Marching Forward, Looking Backward: Tradition and Change in Australian Military Bands, 1930-1955

Abstract

Almost a million Australians served in World War II. Military bands were, in many ways, the public face of the armed forces, performing in departure and welcome home ceremonies, recruitment drives and to pacify potential enemy sympathisers. Despite this, there has been little research conducted on mid-twentieth century Australian military band history. This thesis is the first study of the lives of Australia’s military musicians before, during and immediately after World War II. The period from 1930 to 1955 saw a marked change in the organisational structure of the Australian military generally and its band services specifically, as they transformed from a largely part-time force, to a fully professional service with long-term career structures for its members. Throughout this time of great change musicians serving in the Australian military were tasked with performing ceremonies aimed at reminding the population, military and civilian alike, of the longstanding traditions and ethos of the military. This thesis explores the dichotomy faced by musicians, working in a constantly modernising organisation like the military, while at the same time maintaining largely unchanging ceremonial performance traditions. In exploring changes and traditions in Australian military banding between 1930 and 1955 I will concentrate on three main fields: non-musical training and duties, music and performance, and organisational change. Using fieldwork interviews with retired veterans and their families, together with archival records and contemporary newspaper reports, this thesis shows a rapidly changing band service. It tells of barely-trained, part-time militiamen who went on to become the last generation of Australian military musicians to see combat; of highly-trained radar operators who became fulltime bandsmen; and of a previously undocumented group of women, welcomed into mainstream bands during wartime, only to be excluded for another 40 years once peace reigned. This period was also one of gradual professionalization for Australia’s military band services. In the 1930s musicians performed other military duties, as stretcher-bearers for example; however, starting in World War II and continuing post-war, musicians were gradually removed from the frontlines to focus solely on their musical skills. I will argue that, although it limited their military duties, this process of specialisation was vital to the survival of Australia’s military bands because as increased modernisation led to increased specialisation for military personnel, the idea of having to focus on two distinct fields, such as music and radar operating, was no longer appropriate. While the mid-twentieth century was a time of great organisational change for Australian military bands, this thesis also demonstrates strong continuity in ceremonial performance. Ceremonial repertoire had often been in use since World War I and much of it is still in use in the present day. Ceremonies such as Remembrance Day are still performed in much the same way today as they were in the period under discussion. Australia’s military musicians may no longer be responsible for keeping up to date with the latest in medicine or radar, but their role as keepers of tradition and ceremony in a constantly modernising military means that they will forever be marching forwards, looking back.