Corps of drums
A corps of drums, sometimes known as a fife and drum corps or simply field music, is a traditional European military music formation. Historically, a Corps of Drums' primary role was communication. Today, the primary role of a Corps of Drums is ceremonial, performing in parades and military ceremonies. Besides drums, this formation may contain a variety of instruments, including trumpets, bugles, and fifes.
Origin
Instruments, particularly drums, have been used on battlefields as signaling devices across many different cultures. Unlike army musicians who form bands and are usually limited to auxiliary duties in wartime, drummers in a Corps of Drums are principally fully trained infantry soldiers, with recruitment as drummers coming after standard infantry training.Its history can be traced back to Swiss mercenaries in the early Renaissance. By the early 16th century, each company of infantry soldiers had a single drummer and a single fife player. These two musicians would march at the head of the company, and when not providing uplifting marching tunes, they would be used by the company commander to convey orders on and off the battlefield. The drummers would be more aptly described as signalers than musicians, as shouted orders were very hard to hear over the din of battle. Later, the bugle would become the preferred means of communication on the battlefield, and the drummers adapted; they started training on bugles and carrying them in battle while retaining the drum and the title of drummer.
Image:Battle of bunker hill by percy moran.jpg|thumb|300px|Drummers in the center foreground, in their original battlefield role, close to the officer and wearing the distinctive drummers uniform.
As time went on, the individual drummers and fife players would be organized at the battalion level instead of the company level. Thus, the Corps of Drums became attached to the battalion headquarters. They retained their role in each company in battle but would form one body of men at the head of a battalion on the march. A Drum Major was appointed to be in charge of the drummers and organize training in the emerging discipline of military drumming. When off duty, the Corps of Drums would carry out various roles within the battalion, such as administering military justice and ensuring soldiers' billets were secured. The Corps would deploy with the rest of the battalion and would often form specialist platoons such as assault pioneers, supporting fire, or force protection.
United Kingdom
The British Army maintains a Corps of Drums in each infantry battalion except for the Scottish, Irish, and Rifle regiments which have pipes and drums and bugles, respectively. Each battalion of a regiment of line infantry maintains a Corps of Drums, which may be massed together on certain occasions. All corps-of-drums soldiers are called drummers regardless of the instrument they play, similar to the use of the term "sapper" for soldiers of the Royal Engineers.Current role
Personnel who form the Corps of Drums are recruited from the whole battalion and are usually attached to the battalion headquarters. Each Corps of Drums is commanded by a drum major, a senior non-commissioned officer, who usually reports to the adjutant of the battalion.Historical duties
Historical duties such as uncasing and casing of the colors on parade are continued in most units. Due to the specialist duties and ceremonial aspects of a drummer's life, a Corps of Drums may be the unofficial custodian of regimental customs and traditions.Liaison work
Because the Corps of Drums' role on the battlefield was originally to signal orders, some units are organized into signal platoons for operating radios. Drummers would also accompany officers to meet officers of an opposing army to parley. Therefore, some Corps of Drums perform a liaison role.Extra work
In armies where Corps of Drums remained as bodies within infantry battalions, Corps members have assumed additional jobs such as delivering mail or designating billets, and are often given the role of assault pioneers or supporting-fire platoons.Musician
Eventually, as the use of musical instruments on the battlefield diminished, the Corps of Drums looked to fill specialist roles within the battalion while still retaining their original role for ceremonial purposes. In some armies, drummers were absorbed by bands and ceased to be infantry soldiers, becoming full musicians.Drums and Drum Alternatives
The main instrument featured in a Corps of Drums is the side drum. These were originally of a rope-tension design with wide wooden hoops, a wooden shell, and an animal-skin head. In the British Army, this model has been continuously upgraded, with the inclusion of snares, more modern metal rod-tension, nylon hoops, and plastic heads.The side drum was increasingly decorated throughout the 19th century, until it bore the fully embellished regimental colours of the battalion, including its battle honours. As such, a regiment's drums are often afforded respect.
Historically, all members of a Corps of Drums would beat the various calls on the drum, but some would also play a fife in order to provide melody to accompany long route marches when not in combat. This has been replaced in the modern British Army by the five-key flute.
When the bugle replaced the drum mid-way through the 19th century as the most common means of battlefield communication, it was sounded on parade to give certain orders, to offer salutes, or to play the "Last Post" at funerals.
