The military bands of the United Kingdom are musical units that serve for protocol and ceremonial duties as part of the British Armed Forces. They have been the basis and inspiration for many military bands in the former British Empire and the larger Commonwealth of Nations as well as musical organizations in other countries. Military musical units with British influence include United States military bands, the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force Music Corps and the Military Band of Athens. British military bands are controlled by the military music departments of the three services that compose the armed forces. These include the Royal Marines Band Service (Royal Navy), the Royal Corps of Army Music (British Army), and the Royal Air Force Music Services (Royal Air Force). British style brass bands and carnival bands were then and are currently inspired by the British Armed Forces and its brass bands, especially of the Army's regular and reserve formations, as they follow a similar format as it relates to brass and percussion (plus optional woodwind) instruments.
History
Early development, medieval era and 17th century
British military music was unsophisticated until the Crusades (from the late 11th century). Trumpeters and drummers in the field sufficed as a medium for communication, as did pipers, and later fifers, whose further remit was to frighten the enemy. Casualty clearance and first aid became their dual roll. The oldest military band in the British military is the Royal Artillery Band, which traces its origins back to 1557 at the Battle of St. Quentin. King Charles II of England studied French Army music during the reign of King Louis XIV of France. Upon regaining the throne, he began implementing French musical traditions. 1678 saw the introduction of six hautbois instruments in the Band of the Horse Grenadier Guards. Most British regiments of the line adopted this new instrumentation by 1690.
18th and 19th centuries
During the 17th and 18th centuries, soldiers marched to the beat of the drum from the day they were recruited in their localities. Drummers, many of them teenagers by the time they were recruited, were also responsible for punishing soldiers who were sentenced to be flogged with whips. The average age of the 304 drummers at Waterloo was 25, with about 10% being boys under 16. The Artillery Band, which were mere "drumme and phifes" for close to 200 years until 1762, was made 'official' that year. Regimental bands in the Foot Guards were first formed between 1783 and 1785. The 1st Foot Guards Band was known as the Duke of York's Band and the 3rd Foot Guards band was known as the Duke of Gloucester's Band. In 1854, during the Crimean War, a parade in Scutari (nowadays Turkey), to celebrate the Queen Victoria's birthday was held, during which twenty British Army bands performed the national anthem. As a result of the bands playing God Save the Queen in different instrumentations and key signatures, the Royal Military School of Music was established that year as the primary training school for all musicians of the army's military bands. In the corps of drums of the line infantry units, while fifes and drums had been played for centuries, beginning in the 1850s bugles began to be adopted in such formations. Until 1837, Army bands sported the Turkish crescent as part of the band percussion section, a tradition introduced from the Ottoman Empire and its military bands in the 18th century.
While the Army's band tradition blossomed, this was also the case for the Royal Navy and through it, the Royal Marines, whose bands were present in almost every naval engagement since the first bands were established in 1664-65 under Army control, these would later be transferred to the RN in 1755. By the 18th century, Royal Marines bands were established in Deal, Chatham, Plymouth and Portsmouth, each providing musical support to RM units, as well as to all naval servicemen, stationed in these areas. In 1805, with the establishment of yet another division in Woolwich came the raising of yet another band.
It would only be in the late 19th century that the tradition of bands and bugles would arrive in the rifle regiments of the Army, as well as in the Gurkha units (which would later also adopt the Scottish tradition of pipes and drums). The bugle sections replaced the regular corps of drums of these units due to the use of the bugle instead of the drum as a signalling instrument for the rifle regiments due to their skirmishing role. It would only be in the 1960s when the tradition of bugle sections would be adopted by the light infantry regiments within the UK.