of conductors and the higher salaries which they command, and partly to the increased remuneration of orchestral players. In view of their remarkable musician- ship and efficiency this is as it should be, and no one can quarrel with them for their successful efforts to better their position and enforce their claims by organization. At best the income earned by a first-rate orchestral player, even when supplemented by teaching, seldom compares favourably with that of a first-rate artisan. But the fact remains that a full orchestra is a costly luxury, and that it can only be maintained as a business concern by charging prices which rule out the immense majority of the public, and that of the substitutes available there is none more effective than the military band, using the term in its musical sense. We do not overlook the splendid work done by a few municipal orchestras,

notably that at Bournemouth, which has been directed for several years with such signal ability and enterprise by Mr. Dan Godfrey. Rate-aided symphonic music, without the assistance of private munificence, is still a plant of tender and infrequent

growth. So far as concerted instrumental music is concerned, the mass of the public is dependent on occasional oppor- tunities of hearing regimental bands, and chiefly on the municipal bands which play in our parks and open spaces. Of the efficiency of many of the former it is needless to speak one can only wish that opportunities of hearing them might be largely extended, as the arrangement under which the best regimental bands are free to accept remunerative civilian engagements restricts their audiences within a very limited

compass. The value and responsibility of our park bands is frankly acknowledged and judiciously insisted on by the writer in the Times of the 14th inst. :— " One has only to visit a London park or a suburban open space on a Sunday afternoon," he writes, "to realise what a force the bands exercise upon the musical receptivity of the public. There are thousands of people drinking in the music as they breathe the air, and accepting both air and music unhesitatingly, no matter how pure or how adulterated either may be. It follows, therefore, that the bands hold an immense responsibility, one which is akin to the responsibility of providing a clean atmosphere and open spaces, and those who appreciate the fact that artistic perform- ances have a specific value of their own quite apart from their effect on distractions from less innocent pleasures, know that the quality of the music given is the only criterion by which their usefulness or uselessness as artistic institutions can be judged."

The writer contends that while it is natural that military bandmasters and players should crave to possess a literature of their own, they are on the safest ground in sticking to

arrangements of orchestral music, " for the simple reason that all the best music has been written for something else, and

that most composers of military band music are, like most composers for the modern organ, children playing tricks with its mechanism." While admitting the limitations of the military band, he even goes so far as to maintain that passages marked by dignity and directness may even gain by

the transference.

There is yet another function of the military band, by virtue of which it is in a position to exercise a considerable educative influence. In speaking of the great public, where instrumental music is concerned, one means the great urban public. It is true that over a considerable portion of the Midlands and the North of England, and latterly in Wales, the brass band movement is not confined to the great centres ; brass bands of varying degrees of excellence are to be met with in small towns and villages as well Only the other day the case was brought to the writer's notice of a very small town in Wales where the miners and labourers bad committed themselves to the purchase of instruments costing £300 for their local band. But over a great area of the United Kingdom residents, especially in rural districts, have little chance of hearing a band except through the horn of a gramophone. Now fastidious musicians may think what they like of the gramophone, but it is impos- sible to ignore its existence, to gainsay its world-wide influence, or to deny the improvements which have been effected in its mechanism. The repertory already available includes music of all kinds and styles, from the vilest to the most noble. But in the department of symphonic music there can be no doubt whatever as to the superiority of the records made from the military bands. The difficulty may be ultimately sur- mounted, but, at present, wind and wood "come out" infinitely better than strings, and the best orchestra in the world is shorn of nearly all its brilliance in the process of mechanical reproduction. The gramophone is the great back-block popularizer of instrumental music, standing to that art some- what as the three-colour process does to painting. It can bring Schubert or Wagner or Tchaikovsky as well as Melba and Caruso into the desert or the prairie. In fine, the quality of the music performed by the military band will in the long ran, more than anything else, affect the far-flung audience of