Early American Bands

Bands in the American Revolution and in the early years of the United States served mainly military and civic purposes.


Revolutionary Era Bands

Today most people associate the American Revolution with only one kind of music ensemble: fifes and drums. Fifes were small transverse flutes with six to eight finger holes and no keys. The fife and drum corps provided music for everyday military activities in the American Continental Army.

However, some regiments also had ensembles known at the time as "Bands of Musick." A band of music typically had six to eight musicians. The instruments usually consisted of two clarinets and/or two oboes, one or two horns or trumpets, and one or two bassoons. There were no drums, because drummers and fifers traditionally formed the fife and drum corps, a separate group of musicians.

Each band of music had an important role in military life during the American Revolution. It played music for ceremonies, such as parades and reviews, and for evening entertainments.

Documentary evidence shows that such bands of music were highly valued by American military leaders. For example, a journal by Elijah Fisher records that at Valley Forge in 1778 Gen. George Washington greeted Gen. Charles Lee with both a fife and drum corps and a band of music.

In a 1781 request for supplies, Gen. Alexander Spotswood asked for two hundred pairs of boots along with two French horns, four clarinets, one bassoon, and one oboe. The musical instruments, he wrote, were "necessary to the harmony and discipline of the corps" (Bryant, p. 7).

In a 1782 letter to General Washington, Col. Christopher Febiger wrote of his band: "Their Music had more Influence on the minds and Motions of the Militia last summer in this State than would the Oratory of a Cicero; and, in the recruiting Business, they are at least as useful as a well spoken recruiting Serjt." (Bryant, pp. 7-8).


Militia and Town Bands