Author Archives: th4

Trevor Herbert
The militia and music: military musicians and Wales in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.

Military music is one of the truly neglected areas of western music even though, from the eighteenth century, it was ubiquitous in all parts of Britain. Bands of music were formed by the county lieutenancies that were also responsible for recruitment of the militia itself. They prevailed in Wales as elsewhere, to form a new network of instrumental ensembles in places where such music had not previously been heard. The importance of these groups can only be understood in the context of the military, political and socio-cultural position of the militia; their significance must be measured through their impact on the music profession and the commercial infrastructures that supported it. Why were these bands formed, who paid for them, what they did do and from where were the musicians recruited? This paper will address these and other questions by reference to several primary sources.
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  The second edition of The Cultural Study of Music has been published by Routledge. Now extended with contributions from thirty-five leading European and American academics, it has been described as a canonical text for the subject. It is edited … Continue reading →