A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/King's Band of Music, The

KING'S BAND OF MUSIC, THE. The custom of the kings of England to retain as part of their household a band of musicians, more or less numerous, is very ancient. We learn that Edward IV. had 13 minstrels, 'whereof some be trompets, some with shalmes and smalle pypes.' Henry VIII.'s band in 1526 consisted of 15 trumpets, 3 lutes, 3 rebecks, 3 taborets, a harp, 2 viols, 10 sackbuts, a fife, and 4 drumslades. In 1530 his band was composed of 16 trumpets, 4 lutes, 3 rebecks, 3 taborets, a harp, 2 viols, 9 sackbuts, 2 drumslades, 3 minstrels, and a player on the virginals. Edward VI. in 1548 retained 8 minstrels, a player on the virginals, 2 lutes, a harper, a bagpiper, a drumslade, a rebeck, 7 viols, 4 sackbuts, a Welsh minstrel, and a flute player. Elizabeth's band in 1581 included trumpets, violins, flutes, and sackbuts, besides musicians whose instruments are not specified; and 6 years later it consisted of 16 trumpets, lutes, harps, a bagpipe, 9 minstrels, 2 rebecks, 6 sackbuts, 8 viols, and 3 players on the virginals. Charles I. in 1625 had in his pay 8 performers on the hautboys and sackbuts, 6 flutes, 6 recorders, 11 violins, 6 lutes, 4 viols, 1 harp, and 15 'musicians for the lute and voice,' exclusive of trumpeters, drummers, and fifers, Nicholas Laniere being master of the band; and in 1641 his band included 14 violins, 19 wind instruments, and 25 'musicians for the waytes,' besides a serjeant trumpeter and 18 trumpeters. Charles II. in 1660 established, in imitation of Louis XIV. a band of 24 performers on violins, tenors and basses, popularly known as the 'four and twenty fiddlers.' This band not only played while the king was at meals, but was even introduced into the royal chapel, anthems being composed with symphonies and ritornels between the vocal movements expressly for them. After the death of Charles the band was kept up, but somewhat changed in its composition; it no longer consisted exclusively of stringed instruments, but some of its members performed on wind instruments. It is now constituted so as to meet the requirements of modern music, and consists of thirty members. Formerly, besides its ordinary duties it was employed, together with the gentlemen and children of the Chapel Royal, in the performance of the odes annually composed for the king's birth-day and New Year's day; but since the discontinuance of the production of such odes, its duties have been reduced to attendance on royal weddings and baptisms, and other state occasions. The following is the succession of the 'Masters of the Musick':—Davis Mell and George Hudson, 1660; Thomas Baltzar, 1661 (?); John Banister, 1663; Thomas Purcell, 1672; Dr. Nicholas Staggins, 1682; John Eccles, 1705; Dr. Maurice Greene, 1735 (?); Dr. William Boyce, 1755; John Stanley, 1779; Sir William Parsons, 1786; William Shield, 1817; Christian Kramer, 1829; François Cramer, 1834; George Frederick Anderson, 1848; William George Cusins, 1870. Robert Cambert and Louis Grabut are sometimes said to have held the office of Master of the Musick, but this is doubtful.

[ W. H. H. ]