Corps of Drums - Netherlands and In Indonesia

Netherlands and In Indonesia

Drum bands are the Dutch and Indonesian terms for the corps of drums, but in the Netherlands they are also called as drumfanfares and klaroenkorps (drum and lyre bands, fanfare bands and drum and brass bands) and in Indonesia as marching bands.

In the Netherlands, the basic instrumentation is

• Snare drums
• Bass drums
• Multiple and single tenor drums
• Cymbals
• Glockenspiels
• Flutes, Fifes
• Bugles

Military drum bands in the armed forces of the Netherlands would have only 2 to 4 of these basic instruments.

Optional or permanent instruments in these bands are flutes and piccolos, bugles, natural horns, valved bugles and brass instruments (soprano bugles and trumpets, mellophones, baritones, sousaphones and contrabass bugles).

These bands are attached to the main marching band, similar to French bands, but also perform as stand alone bands. They are led by a drum major, and can have majorettes and colour guards, the latter now more separated from the band.

In the 1990s however these bands became paramilitary-styled and even adopted the traditions of British military bands of the Guards Division and the Royal Marines, but several of these bands chose the American marching band and drum and bugle corps practice. Some of these bands also adopted woodwind instruments turning them into full-time military marching bands, and almost all drum bands use English voice commands and not Dutch commands and only a few use whistle commands and the mace movements.

In Indonesia, the corps, a military musical heritage from Dutch colonial times, may be treated as military, civil or school marching and show bands, and in some cases as drum and bugle corps, and are either attached to the main marching band or as stand-alone bands, with instrumentation drawn from the following:

• Snare drums
• Bass drums
• Single tenor drums
• Multiple tenor drums
• Cymbals
• Glockenspiels
• Melodicas (in school marching bands)
• Flutes/piccolos (in the Indonesian National Armed Forces)
• Trumpets, cornets and soprano bugles
• Flugelhorns and flugel bugles
• horns, mellophones and horn bugles
• Baritone bugles and marching baritone horns
• Contrabass bugles

They are led by from one to six drum majors and can have a separate director of music (in civil and police bands only), majorettes and colour guards. The drum majors in these bands have a unique use of the mace in order to coordinate the timing and precision of the band like US marching band drum majors do. The Indonesian corps also has dancing bass drummers either wearing uniforms or costumes (such is the case in the corps of drumsof the various Indonesian uniformed organizations, most especially the armed forces and the national police), a unique feature of these corps and are attached to it and a nod to Indonesian cultural traditions. The brass is in C, F or B major unlike US military DBCs, most notably that of the United States Marine Drum and Bugle Corps that use G major brasses and civilian corps in the past, and so too are the glockenspiels being used and the flutes.

Another unique characteristic is that in military and police corps of drums, tenor and bass drummers and contrabass buglers wear combat, duty or everyday uniform (and optionally costumes for the tenor drummers) instead of the full dress uniform while playing, whether in performance, field practice or rehearsals, unlike their British counterparts do. They wear berets as head-dress, unlike the rest of the band, who wear peaked caps, especially the drum majors.