CHRONOLOGY OF CHOREOGRAPHED BAND MARCHING

1865 All regimental bands are discharged after the Civil War by an act of Congress, leading to a more passive role of band performances in outdoor concerts (The Marching Band in Contemporary Music Education).

1879 The Salvation Army marches uniformed bands (Journal of American Culture 9(3).

1907 The Purdue "All American Marching Band" becomes the first band to break military rank to form a letter on the football field - a block "P" (The Marching Band in Contemporary Music Education).

1910 Bands are "deemed necessary as an accompaniment to the drill [of public schools offering military training]" (Edward Asmus, University of Utah).

1912 A.R. McAllister creates the first secondary school band, and finds the marching band "a veritable panacea for teaching personal training, posture, rhythm, teamwork, precision, coordination of mind and muscle, organization, spirit and pride."

1920 Bands begin to replace orchestras in performing functions withing schools due to the "tastes of an expanding middle class" (Edward Asmus, University of Utah).

1926 The Schools Band [parade] Contest of America "awakens communities’ interest to the cause of public music education and the necessity for its unquestioned support" (Journal of Research in Music Education 17(2).

1928 "The basic difference between a band and any other musical organization lies in the fact that the former is an organized group of marching musicians. ...There is no limit to the variety of band formations and evolutions appropriate for football games...single letters, or whole words, or other desired formations" (Reynolds).

1935 Most progressive schools in the United States are cited as having bands (Journal of Research in Music Education 17(2).

1937 "The band is distinctive as a musical unit in that it can play while marching" (Dvorak).

1941 Formation of the College Band Directors National Association. "We affirm our faith in and our devotion to the College Band, which, as a serious and distinctive medium of musical expression, may be of vital service and importance to its members, its institution, and its art" (CBDNA Declaration of Principles).

1941 "Those who advocate giving physical education credit for marching in the school band cannot state a single valid argument in its favor. ...To give credit in physical education for marching in the band is like giving credit in music for whistling a tune on your way to the tennis court" (The Journal of Health and Physical Education 12(1).

1943 The U.S. War Department "does not recommend that military drill take the place of physical education in the schools and colleges during this war period," due to sports-favored demands for fitness and technological developments in modern war. "...the usual clamor for military drill was conspicuously muffled" (History of Education Quarterly 19(4).

1945 "Football bands" use field markings as reference points, shortening the 30-inch military step to 22 and one-half inches (The Instrumentalist 25(1).

1950 Though outscored in melodic and harmonic areas, band musicians (woodwind, brass and percussion) receive the top three scores (according to instrument type averages) in rhythmic portions of the Aliferis Music Achievement Test administered to colleges, universities and conservatories across the country (Journal of Research in Music Education 5(1).

1950 Frederick Fennell creates the Eastman Wind Ensemble, a smaller, more refined development of the concert band. "The dominant influence of the marching band in schools was balanced in the last half of the century by the wind ensemble" (Edward Asmus, University of Utah).

1954 "The marching band has potentialities for developing into a genuine artistic medium. Actual examples to support this view could be found in the work of our best directors, though many of our directors seem unaware of it" (Music Educators Journal 41(1).

1958 "What is your answer to the comment: ‘The trouble with your football band is that no one cares whether you play fine-sounding must; the band must look sharp, execute maneuvers with precision, and entertain the crowd?’ True: 39 percent, Untrue: 61 percent. What nonmusical values do they gain from this participation? Exercise: 9 percent, Physical coordination: 8 percent" (College band director’s survey, Arthur Williams).

1960 Approximately 50,000 school and college bands are in existence in the United States, with an estimated 3 million musicians (Edward Asmus, University of Utah).

1960 Seventeen percent of the colleges had a marching band director separate from the director of the concert band.... Seventy percent of the directors listed a "mixture of theme and precision" as the most recent type of show they are using in their football performances; 25 percent preferred "central theme" only; and only 5 percent did nothing but precision drill. However, 18 percent of them felt "precision drill" makes the best style of show.... Ninety percent of all the bands...used [22 and one-half inch step]. The remaining 10 percent used the thirty-inch step, or six to five; nearly all of them marched a cadence of 132 or less. ...Thirty-seven percent of the bands used...a high marching step, 31.5 percent used a normal military-style step, and 31.5 percent favored variety...." (College band director’s survey, William Cole).

1962 "Ninety-eight percent of the CBDNA membership believes marching bands will survive to 1975. But 66 percent of the membership sees no need for the marching band’s existence..." (College Band Directors National Association survey, Manley Whitcomb).

1964 "Positive contributions: (1) The marching band serves as a public relations agency.... (2) The marching band is considered a necessity in the training of music education students. Negative considerations: (1) The marching band lacks legitimacy as an academic activity. (2) Playing outdoors while performing intricate maneuvers causes performances to be crude by musical standards" (Music School Deans, Department Heads and Chairmen of Music Department survey, William Campbell).

1968 50,000 bands are estimated within elementary, junior and senior high schools (Journal of Research in Music Education 17(2).

1969 "The marching band is an art in itself, combining several disciplines, and it deserves respect for its own values in the same way that other part-musical art-forms (including ballet and opera) are respected. ...the concert band originally developed out of the marching organization" (Supervising the Successful School Music Program).

1970 "It has been estimated that more than two million students are participating in bands in the United States at the secondary level alone" (Music Educators Journal).

1971 Drum Corps International is formed.

1972 "...the marching band and its place in the curriculum are fated to slowly fade out of existence, and rightfully so. Students are more concerned with serious social involvement than...the inanities of college spirit...." (Acton Ostling, Jr.).

1973 Drum and bugle corps contests become the third largest outdoor crowd drawing events in the United States, following baseball and football.

1976 The Drum Corps International World Championships are televised with a Nielson rating of approximately 8 million viewers.

1990 84% of school marching bands use drum corps style marching (Instrumentalist).

1992 "Today, band as a subject is offered in more schools than any other subject, save English, being available in 93 percent of American high schools" (A History of Music Education in the United States).

1994 62% of band directors surveyed report using the same halftime show for the entire season, up 2% since 1990. Marching bands perform at 12.5 football game, contest and parade events - up 1.5 events since 1990 (Instrumentalist 49(2).

1995 Mike Miller, Western Division President of The Music Educators National Conference, suggests the way to implement 1994 National Standards for Music Education for the marching band is to "get rid of it" (Utah Music Educators Association annual convention).

QUOTES:

"The primary purpose of the military band was to march into battle or perform for those who were marching. The first college bands were small military organizations supported by the military departments in the land-grant institutions" (A History of Music Education in the United States).

"The source of musical rhythm is in the natural locomotor rhythms of the human body" (Music Educators Journal 74(3).

"A march speaks to a fundamental rhythm in the human organization and is answered. A march stimulates every centre of vitality, wakens imagination..." (John Philip Sousa).

"Marching and marching drills develop the entire musculature of the body and assists in building endurance and stamina. It also develops mental alertness" (Marching and Marching Drills).

"No system of physical education in 19th century America, however, came as close to being universally adopted in the nation’s public schools as did the controversial but ardently argued and defended practice of military drill" (Canadian Journal of History of Sport 18(2).