Troops will step faster and march for a longer time to the rhythm of a drum than to any other way of keeping time. What is more stirring than the heavy, measured boom-boom-boom of the bass drum, the rhythmic clatter of the snare drum and the great blasts of tone from the huge, wide-mouthed horns?
In the beginning American military band music mainly consisted of the shrill tones of the fife paced by the rattle of the snare drums with their vibrating snares. The famous picture “The Spirit of Seventy-six” shows a revolutionary “fife and drum” band of this type. They were often called the “Drum and Foof” bands. Since those early days of military bands there has been notable change in instrumentation. Gradually more mellow-sounding instruments such as the oboes, trumpets and clarinets came into use. Present day bands are superior to our ears not only because the modern instruments are more perfectly manufactured but because of this new tonal balance.
The Marine Band
“Boom-Boom-Boom-Boom!”
The drums beat loud, the fifes tooted shrilly, and the Marines tramped steadily down the dusty road. The offices of the U. S. Capitol had been moved from Philadelphia to the new Federal City on the Potomac early in June, 1800. Now late in July, on a hot muggy day, the Marine Corps and their band were on their way to Washington, 136 miles away. And they were marching on foot.
Since the organization of a Marine Corps in 1775, drums and fifes had furnished the music. The fife’s piercing tones carried the melody while the drums beat the rhythm and gave the signals for the officers’ orders.
These drums were wondrous things. Their tall, double-headed cylinders were capable of great vibrations caused by the gut strings across the lower head. The drums had red bodies and blue heads, painted to match the colors of the band uniforms. A coiled rattlesnake, with raised head ready to strike, was painted on the side of each drum, over the warning motto, “Don’t tread on me.”
At the close of the Revolutionary War, 1783, all military organizations were disbanded. But eleven years later the U. S. Navy was authorized by Congress; new duties were found for “Musics.” They were ordered to play on recruiting duty and on frigates. After they had become so generally useful, Congress decided that there must be a fully organized band in the Marine Corps. President John Adams approved the bill to form this branch of the Marine Corps in 1798. The very first U. S. Marine Band consisted of a “drum major, fife major, and thirty-two drums and fifes.”
Some Marine troops and their bands were sent to the U. S. warships engaged in the French Naval War. Others were dispatched to serve under Commander Stephen Decatur in his battles with the Barbary pirates in Tripoli Harbor.