[Dixielandjazz] Dixielandjazz Digest, Vol 57, Issue 38

[eupher dude]

Message: 7
Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2007 16:47:06 -0500
From: "philwilking" 
If you want a band to play marches for the troops, and you have a lot of 
horses and mules in the parade (officers, wagons, and artillery), then you 
need to put the band in front to let them concentrate on the music instead 
of the footing. But if the instruments project forward, the men will not 
hear them, therefore the "over-the-shoulder" horns. I know this is 
plausible, but is it the truth?

It is the absolute truth.  I don't know where the tradition of musicians in 
the front began, but the British carried it to the extreme with the fifes and
drums.  The other, more important reason (honestly, more important than watching 
for land mines from the horses) was to warn the soldiers when the enemy was in 
shooting range.  If a musician got shot, they need to watch out.  That is no joke,
ask any Civil War re-enacter.  

 
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