From the band of musick to the concert party, c. 1780-1918: musical entertainment in the British army

摘要

It is quite difficult to make an absolute distinction between music with a military purpose and music made by military musicians as entertainment. Musical entertainment played by military musicians, whether aimed at the local populace or the rank-and-file soldier, is typically a tool of soft power, designed variously to enforce a sense of authority, discipline and order, to allay suspicion and hostility, or to boost morale and solidarity in situations of tension and conflict. But for our purposes here, we will concentrate specifically on those performances that can be described as formal entertainment - music to accompany dinners and dances, and concert performances of one kind or another