Welsh Guards Band
Encyclopedia
The Band of the Welsh Guards is the youngest of the five bands in the Foot Guards Regiment
s in the Household Division
which primarily guards the British monarch
.
as Chemical Decontamination
Assistants, Medics and Drivers
.
The band is based at Wellington barracks in St James's London
.
is the Rising of the Lark.
The Regimental Slow March is Men of Harlech
, although similarly to the Grenadier Guards they may march to the British Grenadiers Quick March, which is often played by the Grenadier Guards Band
as it is the Regimental Quick March of the Grenadier Guards
.
.
Because the Welsh Guards Band was formed hundreds of years after military music for ceremonial purpose first arose, high standards had already been set by other Guards ensemble
s. They first publicly performed proving their worth on March 1, 1916, when they Mounted the King's Guard
.
The Welsh Guards Band started its touring career in 1917, early after its formation. In recent years tours have taken the band to Europe
an countries such as Belgium
and Spain
; North America, with tours to the United States
and Canada
, and a recent tour to Egypt
took the band to northern Africa. The band's first commissioned Bandmaster
; Lieutenant Harris; was gazette
d on March 1, 1919, to the rank of Lieutenant
, after serving with the band in his original position for nearly four years. He remained linked with the band until his retirement.
By 1948 there was a new bandmaster, Leslie Statham
who was famed for his compositional prowess by both his real name, and his assumed name Arnold Steck. Under his leadership the band played extensively in Canada to large numbers of people, possibly well over one million, whilst performing hundreds of different items. It is thought that this was off the back of the fact that the Bandmaster had performed at venues visited by the band before as a soloist from the Army School of Music Band, at Kneller Hall
. Busy Canadian touring was the start of a long tradition of visiting other countries to play. The most notable tour after this one however, was in 1965, where they visited Milan
, to play at "British Week", and were accompanied by the "Pipes, Drums and Dancers" of the Scots Guards
for a long tour to America two years later.
The band was honoured with playing at the Investiture
of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales
.
In the early 1970s, at the Band's pinnacle of success so far, in fields such as record contracts and appearances at sporting events, Major Desmond Walker died suddenly only weeks before the Band's planned departure for another Canadian and USA tour. The Tour went ahead as a new Director of Music was hastily appointed in the form of Captain Derek Taylor.
During the 1980s the band continued to tour and to build on its successes, touring to Seattle, Australia
, Japan
, and Paris
amongst other places. In 1990, the Welsh Guards Band had its first ever Director of Music, to be promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel who two years later gained an MBE, and retired in 1993, as the last National Serviceman in Army Music.
The Current Director of Music was appointed to the Welsh Guards after serving with a number of other bands in 2005 and has earnt the Alf Young Memorial Prize for Best Church Service, whilst on his Student Bandmasters' Course.
There are several ensembles within the band of the Welsh Guards:
plays regularly for occasions and events. Some of these events that are most famous are listed below, although this is not a comprehensive list.
The band also performs at other non-military events.
Regiment
A regiment is a major tactical military unit, composed of variable numbers of batteries, squadrons or battalions, commanded by a colonel or lieutenant colonel...
s in the Household Division
Household Division
Household Division is a term used principally in the Commonwealth of Nations to describe a country’s most elite or historically senior military units, or those military units that provide ceremonial or protective functions associated directly with the head of state.-Historical Development:In...
which primarily guards the British monarch
Monarchy of the United Kingdom
The monarchy of the United Kingdom is the constitutional monarchy of the United Kingdom and its overseas territories. The present monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, has reigned since 6 February 1952. She and her immediate family undertake various official, ceremonial and representational duties...
.
Band membership duties
Musicians currently in the band have secondary roles in the British ArmyBritish Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
as Chemical Decontamination
Decontamination
Decontamination is the process of cleansing the human body to remove contamination by hazardous materials including chemicals, radioactive substances, and infectious material...
Assistants, Medics and Drivers
Driver (rank)
Driver was a military rank used in the British Army and the armies of other Commonwealth countries. It was equivalent to the rank of Private....
.
