Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 3.djvu/656

at the fyrst blaste of the trumpette shall sadle or cause to be sadled his horse, at the seconde to brydell, at the thirde to leape on his horse backe, to wait on the kyng, or his lorde or capitayne.' There is here no mention of drums, but it must be remembered that by this time the distinction of trumpet-sounds being cavalry signals and drum-beats confined to the infantry was probably as generally adopted in England as it was abroad. In a Virginal piece^[1] of William Byrd's preserved at Christ Church, Oxford, and called 'Mr. Birds Battel,' which was probably written about the end of the 16th century, we find different sections, entitled 'The Souldiers Summons,' 'The March of the footemen,' 'The March of the horsemen,' 'The Trumpetts,' 'The Irish March,' and 'The Bagpipe and the Drum.' The first and fifth of these contain evident imitations of trumpet sounds which are probably English military signals of the period, the combination of bag-pipes and drums being a military march. Jehan Tabourot, in his valuable 'Orchesographie' (1588),^[2] says that the musical instruments used in war were 'les buccines et trompettes, litues et clerons, cors et cornets, tibies, fifres, arigots, tambours, et aultres semblables' (fol. 6b), and adds that 'Ce bruict de tous les dicts instruments, sert de signes et aduertissements aux soldats, pour desloger, marcher, se retirer: et à la rencontre de l'ennemy leur donne cœur, hardiesse, et courage d'assaillir, et se defendre virilement et vigourousement.' Tabourot's work contains the first mention of kettle-drums being used by cavalry, as he says was the custom of certain German troops. Similarly in Rabelais we find a description of the Andouille folk attacking Pantagruel and his company, to the sound of 'joyous fifes and tabours, trumpets and clarions.' But though from these passages it would seem as if signals were given by other instruments than the drum and trumpet, there can be no doubt that if this was the case, they were soon discontinued. 'It is to the voice of the Drum the Souldier should wholly attend, and not to the aire of the whistle,' says Francis Markham in 1622; and Sir James Turner, in his 'Pallas Armata' (1683), has the following, 'In some places a Piper is allowed to each Company; the Germans have him, and I look upon their Pipe as a Warlike Instrument. The Bag-pipe is good enough Musick for them who love it; but sure it is not so good as the Almain Whistle. With us any Captain may keep a Piper in his Company, and maintain him too, for no pay is allowed him, perhaps just as much as he deserveth.'

In the numerous military manuals and works published during the 17th century, we find many allusions to and descriptions of, the different signals in use. It would be unnecessary to quote these in extenso, but Francis Markham's 'Five Decades of Epistles of Warre' (London, 1622) demands some notice as being the first work which gives the names and descriptions of the different signals. In Decade I, Epistle 5, 'Of Drummes and Phiphes,' he describes the drum signals as follows: 'First, in the morning the discharge or breaking up of the Watch, then a preparation or Summons to make them repaire to their colours; then a beating away before they begin to march; after that a March according to the nature and custom of the country (for diuers countries have diuers Marches), then a Charge, then a Retrait, then a Troupe, and lastly a Battalion, or a Battery, besides other sounds which depending on the phantasttikenes of forain nations are not so useful.' He also states that a work upon the art of drumming had been written by one Hindar: unfortunately of this no copy apparently exists. Markham is no less explicit with regard to Trumpet Sounds than he is with Drum Signals: 'In Horse-Troupes … the Trumpet is the same which the Drum and Phiph is, onely differing in the tearmes and sounds of the Instrument: for the first point of warre is Butte sella, clap on your saddles; Mounte Cauallo, mount on horseback; Tucquet, march; Carga, carga, an Alarme to charge; A la Standardo, a retrait, or retire to your colours; Auquet,^[3] to the Watch, or a discharge for the watch, besides diuers other points, as Proclamations, Cals, Summons, all which are most necessary for euery Souldier both to know and obey' (Dec. III, Ep. i). It is noticeable in this list, that the names of the Trumpet sounds evidently point to an Italian origin, while those of the drum signals are as clearly English. To the list of signals given by Markham we may add here the following, mentioned only in different English works, but of which unfortunately no musical notes are given: Reliefe, Parado, Tapto ('Count Mansfields Directions of Warre,' translated by W.G. 1624); March, Alarm, Troop, Chamadoes and answers thereunto, Reveills, Proclamations (Du Praissac's 'Art of Warre,' Englished by J. Cruso, 1639); Call, Preparative, Battle, Retreat ('Compleat Body of the Art Military,' Elton, 1650); Take Arms, Come to Colours, Draw out into the Field, Challenge, General, Parley ('English Military Discipline,' 1680); Gathering (Turner's 'Pallas Armata,' 1683).

To return to those signals the notes of which have come down to us, the earliest collection extant is to be found in the second book of Mersenne's 'De Instruments Harmonicis,' Prop. xix (1635), where the following cavalry signals are given—L'entrée; Two Boute-selles; A cheval; A l'estendart; Le simple cavalquet; Le double cavalquet; La charge; La chamade; La retraite; Le Guet. Of these signals (copies of which will be found in a MS. of the 17th century in the British Museum, Harl. 6461) we give here the first Boute-selle.

The next collection known is that of Girolamo Fantini, Trumpeter to Ferdinand II., Duke of

1. See vol. ii. p. 422a.
2. See vol. ii. p. 560.
3. Auquet. i.e. Au guet—to the watch.