370
NOTES AND QUERIES. m s. m. MAY 13, wn.
BLACK BANDSMEN IN THE ARMY.
(11 S. iii. 287, 336.)
THEIR origin is explained in J. A. Kappey's
- History of Military Music' (1894). The
redoubtable Turkish troops, the Janissaries, possessed bands of music (!) that made large use of instruments of percussion, viz., cym- bals, triangle, tambourine, bass-drum, &c., the melody instruments being a form of bagpipes. The leader of the band carried a pole headed by a three-tailed crescent. The Janissary bands discoursed wild music during the pro- gress of a battle. About the close of the seventeenth century the Sultan presented August II., King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, with a complete Janissary band. As the original performers died off, more civilized and more melodious instruments were introduced ; but pains were taken that the original character of the band should be preserved in the persons of the performers upon the percussion instruments. For the latter purpose, Orientals, half - castes, negroes, &c., were specially engaged, and dressed up like the Janissaries. In course of time nearly all the German States possessed military bands so constituted.
Down to 1783 the bands of the British Guards consisted of about eight hautboys. One of these bands refused to play at an aquatic party for the officers, and, as the men were not attested, they could not be accused of insubordination. The officers petitioned the Duke of York, Commander-in-Chief, that bandsmen should be made subject to military law. The Duke, who was in Hanover at the time, sent the regiment a complete German military band, which in- cluded turbaned negro players of percussion instruments. These black bandsmen delighted the London crowd, and every regi- ment in the service, including the militia, hastened to reorganize its band, and to get hold of coloured performers en the bass- drum, cymbals, &c.
It should be noted that, although black bandsmen have gone out of fashion, a relic of the Janissary influence is still preserved in the Prussian service. The three-tailed crescent is seen in all military bands, save that it has been altered to carry musical bells, or a kind of dulcimer, known as the " Glockenspiel." The latter instrument is now pretty common in our military bands. I believe ji> was introduced by the North-
amptonshire Regiment when stationed at
Aldershot about twenty years ago. The pole
is ornamented with horsehair plumes after
the ancient Turkish fashion.
H. G. ARCHER.
I believe it to be only a coincidence that the employment of black bandsmen in the British Army synchronizes with the employ- ment of black pages by fashionable ladies. The native regiments of the Madras Army before 1767 were accompanied by men playing tom-toms and trumpets. In or about that year these were discontinued in favour of drums " as soon as a sufficient number of men could be taught the beats as practised in the European battalions " (Wilson's ' History of the Madras Army,' i. 235). The further history of the move- ment in India is obscure ; but by the end of the century it is certain that the drummers of the native corps and of the European regi- ments in the service of the East India Com- pany were the dark-skinned sons of British soldiers by native mothers. They were found to be efficient and to satisfy all military re- quirements. There were many negroes in the Madras regiments in the eighteenth century. The Company imported them for military purposes! Some of these and their mixed descendants found their way into the bands, probably because of the facility with which they were able to play cur instruments of music.
I suggest that a similar process took place in the West Indies, and in North America, where the King's regiments were stationed ; and that the negroes were enlisted as drum- mers and bandsmen because of their fitness for the work, and because of the difficulty of getting boys and men from England. When once enlisted, they found their way to England in the ordinary course of their regiment's tour of service.
FRANK PENNY.
In the parish register of Taunton, St. Mary Magdalene, under " Burialls," this entry occurs :
" May 1724. Charles Sipprie, a black Drum beater in Gen" Evins is Regmt. of Dragoons belonging to Capt. Charles Knox is Troop. 3. * Aff." The 3 after the word " Troop " refers to the day of the month, and " Aff." to the affidavit produced before the officiating minister that the body had been wrapped up for burial " in sheep's wool only."
In Taunton, close to St. Mary's church- yard, was Black Boy Lane (demolished rather more than forty years ago), so called
