Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 3.djvu/657

SOUNDS AND SIGNALS. Tuscany, whose work is entitled 'Modo per imparare a sonare di tromba tanto di guerra quanto musicalmente in organo, con tromba sordina, col cimbalo e ogn'altro istrumento; aggiuntovi molte senate, come balletti, brandi, capricci, serabande, correnti, passaggi e senate con la tromba e organo insieme' (Frankfurt, 1636). This rare work, to which M. Georges Kastner first drew attention in his 'Manuel de Musique Militaire,' contains specimens of the following trumpet-calls—Prima Chiamata di Guerra; Sparata di Butta Sella; L'accavallo; La marciata; Seconda Chiamata che si và sonata avant la Battaglia; Battaglia; Allo Stendardo; Ughetto; Ritirata di Capriccio; Butte la Tenda; Tutti a Tavola. Some of these are very elaborate. The Boute-selle, for instance, consists of an introduction of four bars in common time, followed by a movement in 6-4 time, twenty-nine bars long, which is partly repeated. We give here one of the shorter signals, 'Allo Stendardo':–

With regard to the German signals of this period, and indeed with regard to the whole history of military music in Germany, we are reluctantly compelled to treat the subject very cursorily, owing to the almost total want of material. It has been seen that the use of the kettledrum for the cavalry came from Germany, and frequent allusions are made in French works of the 18th century to the superiority of German military music. But owing perhaps to the more general musical intelligence of the soldiers, the different signals seem to have been handed down orally to a greater extent than they were with other nations. It is said that their signals were better in point of form than those of other nations, and that they were often derived from popular Volkslieder, etc. Their musical superiority they retain to the present day. An interesting point with regard to the German signals is the habit the soldiers had of inventing doggrel verses to them. Some of these rhymes are said to be very ancient, going back so far as the 16th century. The verses were not confined to the signals of their own armies, but were sometimes adapted to those of their traditional enemies, the French. Freiherr von Soltau gives several of these in his work on German Volkslieder (Leipzig, 1845). The following are some of the most striking:—

Another probable reason of the scarcity of old collections of signals in Germany is that the trumpeters and drummers formed a very close and strict guild. The origin of their privileges was of great antiquity, but their real strength dates from the Imperial decrees confirming their ancient privileges, issued in 1528, 1623, and 1630, and confirmed by Ferdinand III., Charles VI., Francis I., and Joseph II. Sir Jas. Turner (Pallas Armata, Lond. 1623) has some account of this guild, from which were recruited the court, town, and army trumpeters. Their privileges were most strictly observed, and no one could become a master-trumpeter except by being apprenticed to a member of the guild.

Returning to France, we find from the time of Louis XIV. downwards a considerable number of orders of the government regulating the different trumpet and drum signals. Many of these have been printed by M. Kastner in the Appendix to his Manuel, to which work we must refer the reader for a more detailed account of the various changes which they underwent. In 1705 the elder Philidor (André) inserted in his immense autograph collection [see vol. ii. p. 703a], part of which is now preserved in the Library of the Paris Conservatoire, many of the 'batteries et sonneries' composed by himself and Lully for the French army. The part which Lully and Phillidor took in these compositions seems to have been in adapting short airs for fifes and hautbois to the fundamental drum-beats. See the numerous examples printed in Kastner's Manuel.

From this time the number and diversity of the French signals increased enormously. Besides Philidor's collection, a great number will be found in Lecocq Madeleine's 'Service ordinaire et journalier de la Cavalerie en abregé' (1720), and Marguery's 'Instructions pour les Tambours,' for the most part full of corruptions, and too often incorrectly noted. Under the Consulate and Empire the military signals received a number of additions from David Buhl, who prepared different sets of ordonnances for trumpets, drums, and fifes, which were adopted by the successive French governments during the first half of the present century, and still form the principal body of signals of the French Army.