Marching Percussion in the 20Th Century by Lauren Vogel Weiss

3 r e t p a h C Marching percussion in the 20th Century by Lauren Vogel Weiss To many of today’s drummers, marching military where drums were used to awaken and bugle corps contests on a national scale. percussion “began” with the formation of Drum soldiers in the morning, notify them when to By the 1930s, junior drum and bugle corps Corps International in 1972. retire at night and signal maneuvers to the began as a youth activity for the children of the Memories of drum and bugle corps with soldiers in the field in between. World War I veterans. Still sponsored by VFW marching keyboards -- as opposed to Colonial fife and drum corps were an and American Legion posts, these drum corps xylophones and marimbas in the “pit” -- or important part of the American Revolution and were especially strong in the Northeast and even with single tenor drums -- compared to recreations can still be seen today, especially in Midwest. five or six toms mounted on one carrier -- fade Williamsburg and other parts of Virginia and The drum lines of the 1930s and 1940s were as the years pass by. Michigan. relatively large -- an average corps usually And marching percussion is no longer The traditional “drum lines” of modern day marched eight to 10 snare drums (12x15 limited to drum and bugle corps, but has drum and bugle corps date back to early in the inches), several tenor drums (snare drums expanded into its own genre and can be found 21st Century when the Veterans of Foreign without the “snares”), bass drums and cymbals everywhere from high schools to amusement Wars and the American Legion sponsored (usually 14 or 16 inches). parks. [senior] corps for the men returning from As the drills became more open (for their To understand where this ever-changing World War I. Many of them had become time) and the corps started marching more, the medium is going, it is important to know where interested in drumming in the service and drum lines were gradually reduced in size. it has been. continued to play in these corps as a hobby. By the beginning of the 1950s, the standard Marching percussion traces its roots to the Locally-based organizations were extremely instrumentation in these smaller drum sections active in their hometown’s patriotic was three snares, three tenors, two bass drums Portions of this article originally appeared celebrations -- from Fourth of July parades to and a cymbal player. Marching patterns usually in the May, 1998 edition of Modern Drummer. standstill performances on Memorial Day. revolved around squads of three and drum It is reprinted here with the permission of the These exhibitions soon became local sections were rarely larger than nine people. (Of magazine. competitions which eventually became drum course, the horn lines weren’t very large either, 91 st. ann’s loyalaires, Bridgeport, CT (1964). royal lancers, Wyandotte, MI (1968). debonnaires all-girl, Norwood, MA (1966). Photo by Moe Knox. Photo by Moe Knox. Photo by Moe Knox. generally 30-40 players.) the line or in unison. Marty Hurley, an alumni of 1950s and 1960s “In 1966, the pitched bass drums began to drum corps powerhouses Blessed Sacrament be used to augment the brass, so the width of Golden Knights and Hawthorne Caballeros and the drums was increased to 14 inches to a former instructor with the Phantom improve the tone quality,” LeMert added. Regiment during parts of the 1970s, 1980s and During this same time, other attempts to 1990s, recalls that almost every youngster in expand the voicing of the drum line were going New Jersey where he grew up was either a horn on in the East. Gerry Shelmer of the Boston player or a drummer. Crusaders mounted two single-headed bass “Drum corps went on all year round -- it drums horizontally. This new instrument was was a part of your life. It was a social thing to the forerunner of the timp-tom duos and trios. do as well as a musical one. Being in the corps This was mainly used for fills or soloistic was not just competitive -- we had car washes purposes as the idea of musical reinforcement and spaghetti dinners to raise money, too. (both melodic and harmonic) had not yet been “Everything was very localized and there fully developed. were parades almost every weekend.” Besides Soon, professional musicians with degrees the obvious musical instruction, drum corps in percussion -- like McCormick and Shelmer -- taught these young people about dedication, began to combine their drum corps background sacrifice for a common goal and how to get with their schooled musical background for the along with others. best of both worlds; a musical drum line. During this era, most of the drummers were In 1966, the Cavaliers fielded one of the basically taught by