A key skill of the researcher is identifying topics ripe for research. Here Trevor Herbert and Helen Barlow have picked what must have been the ripest cherry from the lowest-hanging branch. Military music in the long nineteenth century accounted for a large part of the music profession and was heard by a large part of the population. Its influence was very wide, yet its treatment in the published literature has been very far from adequate, for various reasons . The writings of Henry Farmer,Footnote ¹ although aspiring to be scholarly, were limited in scope and are now seriously dated. Other publications, such as the copiously illustrated three-volume History of British Military Bands by Gordon Turner and Alwyn TurnerFootnote ² and David Murray's Music of the Scottish Regiments Footnote ³ had aims which differ from those of Herbert and Barlow in that they record in some detail the activities of individual bands and musicians, giving specifics of deployments, protocols, uniforms and so forth. The relatively small output from well-known composers of music designated for performance by military musicians must go some way in explaining the scholarly neglect of the topic. Military music at the end of the eighteenth century was performed by small groups for the pleasure of officers and at their expense; in the Edwardian era it was a highly visible statement of imperial power performed by impressively large, well-drilled, state-funded bands. The transformation was effected by the pressure of national needs, and the musical and organizational ability of numerous talented individuals. It is this bigger picture – military music as a phenomenon – that Herbert and Barlow have set out to delineate, which they have done with a judicious selection of detail – enough to give the flavours of their topic while not being deflected from the main narrative.

The limits set by the authors, 1770s to 1914 and the shores of the British Isles, are well chosen. The period saw the greatest changes in military music and its organization, and the position of the armed forces as agencies of state separates the British from parallel practices of military music abroad. The importation of German musicians and practices early in the period is of course treated in detail, while the mid-century adoption of French instrument types (ophicleides, cornets, saxhorns and saxophones, as well as French model oboes, bassoons and trombones) was important in forming the characteristic sonority of the British military band. These strong influences do not blur the boundaries of nationality and language. The scope of the book does include music of the British military serving in the extensive overseas Empire and on campaigns, however.

The book's 11 chapters are organized by topics, so they are not entirely chronological: this makes for a coherent treatment of the musical and organizational analysis of the characteristics of military music. The five appendices assemble specifics that illuminate the main narrative and include repertoire lists and typical instrumentations. The starting point is an examination of the functional roles of trumpeters, buglers, drummers and fifers in signalling and pace setting, and the early ‘bands of music’ whose duties were spectacle, ceremony and entertainment. The integration of military musicians into the armed forces, or lack of it, is a thread running through the historical treatment. At one extreme, musicians were freelance, only attached to the army when the occasion required; at the other they were enlisted soldiers expected to bear arms. The prevailing policy for the deployment of musically skilled soldier was to favour lighter duties than fighting, such as stretcher bearing. A theme running through the book is the role of the military in training musicians, populating the music profession with literate and competent instrumental performers. This was by no means the sole preserve of the Royal Military School of Music at Kneller Hall, founded in 1857. A parallel thread is the regulation of military bands, which seem to have had a natural tendency to expand – indeed regulations to limit their size were often ignored. The phenomenon of the formation of militia (or volunteer regiments) at times of perceived national threat (primarily in the reigns of Napoleon I and Napoleon III) is a fascinating topic. From 1859 the rifle volunteers that sprang up often incorporated pre-existing brass bands in toto, the bands finding the parade duties light and congenial, while payment for their rehearsal premises and their conductors was welcome.

The instruments of military music are given due attention. In several cases instruments initially employed for parades subsequently proved useful for concert performances in the larger halls and burgeoning bandstands of the late nineteenth century. The uptake of new inventions was more immediate in the military situation, where a bandmaster could write the necessary parts and order musicians to learn new instruments, than in the civilian orchestras with their traditional scoring and brass bands with their prescribed instrumentation (this being a consequence of the need for a level playing field in contests and the facility for music publishing of a standard line-up). Most of the developments in wind instruments were stimulated by military bands, which provided a market of sufficient size to make it worthwhile for instrument makers to invest in new instruments and in developments. Familiar instruments such as the saxophone and the tuba owe their invention to the demands of military music and British army bands were early adopters of these novelties.

The military music repertoire is given detailed scrutiny: the use of arrangements of fashionable orchestral and operatic repertoire prevailed over the whole period. This suited everyone's needs, not least those of bandmasters who made or tailored the arrangements for their own bands (the instrumentation of the British military band never being completely standardised). Along with brass bands, whose more substantial repertoire was similarly based on transcribed selection from the orchestral and operatic repertoire, military bands played an important role in bringing much of the finest contemporary music to a wide audience, most of whom would never set foot in an opera house. The intersection of band and orchestral music went further than this, as military bandsmen in the late nineteenth century were trained to be double-handed, with many being proficient string players. A marching band such as that of the Royal Artillery would readily morph into a full-size symphony orchestra for concert work.

Herbert and Barlow give particular attention to the nature of the involvement of leading composers in military music. These include Arthur Sullivan (pp. 73–4, 232–3 and 243; his father taught at the Royal Military School of Music) and Edward Elgar (pp. 232–4 and 243; he included bands in a couple of large-scale works but left the details of scoring to others). The interactions between civilian and military music were extensive and complex – not limited to the migration of ex-military musicians into civilian performing, conducting and teaching – and credit is due to the authors for their scrutiny of this aspect.

Oxford University Press is notoriously parsimonious with illustrations, and one has to report that the book's physical presentation is worthy but dull. A fact-filled book such as this inevitably has a few errors and questionable details. Trumpets (p. 26) do not deploy the first five partials of the harmonic series: in military signals they commonly use the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th natural notes, whereas bugles regularly and reliably sound the 2nd to 6th natural notes. So bugle calls and trumpet calls are not always interchangeable without adaptation: in some cases the contours can be similar but the actual notes different. Fifes (p. 36) were hardly monosyllabic: they were capable of legato and phrasing; it was the fact that they were customarily played in the first overblown octave that made them both effective in being heard at a distance and ill suited to playing in ensemble with oboes and bassoons. The well-known march Crown Imperial (p. 233) was composed by William Walton in 1937, thus falling outside the long nineteenth century. There was no such person as Keith Prowse (p. 233), the distributing and publishing firm being Keith, Prowse & Co. established by William Keith and Robert Prowse in the 1780s.

These disputed details are indeed minor, and hardly detract from the great merits of the book: clear aims, diligence in uncovering and exploiting primary resources, and a well-structured presentation, altogether very readable as well as being a fine work of reference.