Brass Bands Were Urban Street Music – The Working Class Culture of the Early Salvation Army

The use of brass bands by the early Salvation Army became an iconic part of its identity and public image. It is commonly known that the use of brass bands slowly developed in the Army in response to its need to have sufficient volume of music to be able to draw attention and cut through the noise of the busy streets in Late Victorian British cities. However, the use of brass bands by the Army was not only practical. It was part of the Army’s inheritance from its working-class origins and the culture that it inhabited.

Victorian Bands

Brass bands were an already widely existing feature of Victorian society. From the developing pit bands of Wales, the Black Country, and the North, to the Temperance bands of the South West and major cities, brass bands were a growing trend. They were also fixtures of the music hall, the corner dens, and the dockyard gates. Loud enough to cut through a crowd, brash enough to entertain a crowd, and simple enough to learn, brass bands became the musical voice of any part of society who found their home on the city streets.

The Temperance band marching through the streets was a well-known occasion by the second half of the Victorian era, particularly in the strongly non-conformist areas of the South West and Wales. The noise brought people out to watch the procession and to hear the call to the crowd to give up alcohol and take the temperance pledge. Pit bands were growing in numbers and strength as the music provided a sense of belonging for the miners and furnace workers. It also gave a unique voice to the culture of resistance that was the pre-curser to the developing working-class culture which would be so rooted in the Pits, Furnaces, and Mills. Further, the music halls, gin palaces, and corner dens all relied on brass bands to provide their entertainment as the volume of a brass band could cut through or march over the noise of the crowds.

Another key area where brass bands were finding their home was in the growing labour movement. First in the Chartists and then in the first unions and socialist worker collectives, brass bands were the accompaniment of choice for rallies and marches. Not only because of its volume, but also because of its links to the workers and labourers of Victorian Britain. If you heard a brass band on the streets of Manchester or Birmingham it was as likely to be a Red band of a union as it was to be a Temperance band.

In each case, whether Temperance band or Pit band, the brass band was the sound of the working classes in Victorian Britain. It would not be heard in refined society, on the streets of Mayfair, or in a theatre. As such, brass bands were also not church music. They had no place in Anglican or Catholic churches, and, while somewhat more acceptable, were rarely found in non-conformist chapels. It was considered not suitable for church or for Christian music by most churches. Not least because of its associations with music halls and the developing Labour movement.

So when the Army developed and grew its use of brass bands it was not only the convenience of instruments which could be marched with, and which could create enough noise to be heard above the chaotic streets of Victorian Britain. There was a contingent element at play based on the culture that the early Army inhabited.

Brass Bands Were Class Allegiance

Many members of the early Army came from the working classes, and, as the Army was predominantly an urban movement, were familiar with the use of brass bands on the streets, not only for entertainment but for political or religious proclamation. The Army also had strong links to the Labour movement. William Booth was himself a Chartist in his youth, although he was persuaded to abandon his radical political career fairly quickly by American Methodist preacher James Caughey. One of the most influential officers in the early Army, Frank Smith, was himself a socialist who was heavily influenced by the economic work of Henry George and was involved with the Labour Party. The kinds of communities that the early Army targeted would frequently attend music halls and would know the kind of music exemplified by a brass band, or would be from poor industrial areas where brass bands were the voice of the Pit or Furnace.

The use of brass bands by the Army was part of the working-class culture it was born from, and it was an intentional choice to stand in solidarity with the culture and forms used by that class. It differentiated the Army from the Church by adapting and adopting the forms of the people they wished to evangelise and by transforming them into the use of the Gospel. By the 1960s, brass bands had become somewhat anachronistic outside of specific communities. But their continued use by the Army was a thread reaching back to its birth in the slums.

Today, as arguments about traditional or contemporary forms of music get increasingly boring, it is worth remembering that what today has become viewed as ‘traditional’ was once seen as incredibly radical and a sign of solidarity with the poor, the working-class, and with political radicals. It grounded the Army in its community, exemplified their own origins, and gave a distinctively working-class voice to Christian worship.

The questions remains, how we can best use our bands to continue that first commitment, and what it would look like today if the Army were to seek to adopt and adapt the music of the poorest communities in our cities.

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