As the musical role of a Corps of Drums became more ceremonial in the 19th and 20th centuries, more instruments were added for a more musically complete sound. A modern Corps of Drums may include a range of percussion instruments such as a bass drum, tenor drums, cymbals, and occasionally glockenspiels to fill out the sound.
Uniform
While the Corps of Drums in the British Army often parade in combat uniforms and other forms of dress, they will sometimes parade in the full dress uniform, being one of the few formations which regularly wear full dress. During the 18th century, most British Army drummers were distinguished by wearing their regimental uniforms in "reversed colors," so an infantry regiment wearing red coats with yellow facings would clothe its drummers in yellow coats with red facings. This practice tended to make drummers targets in battle.After 1812, it was replaced by less conspicuous distinctions. These often consisted of lace decorating the standard uniform in various patterns. Many early patterns consisted of a "Christmas tree" pattern in which the chest was covered in horizontal pieces of lace decreasing in width downwards and chevrons of lace down each sleeve. The modern infantry pattern in the British Army is "crown-and-inch" lace sewn over the seams down the sleeves, around the collar, and over the seams on the back of the tunic. The crown-and-inch lace itself is about thick with a repeating crown pattern. The Guards Divisions drummers have the old-style "Christmas tree" pattern, featuring a fleurs-de-lis instead of crowns.
In some regiments, it has become customary for the percussion rank to wear leopard skins over their uniform. This protects both the uniform and the instrument, as cymbals have to be muffled against the chest, which may leave marks on the cloth, and the drums may be scratched by uniform buttons. Modern "leopard skins" are made from synthetic fur. Other regiments opt for a simple leather or cloth apron.
Drummers have traditionally been armed with "drummers' swords", a shortsword with a simple brass hilt bearing the Royal Cypher. The practice of wearing swords has been discontinued by some regiments, though many still do carry swords, whilst some use an SA80 bayonet as a modern alternative.
Honorable Artillery Company
The Honourable Artillery Company maintains a Corps of Drums, and as such is the only such sub-unit in an artillery unit in the British Army. Although the Honourable Artillery Company now fulfills an artillery role, it was historically an infantry regiment, with two battalions fighting during the Great War. The last infantry battalion was disbanded in 1973, but the Corps of Drums remained. Just as in other Corps of Drums of the British Army, its personnel carry out a soldiering role as their main function.Since the HAC is the oldest unit in existence in the British Army, and as drummers were employed at the establishment of infantry units at the latest during the 16th century, it may be assumed that the Corps of Drums of the HAC is the oldest in the British Army, though it has not been in continuous existence.
As the regiment still maintains the privilege granted to it by King William IV in 1830, that the HAC should dress in similar uniforms as the Grenadier Guards, except wearing silver where the Grenadiers wear gold, the Corps of Drums of the HAC dresses in a very similar fashion to that of the Corps of Drums of the Grenadier Guards.
In addition, the HAC's veteran unit, the Company of Pikemen and Musketeers, maintains an early form of the Corps of Drums known as the 'Musik'. In this capacity, more basic fifes and larger rope-tension drums are used, and 17th-century uniforms are worn in keeping with the rest of the company.
Royal Logistic Corps
The Royal Logistic Corps also maintains a Corps of Drums in the form of several side drummers, drawn from soldiers who serve a short tour as drummers before returning to a field unit. They stem from the 12 drummers placed on the Royal Waggon Train in 1803. There are reserve soldiers within the Corps of Drums of 157 Regiment RLC, based in Cardiff in Wales. This is not a conventional Corps of Drums, as it has no flautists and comes under the command of the regimental headquarters of the RLC, rather than forming a separate entity. It frequently plays with the Band of the RLC but often performs in isolation.At the time of Waterloo, in the period of deployment to the Low Countries, the RWT introduced drums made of brass. These originated on the Indian subcontinent. The size is. They weighed. They were faced in blue and carried the cypher of King George, with the title below. A few drums from the period survive today. The drumsticks were of Canadian maple, following the campaigns in North America during the Napoleonic era. The drums had drag ropes purchased from unit funds. Whilst drummers carried the bugle, the common instrument for the "Waggoners" was the fanfare trumpet, on account of their cavalry traditions and inclusion in the light cavalry. During that period the Corps was then divided between the foot soldiers, who used drums and fifes, and the mounted soldiers, with cavalry fanfare trumpets as signaling instruments. The drum sling was still that of the hook.