WAR MUSIC 197 



This march-tune comes in finely in Rudyard 

 KipUng's story of the Drums of the Fore and Aft. 

 An untried British regiment is cut up by Afghans 

 and retires in a helter-skelter rush, leaving behind 

 two boys of the Band, who strike up the "British 

 Grenadiers" with the solitary squeak of a fife and 

 the despairing roll of a drum. The answer comes 

 in a great cheer from the Highlanders and Gurkas 

 waiting on the heights, and in a charge that turns 

 defeat into victory. I wish that Kipling had 

 allowed the boys to survive, but the tragedy of 

 their death is after all the effective close. To 

 return to marching-tunes. For average people 

 all that is needed is a well marked rhythm : "John 

 Brown's body," etc., is an admirable march, 

 though taken from its context of tramping soldiers 

 it is hardly a fine tune. But so far as words are con- 

 cerned it must be allowed that the refrain, "His 

 soul goes marching along," is in the right mood for a 

 war song. 



It may be objected that if all I want is rhythm 

 I should be satisfied with instruments of 'percussion 

 alone. To this I reply that the effect of drums is 

 splendidly martial. I was at Aix at the outbreak of 

 the war, and every day the regiment quartered 

 there used to march out to the music of drums, and 

 of bugles which played simple tunes on the common 

 chord. When the buglers were out of breath, the 

 drums thundered on with magnificent fire, until 

 once more the simple and spirited fanfare came in 

 with its brave out-of-doors flavour— a romantic 

 dash of the hunting song, and yet with something of 

 the seriousness of battle. And indeed this is the 



