What is a marching band?
A: A marching band is a group of instrumental musicians who perform while
marching, often for entertainment or competition.
Instrumentation typically includes what?
A: Brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments.
Most marching bands wear what?
A: A uniform, often of a military-style, that includes an associated
organization's colors, name or symbol.
Most high school marching bands, and some college
marching bands, are accompanied by what?
A: A color guard, a group of performers who add a visual interpretation to
the music through the use of props, most often flags, rifles, and sabers.
Marching bands are generally categorized by what?
A: Function, size, age, instrumentation, marching style, and type of show
they perform.
In addition to traditional parade performances, many
marching bands also perform what?
A: Field shows at sporting events and marching band competitions.
Increasingly, marching bands perform at what?
A: Indoor concerts that implement many songs, traditions, and flair from
outside performances.
In some cases, at higher level competitions, bands will
be placed into classes based on what?
A: School size.
Since ancient times percussion and wind instruments
were used on what?
A: The battlefield.
An Iron Age example would be what?
A: The carnyx.
The development of the military band from such
predecessors was a gradual development of what period?
A: The medieval and early modern period.
The European tradition of military bands formed when?
A: In the Baroque period, partly influenced by the Ottoman tradition.
17th-century traveler Evliya Çelebi noted the existence
of what?
A: 40 guilds of musicians in Istanbul.
In the 18th century, each regiment in the British Army
maintained what?
A: Its own military band.
Until 1749 bandsmen were what?
A: Civilians hired at the expense of the colonel commanding a regiment.
Subsequently, they became regular enlisted men who
accompanied the unit on active service to provide what?
A: Morale enhancing music on the battlefield or, from the late nineteenth
century on, to act as stretcher bearers.
Instruments during the 18th century included what?
A: Fifes, drums, the oboe (hautbois), French horn, clarinet, and bassoon.
Drummers summoned men from their farms and ranches to
what?
A: To muster for duty.
In the chaotic environment of the battlefield, musical
instruments were the only means of doing what?
A: Commanding the men to advance, stand or retire.
In the mid-19th century, each smaller unit had what?
A: Their own fifer and drummer, who sounded the daily routine.
When units massed for battle what was formed for the
whole?
A: A band of musicians.
In the United States, modern marching bands are most
associated with performing during what?
A: American football games.
What is the oldest American college marching band?
A: The University of Notre Dame Band of the Fighting Irish.
It was founded in 1845 and first performed at a
football game in what year?
A: 1887.
Many American universities had marching bands before
the twentieth century, which were typically associated with what?
A: Military ROTC programs.
In 1907, breaking from traditional rank and file
marching, the first pictorial formation on a football field was what?
A: The "Block P" created by Paul Spotts Emrick, director of the Purdue
All-American Marching Band.
Spotts had seen a flock of birds fly in a "V" formation
and decided what?
A: That a band could replicate the action in the form of show formations on
a field.
The first halftime show at an American football game
was performed by whom?
A: The University of Illinois Marching Illini, also in 1907, at a game
against the University of Chicago.
