Royal Military School of Music


The Royal Military School of Music trains musicians for the British Army's twenty-two bands, as part of the Corps of Army Music. It is based at Kneller Hall, in Twickenham, west London; however, the Ministry of Defence has recently indicated that the site will be sold, and the school moved elsewhere.

History

The RMSM was established in 1857 at the instigation of Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, who was Queen Victoria's cousin and commander-in-chief of the army. In 1854, during the Crimean War, he attended a parade in Scutari, Turkey to celebrate the Queen's birthday, where approximately 20 British Army bands on parade were required to combine in a performance of the national anthem. The custom at this time was for regiments to hire civilian bandmasters, each of whom had free rein in their band's instrumentation and arrangements. With each band playing God Save the Queen simultaneously in different instrumentations, pitches, arrangements and key signatures, the result was an embarrassing and humiliating cacophony. The Duke decided there should be some standardisation in army music, and so formed the RMSM, with Henry Schallehn as commandant. For several years in the late 19th century, the commandant was Colonel T. B. Shaw-Hellier, owner of the Hellier Stradivarius.

Present day

The RMSM has spent a century and a half at Kneller Hall, which was the country house of the court painter Sir Godfrey Kneller and was rebuilt after a fire in 1848.
The school is open to men and women whose commitment to the army is for a minimum of four years. The Corps of Army Music, the largest employer of musicians in the United Kingdom, promotes itself to potential recruits as an opportunity to earn a salary as a musician. The school's curriculum is not limited to martial music, but includes jazz, swing, middle-of-the-road, popular, baroque, mainstream symphonic and operatic music.

Museum of Army Music

The Museum of Army Music at Kneller Hall has a collection of instruments, music, banners, medals, model bands, documents, prints, manuscripts, paintings and uniforms illustrating the history of military music. It is open to the public Wednesday afternoons and by appointment.

Notable alumni