School Marching Bands


Figure 1.--This is an Australian school band in 1932. The band was at the Ashby School in Geelong. It looks to be a marching band, but the boys wear their school uniform, not a special band uniform. Note the school caps.

School marching bands are most associated with America. Both high schools and junior high schools in America almost always have uniformed marching bands. I am not positive yet about the chronology here, but believe that it is a devlopment associated with the immense popularity of march music as popularized by John Philip Souza. Perhaps an even more important was the immense popularity of inter-collegaite sports, especially football in the late 19th century. Thus by the early 20th century had spread to high schools as inter-scholastic sports developed in America. Schools in other countries often have bands, but they are less commonly uniformed marching bands. Often foreign schools, except in Europe, require school uniforms.

Australia

Australian schools were stongly influenced by the British educational system, of course because Australia was a British colony. We note what looks to be a marching band at an Austrlian school in 1932. They did not have fancy military uniforms like am American matching band. Instead they wore the standard school uniform. We know little about how common this was or how the band was used. We do not know, for example, if they were used for inter-scholastic sports events or more like a municipal band. Hopefully our Australian readers will provide some information here.

America

School marching bands are most associated with America. Both high schools and junior high schools in America almost always have uniformed marching bands. We are not positive yet about the chronology here, but it appears to be associated with the Civil War and the large number of boys and youth that served as musicians. Another factor may have been the immense popularity of march music as popularized by John Philip Souza. Perhaps an even more important was the immense popularity of inter-collegaite sports, especially football in the late 19th century. These developments occurred at about the same time as the expansion of the Aerican public school sydtem. Many high schools were founded after the Civil War just as inter-collegiate sports were becoming popular activiies. Thus by the early 20th century the idea of inter-scholastic sports and marching bnds had become well established in high schools throughout America. We notice babds after the turn of the century. They proably existed in the late-19th century, but so far we have only found images of 20th century bands. One of the earliest schools we have found is the Boys' Industrial School, we think in the 1900s.

England

We have noted some boys' marching bands in England during the late 19th and early 20th century. We do not yet, however, know much about them. We do note that some had elaborate, military styled uniforms. Unlike America they do not appear to have been assocaited with schools. Inter-scholastic sports took on a very different form in England than in America. For the most part such sorts events were between private schools. Often intense rivalries developed between schools. The hoopla that accomapnied these games in America, never developed in England. In addition, a much smaller proprtion of British children attended secondary school. Most Brits until after World War II ended their scholastic career with primary school.

France

The French academic program was highly academic and rarely included an important sports program or intra-scholastic games. School bands were unusual.

Italy


Germany

German schools, like French schools, were untilthe NAZI seizure of power, highly academic. As far as we know, German schools rarely included an important sports program or intra-scholastic games. School bands were unusual. During theThird Reich, the after school activities of German children were domnated by the Hitler Youth. Except for drum and bugle corps, this rarely involved instrumental music--although campside and hiking songs were popular.






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Created: November 30, 1998
Last updated: 5:15 PM 5/12/2008