Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 76, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 May 1899 — Military Marches. [ARTICLE]

Military Marches.

In military music the march occupies a prominent position, and has been employed not only to stimulate courage, but also, from about the middle of the seventeenth century, to Insure the orderly advance of troops. One of the earliest instances of rhythmical march Is the Welsh war strain, “The March of the Men of Harlech,” which is supposed to have originated during the siege of Harlech castle in 1468. In England the military march was of somewhat later development. Sir John Hawkins in his “History of Music” tells us that its characteristic was dignity and gravity, in which respect it differed greatly from the French, which was brisk and alert And apropos of this subject, the same author quotes a witty reply of an Elizabethan soldier to the French Marshal Biron’s remark that “the English march, being beaten by the drum, was slow, heavy, and sluggish.” “That may be true,” he said, “but slow as it is, it has traversed your master’s country from one end to the other.”—Chambers’ Journal.