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Corps of Drums
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A Corps of Drums is a type of military band, which originated in European armies in the 16th century. The main instruments of a Corps of Drums are the drum and the flute or fife. Unlike full military marching bands, Corps of Drums exists within an infantry battalion. A Drum major is the leader of a Corps of Drums. All Corps of Drums soldiers are called drummers (shortened to 'dmr') regardless of the instrument played, in a similar fashion to soldiers from the Royal Engineers being referred to as sappers.
British army maintains a Corps of Drums in each infantry battalion except for Scottish and Irish battalions, which have Pipes and Drums.
Unlike army musicians who form bands and will usually be limited to medical orderly duties in wartime, Corps of Drums drummers are principally fully trained infantry soldiers, with the recruitment into the Corps of Drums coming after training.
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Encyclopedia
A Corps of Drums is a type of military band, which originated in European armies in the 16th century. The main instruments of a Corps of Drums are the drum and the flute or fife. Unlike full military marching bands, Corps of Drums exists within an infantry battalion. A Drum major is the leader of a Corps of Drums. All Corps of Drums soldiers are called drummers (shortened to 'dmr') regardless of the instrument played, in a similar fashion to soldiers from the Royal Engineers being referred to as sappers.
British Army
The British army maintains a Corps of Drums in each infantry battalion except for Scottish and Irish battalions, which have Pipes and Drums.
Unlike army musicians who form bands and will usually be limited to medical orderly duties in wartime, Corps of Drums drummers are principally fully trained infantry soldiers, with the recruitment into the Corps of Drums coming after training. A Corps of Drums will deploy with the rest of the battalion, and will often form specialist platoons such as assault pioneers, supporting fire or force protection.
Historically, the drum was used to convey orders during a battle, as such the Corps of Drums was a more integrated feature of an infantry battalion. Later on when the bugle was adopted to convey orders, drummers were given bugles, but maintained their drums and flutes.
History
It is known that by the early 1500s, each Company of infantry soldiers would have a single drummer and a single fife player. These two musicians would march at the head of the company, and when not providing uplifting marching tunes, they would be used by the company commander to convey orders, on and off the field of battle. The drummers would be more aptly described as signallers than musicians, as shouted orders were very hard to hear over the din of battle. Later, a bugle would become the preferred means of communication on the battlefield, and the drummers adapted, training on bugles and carrying them in battle, but retaining the drum and the title of drummer.
As time went on, the individual drummers and fife players in each company would be organised at battalion level, they retained their role in each company in battle, but would form one body of men at the head of a battalion on the march. It was necessary to appoint a Drum Major (the equivalent of a Sergeant Major, for the drummers) to be in charge of the drummers and to organise training in the emerging discipline of military drumming. The 'Corps of Drums' would group together when not on duty with each company, and carry out various roles within the battalion, such as administering military justice and ensuring soldier's billets are secured, thus, the Corps of Drums became attached to the battalion HQ and was organised at battalion level, as opposed to individual company level.
Eventually, as the use of musical instrument on the battlefield diminished, Corps of Drums looked to fill specialist roles within the battalion whilst still retaining their original role for ceremonial practices, these have included drummers being trained as signals specialists, machine gun specialists, liaison platoons, assault pioneers and more recently force protection. Drummers are today still recruited from soldiers who are already trained infantry soldiers,
Instruments
The main instrument of a Corps of Drums is the Side drum. These were originally a rope-tension design with wide wooden hoops and a wooden shell and an animal skin head. In the British Army, this model has been continuously upgraded, with the inclusion of snares, more modern metal rod-tension and plastic heads. The current British Army 97s pattern side drum also has nylon hoops.
The side drum was increasingly decorated throughout the 19th century, until it bore the fully embellished regimental colours of the battalion, including its battle honours. As such a regiments drums are often afforded respect.
The second instrument of a Corps of Drums was originally the fife, but has been replaced in the modern era by a flute with keys in the British Army. There is a wide variety of flutes used by Corps of Drums ranging in pitch. The fife and later the flute has been favoured as a war-like instrument due to its shrill pitch and thus the ability to be heard above the noise of battle. Many tunes such as The British Grenadiers are traditionally played by military flutes.
The bugle replaced the drum mid-way through the 19th century as the most common means of communication on the battlefield. These duties were carried out by the battalion's Corps of Drums, and as such all drummers now carry a bugle.
As the musical role of a Corps of Drums became more ceremonial in the 19th and 20th centuries, more instruments were added to make the Corps of Drums more musically complete. A modern Corps of Drums will thus have a rank of percussion instruments consisting of a bass drum, tenor drums and cymbals.
Uniform
Drummers originally wore distinct uniforms so as to stand out on the battlefield. This usually consists of lace, used liberally all over the uniform, in varying patterns. Many early patterns consisted of a "Christmas Tree" pattern in which the chest was covered in horizontal lace decreasing in width downwards, and chevrons of lace down each sleeve. The modern infantry pattern in the British Army is of 'crown-and-inch' lace sewn over the seams down the sleeves, around the collar, and over the seams on the back of the tunic. The crown-and-inch lace itself is about half an inch thick with a repeating crown pattern. The Guards Divisions drummers have the old style "Christmas tree" pattern, with fleur-de-lis instead of crowns.
Whilst Corps of Drums in the British Army often parade in combat uniforms and other forms of dress, they will usually parade in the full dress uniform as above, and as such are one of the few formations which regularly wear full dress in the British Army.
In some regiments, it has become custom for the percussion rank to wear leopard skins over their uniform. This has the dual purpose of protecting the uniform (cymbals have to be muffled against the chest, and therefore would leave vertical marks on a bare tunic) and protecting the instruments themselves (the bass drum can be scratched by uniform buttons). Modern "leopard skins" are made from synthetic fur. Other regiments opt for a simple leather or cloth apron.
Drummers have traditionally been armed with "drummers swords", a shortsword with a simple brass hilt bearing the Royal Cypher. The practice of wearing swords has been discontinued by some regiments, though many still do, whilst some use an SA80 bayonet as a modern alternative.
The Corps of Drums of the Royal Logistics Corps
The Royal Logistics Corps also maintains a 'Corps of Drums', in the form of several side drummers and is made up of Royal Logistic Corps soldiers who serve a short tour as drummers before returning to a field unit. This is not a conventional Corps of Drums, however, as it has no flautists only drums and is not in an infantry battalion and comes under the command of the Royal Logistics Corps band. These drummers stem from drummers placed on the Royal Wagon train in 1799.
Royal Marines Bands are led by 'buglers', who are trained on the side drum and the bugle, this section of the band is referred to as the Corps of Drums. Whilst similar to Army Corps of Drums, these are Royal Marines musicians, and not the infantry soldiers that Army drummers are.
These 'buglers' have a similar history to Army 'drummers' in that they were used to convey orders on a ship, and would then mass onshore into 'Corps of Drums', though they were still expected to work as individuals.
Civilian and Cadet Corps
As well as Army Corps of Drums, in the United Kingdom there are also cadet and civilian Corps who base their music on the military tradition.
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