Rodion Romanovich
10-24-2005, 15:22
Military musicians have as many know been used by several different warlords in many historical periods, for instance by the Romans, by various Turkish armies and later also by many western and central European armies too, in order to simplify distributing orders to the regiments.
I've got some questions about these often forgotten soldiers and their history, if anybody knows the answers:
1. who were the first known to use musicians in battle, and when was their first recorded usage of it?
2. how did the romans distribute their instruments and how were the signals built up? I've heard they had different instruments, but how exactly did the different order signals differ from each other, and how did they identify which cohort/cohorts to give the orders to? Did the romans also put musicians in the cohorts too in order to reply to the signals?
3. someone said the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius used old Finnish military battle signals in one of his musical pieces. Is it true, and if so, which piece?
4. how did the signals typically sound in the Dark ages? (I had in mind using the answer to this particular question to if possible compose a battle music piece for the AoVaF mod including military signals)
5. when were military musicians as tool in battles abolished, and why? I believe Napoleon used them, so I guess it was somewhere betwen the Napoleonic and First World War era, probably connected to the development from important single field battles to a more frontline oriented combat, or am I wrong?
I've got some questions about these often forgotten soldiers and their history, if anybody knows the answers:
1. who were the first known to use musicians in battle, and when was their first recorded usage of it?
2. how did the romans distribute their instruments and how were the signals built up? I've heard they had different instruments, but how exactly did the different order signals differ from each other, and how did they identify which cohort/cohorts to give the orders to? Did the romans also put musicians in the cohorts too in order to reply to the signals?
3. someone said the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius used old Finnish military battle signals in one of his musical pieces. Is it true, and if so, which piece?
4. how did the signals typically sound in the Dark ages? (I had in mind using the answer to this particular question to if possible compose a battle music piece for the AoVaF mod including military signals)
5. when were military musicians as tool in battles abolished, and why? I believe Napoleon used them, so I guess it was somewhere betwen the Napoleonic and First World War era, probably connected to the development from important single field battles to a more frontline oriented combat, or am I wrong?