March music originates from the military, and marches are usually played by a marching band.[citation needed] The most important instruments are various drums (especially snare drum), horns, fife or woodwind instruments and brass instruments. Marches and marching bands have even today a strong connection to military, both to drill and parades.
Marches were not notated until the late 16th century; until then, time was generally kept by percussion alone, often with improvised fife embellishment. With the extensive development of brass instruments, especially in the 19th century, marches became widely popular and were often elaborately orchestrated. Composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Hector Berlioz, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Gustav Mahler, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Charles Ives, Arnold Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky, Alban Berg, Sergei Prokofiev, Paul Hindemith, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Leonard Bernstein wrote marches, sometimes incorporating them into operas, sonatas, suites, and symphonies. The popularity of John Philip Sousa's band marches has been unmatched.
French military marches are distinct from other European marches by their emphasis on percussion and brass, often incorporating bugle calls as part of the melody or as interludes between strains. Most French marches are in common metre and place a strong percussive emphasis on the first beat of each bar from the band and field music drumlines, hence the characteristic BOOM-whack-whack-whack rhythm. Many, though not all French marches (in particular marches dating from the period of the French Revolution) make use of triplet feel; each beat can be felt as a fast triplet. Famous French marches include "Le RÃgiment de Sambre et Meuse", "La Victoire est à Nous", "Marche de la garde consulaire à Marengo", "La Galette", the "Chant du dÃpart", "Le Chant des Africains", "Le CaÃd", "la Marche Lorraine" and "Le Boudin". While many are of the classic quick march time used today, there are several which are of slow time, harking to the slow and medium marches of soldiers of the French forces during the Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. Part of the French Foreign Legion's current march music inventory includes at lot of slow marches. Also, there are marches similar to those of British rifle regiments which are used by the Chasseur infantry battalions of the Army.
Dutch marches typically feature a heavy intro, often played by the trombones, euphoniums, drums, and tubas, followed by a lighthearted trio and a reasonably fast and somewhat bombastic conclusion, while maintaining occasional bugle calls due to the former wide presence of field music formations (particularly in the Army). Dutch emphasis on low brass is also made clear in that some Dutch military bands use sousaphones, which have a more forward projection of sound, rather than the regular concert tubas used by most other European military styles. Some well-known Dutch march composers are Jan Gerard Palm, Willy Schootemeyer, Adriaan Maas, Johan Wichers, and Hendrik Karels. By far, most Dutch military bands perform their music on foot; however, some Dutch regiments (most notably the Trompetterkorps Bereden Wapens) carry on a Dutch tradition in which its historical bicycle infantry had a mounted band, thus playing march music on bikes.
Italian marches have a very light musical feel, often having sections of fanfare or soprano obbligatos performed with a light coloratura articulation. This frilly characteristic is contrasted with broad lyrical melodies reminiscent of operatic arias. It is relatively common to have one strain (often a first introduction of the final strain) that is played primarily by the higher-voiced instruments or in the upper ranges of the instruments' compass. Examples of Italian march music is "Il Bersagliere" (The Italian Rifleman) by Boccalari and "4 Maggio" by Creux. Uniquely, the Bersaglieri regiments always move at a fast jog, and their running bands, mostly all-brass, play at this pace, with marches like "Passo di Corsa dei Bersaglieri" (Double March of the Bersaglieri) and "Flick Flock" as great examples.
The Indian military bands consists of musicians from the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force. The primary bands include Indian Army Chief's Band, Indian Naval Symphonic Band and No. 1 Air Force Band. Today, the Indian Armed Forces have more than 50 military brass bands and 400 pipe bands and corps of drums. A Tri-Services Band refers to a joint Indian Armed Forces military band that performs together as a unit.[9]
North Korean marches are heavily influenced by the Soviet military band tradition mixed with Korean influences. Most of the marches are dedicated to the party and to their revolution and leaders. Use of a grandiose brass sound is almost always present in the music. Many marches are adapted from the North Korean revolutionary and patriotic song tradition, known as the taejung kayo genre. Among the more popular North Korean marches played during state ceremonies are:
The most well-known form of brass band is arguably the British Brass Band. At the beginning of the 19th Century, British coal mines founded factory bands, to give workers an extra incentive, and to promote the mine. The Salvation Army also played a major role in the development of the British Brass Band, from 1880 all officers and soldiers were instructed to learn to play a woodwind or brass instrument.
The usual line-up for these brass bands consisted of 25 players, with 3 or 4 percussionists. The wind parts (played by cornets, a flugelhorn, tenor horns, baritone horns, euphoniums, trombones and tubas) were often transposed, and mostly notated in the treble clef, with the exception of the bass trombone. Nowadays, there are brass bands in Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland in particular, which make music to a very high level.
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