The band is based at Wellington barracks in St James's London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
Regimental Marches
The Regimental Quick MarchMarch (music)
A march, as a musical genre, is a piece of music with a strong regular rhythm which in origin was expressly written for marching to and most frequently performed by a military band. In mood, marches range from the moving death march in Wagner's Götterdämmerung to the brisk military marches of John...
is the Rising of the Lark.
The Regimental Slow March is Men of Harlech
Men of Harlech
"Men of Harlech" or "The March of the Men of Harlech" is a song and military march which is traditionally said to describe events during the seven year long siege of Harlech Castle between 1461 and 1468. Commanded by Constable Dafydd ap Ieuan, the garrison held out in what is the longest known...
, although similarly to the Grenadier Guards they may march to the British Grenadiers Quick March, which is often played by the Grenadier Guards Band
Grenadier Guards Band
The Band of the Grenadier Guards is the oldest of all of the bands in the British Army, with a history dating back over three hundred & twenty five years.- History :In 1685 Charles II allowed the band to maintain 12 Hautbois players...
as it is the Regimental Quick March of the Grenadier Guards
Grenadier Guards
The Grenadier Guards is an infantry regiment of the British Army. It is the most senior regiment of the Guards Division and, as such, is the most senior regiment of infantry. It is not, however, the most senior regiment of the Army, this position being attributed to the Life Guards...
.
History
The Welsh Guards Band was formed in 1915, the same year as the regiment. Unlike other Guards Bands such as that of the Grenadier Guards, the band consisted of 45 people, including a Warrant Officer at the time of its inception, with the instruments having been bought by funds provided by the City of CardiffCardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
.
Because the Welsh Guards Band was formed hundreds of years after military music for ceremonial purpose first arose, high standards had already been set by other Guards ensemble
Musical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...
s. They first publicly performed proving their worth on March 1, 1916, when they Mounted the King's Guard
Guard Mounting
Guard Mounting, or Changing the Guard , refers to a formal ceremony in which sentries providing ceremonial guard duties at important institutions are relieved by a new batch of sentries...
.
The Welsh Guards Band started its touring career in 1917, early after its formation. In recent years tours have taken the band to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an countries such as Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
and Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
; North America, with tours to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, and a recent tour to Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
took the band to northern Africa. The band's first commissioned Bandmaster
Bandmaster
A bandmaster is the leader and conductor of a band, usually a military band, brass band or a marching band.-British Armed Forces:In the British Armed Forces, a Bandmaster is always a Warrant Officer Class 1 . A commissioned officer who leads a band is known as the Director of Music...
; Lieutenant Harris; was gazette
Gazette
A gazette is a public journal, a newspaper of record, or simply a newspaper.In English- and French-speaking countries, newspaper publishers have applied the name Gazette since the 17th century; today, numerous weekly and daily newspapers bear the name The Gazette.Gazette is a loanword from the...
d on March 1, 1919, to the rank of Lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
, after serving with the band in his original position for nearly four years. He remained linked with the band until his retirement.
By 1948 there was a new bandmaster, Leslie Statham
Leslie Statham
Leslie Statham was born in Solihull, England on 18 December 1905 and died on 28 April 1974. He was an arranger and composer...
who was famed for his compositional prowess by both his real name, and his assumed name Arnold Steck. Under his leadership the band played extensively in Canada to large numbers of people, possibly well over one million, whilst performing hundreds of different items. It is thought that this was off the back of the fact that the Bandmaster had performed at venues visited by the band before as a soloist from the Army School of Music Band, at Kneller Hall
Kneller Hall
Kneller Hall is a stately home in the Twickenham area of west London, and takes its name from Sir Godfrey Kneller, court painter to British monarchs from Charles II to George I...
. Busy Canadian touring was the start of a long tradition of visiting other countries to play. The most notable tour after this one however, was in 1965, where they visited Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, to play at "British Week", and were accompanied by the "Pipes, Drums and Dancers" of the Scots Guards
Scots Guards
The Scots Guards is a regiment of the Guards Division of the British Army, whose origins lie in the personal bodyguard of King Charles I of England and Scotland...
for a long tour to America two years later.
