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My playlist showed up the Mehter right now. This is an absolute way to push the impetuous and ethusiast soldiers forward. Formation of the Mehterhane -the military band- was an old custom passed on to Ottomans from Seljuks.
So what about the other cultures' militaristic musical customs, bands, songs ?
I don’t know very many particulars but there are plenty of cultures that used drums to communicate, motivate, and intimidate. ~:)
I may be wrong, but I think that something like 1% (maybe more) of the British Army is made up of musicians.
I heard a lot of Celtic warsongs, for example. Were they only folkloric songs or ballads sung dedicated to warriors ? None participated in motivation directly then ?
Well, I know must about the celts from a fellow EB member, Ranika. And he said that the Celts were big on singing, and before a battle, they'd often all sing together.
Steppe peoples often used drums to cominicate, which is where the Seljuqs got it from. Some Turkish tribes would not go to war until they made fresh war drums.
romans would use complicated tunes and single toots to give commands to an entire legion at one time. but i havwe heard accounts of norsemen actually singing songs of valor as they charged into battle. i belive that music was an awsome inspiration, if i was charging into battle, heart thumping, feet pounding with heavy metal thumping in my ears i belive it would give my heart strengh beyond what only the cry of battle could do.
oh and also when the mohawks (native american tribe) went to war they would have young shamans go to battle with them for the sole reason of striking the drum and chanting.
Well the stories of the norsemen singing before and when entering the battle has likely much to do with the berserkers. They would sing songs and dance themselves into a frenzy (and often perform very painful acts to get even more frenzied). So singing soldiers were often the most fightful ones to the enemies, and thus likely to get more attention.
You can see the same act being played out by the Masai and other warrior cultures in Africa. They too dance and sing until they enter a sort of frenzy.
Try it yourself, jump lightly in place while humming or giving short shouts. At some point you just do it and everything becomes a little bit lighter. Imagine having a group of buddies around, it would just magnify it that much more.