Cavalry Trumpeters and Kettledrummers

Cavalry Trumpeters and Kettledrummers is the first history of how horse-mounted musicians shaped military ceremony, communication, and culture from the Middle Ages into the 20th century. Blending musicology, military history, and cultural studies, author Bruce P. Gleason draws on archival sources, visual materials, and military records from across Europe and beyond to trace how these mounted musicians evolved from military signalers to symbols of prestige, discipline, and power. Beginning with the use of trumpeters and kettledrummers in Middle Eastern armies during the Crusades, Gleason details how these traditions entered European military practice through intercultural encounters and exchange, eventually expanding to include other instruments and resulting in fanfare ensembles of trumpets and horns, mounted brass ensembles, and larger mounted bands that combined woodwinds, brass, and percussion. Gleason examines their operational roles, ceremonial functions, and influence on both military and civilian musical traditions. Richly illustrated and grounded in meticulous research, Cavalry Trumpeters and Kettledrummers tells the story of how mounted military music became one of the most striking and enduring traditions in Western culture, revealing a world where music, ceremony, and warfare were deeply connected.