The band was honoured with playing at the Investiture
Investiture
Investiture, from the Latin is a rather general term for the formal installation of an incumbent...
of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms...
.
In the early 1970s, at the Band's pinnacle of success so far, in fields such as record contracts and appearances at sporting events, Major Desmond Walker died suddenly only weeks before the Band's planned departure for another Canadian and USA tour. The Tour went ahead as a new Director of Music was hastily appointed in the form of Captain Derek Taylor.
During the 1980s the band continued to tour and to build on its successes, touring to Seattle, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, and Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
amongst other places. In 1990, the Welsh Guards Band had its first ever Director of Music, to be promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel who two years later gained an MBE, and retired in 1993, as the last National Serviceman in Army Music.
The Current Director of Music was appointed to the Welsh Guards after serving with a number of other bands in 2005 and has earnt the Alf Young Memorial Prize for Best Church Service, whilst on his Student Bandmasters' Course.
Ensembles
- Concert BandConcert bandA concert band, also called wind band, symphonic band, symphonic winds, wind orchestra, wind symphony, wind ensemble, or symphonic wind ensemble, is a performing ensemble consisting of several members of the woodwind instrument family, brass instrument family, and percussion instrument family.A...
- Marching BandMarching bandMarching band is a physical activity in which a group of instrumental musicians generally perform outdoors and incorporate some type of marching with their musical performance. Instrumentation typically includes brass, woodwinds, and percussion instruments...
- Dance Band
- Fanfare Team
- Salon OrchestraOrchestraAn orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
Events
The band of the Welsh GuardsWelsh Guards
The Welsh Guards is an infantry regiment of the British Army, part of the Guards Division.-Creation :The Welsh Guards came into existence on 26 February 1915 by Royal Warrant of His Majesty King George V in order to include Wales in the national component to the Foot Guards, "..though the order...
plays regularly for occasions and events. Some of these events that are most famous are listed below, although this is not a comprehensive list.
- Changing of the GuardGuard MountingGuard Mounting, or Changing the Guard , refers to a formal ceremony in which sentries providing ceremonial guard duties at important institutions are relieved by a new batch of sentries...
- The Festival of RemembranceRemembrance DayRemembrance Day is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth countries since the end of World War I to remember the members of their armed forces who have died in the line of duty. This day, or alternative dates, are also recognized as special days for war remembrances in many non-Commonwealth...
- Trooping the ColourTrooping the ColourTrooping the Colour is a ceremony performed by regiments of the British and the Commonwealth armies. It has been a tradition of British infantry regiments since the 17th century, although the roots go back much earlier. On battlefields, a regiment's colours, or flags, were used as rallying points...
- Beating the RetreatBeating RetreatBeating Retreat is a military ceremony dating back to 16th century England and was first used in order to recall nearby patrolling units to their castle.-History:...
The band also performs at other non-military events.
Key personnel
- Director of Music: Major Stephen Barnwell
- Bandmaster: WO1 Evin Frost
- Band Sergeant Major: WO2 Stephen Charles
See also
- Coldstream Guards BandColdstream Guards BandThe Band of the Coldstream Guards is one of the oldest and best known bands in the British Army, having been officially formed on 16 May 1785 under the command of Major C F Eley, reflecting the fact that the Coldstream Guards regiment is the oldest of the guards regiments...
- Grenadier Guards BandGrenadier Guards BandThe Band of the Grenadier Guards is the oldest of all of the bands in the British Army, with a history dating back over three hundred & twenty five years.- History :In 1685 Charles II allowed the band to maintain 12 Hautbois players...
- Irish Guards BandIrish Guards BandThe Band of the Irish Guards is one of five bands in the Foot Guards Regiments in the Household Division whose main role is to guard the British monarch...
- Band of the Scots Guards
- Household DivisionHousehold DivisionHousehold Division is a term used principally in the Commonwealth of Nations to describe a country’s most elite or historically senior military units, or those military units that provide ceremonial or protective functions associated directly with the head of state.-Historical Development:In...