rote. “A few could read largest drum sections of that time, consisting of music, but the majority could not -- a far cry four snare drums and four tenor drums, in from today when many members of top drum Gerry Shellmer, percussion instructor for the Boston Crusaders, addition to the rest of the instruments. But, as bolted two bass drums together in 1967 and “invented” multi- and bugle corps are college music majors,” toms. (Photo by Moe Knox) Hurley remembers with a laugh, “Blessed elaborates Hurley. Sacrament went one better and marched a “Even when most of the drummers are This decade also saw the introduction of drum line consisting of five snares, five tenors, required to read music, when you need to make Swiss rudiments into the drummers’ technical two straight bass, two rudimental bass and a part change on the spot in the middle of the repertoire. Although the Swiss are generally three cymbals players. summer, we still teach it to them by rote. It’s credited as being the first nation to use drum “People said you couldn’t put that many beneficial for a drummer to develop both ways, rudiments, the Standard 26 American guys out there who could play together, but, of using his eyes and his ears.” Rudiments are descendants of the British course, we did.” Even with all these changes, Perhaps the most important innovation in rudiments used during the American who could dream of the innovations yet to marching percussion in the 1950s was the Revolution. Now, in addition to flams, drags come over the next 30 years? development of the plastic drum head by Remo and paradiddles, drummers were playing Swiss The experiments with the single-headed Belli in 1957. No longer would drum lines be triplets and pataflaflas. bass drums mounted horizontally led to silenced due to rain -- they could now play in Around 1963, experimentation was being baritone and bass tom combinations, which any weather conditions. done in the Midwest utilizing pitched bass were used to substitute for the timpani voice Throughout the 1960s, drum lines began to drums in an effort to expand the voicing of the (which could not be used on the field yet). grow and expand their instrumentation. One of drum line. Larry McCormick of the Chicago In 1968, the American Legion Uniformed the first “new” instruments introduced to the Cavaliers was one of the first percussion writers Groups Congress allowed timpani in drum and bugle corps activity was the to use the pitched bass drums. competition for the first time and as soon as a rudimental bass drum (not to be confused with In 1965, he tuned them in a G-C-G carrying device was created, marching the regular bass drums which just kept a structure to be used as fills and tag endings. kettledrums began to cover the traditional bass straight beat). Other corps like the Phantom Regiment and timpani parts of the repertoire. Bobby Thompson, one of Marty Hurley’s (instructed at that time by Al LeMert) and the By 1969, the drum section of the Racine most influential teachers, borrowed the idea of Chicago Royal Airs pioneered the use of these Kilties was playing a very melodic arrangement the rudimental bass drum from the old fife and bass drums to reinforce the lower horn voices. of Night Train. Their instrumentation included drum corps. “A rudimental bass drum was a In a 1987 interview with Modern three tenor trios, three bari trios, three bass little smaller,” Hurley explains. “Usually 12x24 Percussionist, LeMert reminisced that “bass trios (14x24, 14x26 and 14x28 inches) along inches which allowed for better articulation. drums were the hot item. Corps were with four snare drums, four pitched bass Played with hard wooden mallets, rudimental marching four to six -- and sometimes more -- drums, four pairs of cymbals and four marching bass drums supported the rhythmic pulse of the bass drums down the sideline to show the world timpani. snare line.” how great they were at playing triplets down In 1971, the last big nationals was sponsored 92 south wind, Baltimore, MD (1977). squires, Watkins Glen, NY (1976). simplex minutemen, Gardner, MA (approx. 1978). Photo by Moe Knox. Photo by Moe Knox. Photo by Moe Knox. by the VFW which saw a new corps from Santa drummers. the 50 yard line, with the keyboards and Clara, CA, called the Vanguard come out of The use of timp-toms and tuned bass drums timpani placed near the front sideline for better nowhere to beat the Troopers. And in 1972, were making the drum lines more melodic. In projection. Drum Corps International was formed to allow 1974, DCI expanded that concept by allowing The 1980s continued to bring change to the the drum and bugle corps activity to expand its two keyboards into the marching ensemble -- a drum line.

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