A marching band is a group of instrumental musicians who generally perform outdoors and who incorporate some type of marching or other movements with musical performance. Instrumentation includes brass, woodwinds, and percussion instruments. The music usually incorporates a strong rhythmic component suitable for marching. A marching band not only performs musical compositions, but also entertains with flamboyant steps and movements to create a moving musical ensemble, sometimes forming designs such as letters, logos, or even animated pictures. In addition to traditional parade performances, many marching bands also perform field shows at special events such as football games or at marching band competitions.
For the past 35 years now, Lieutenant Colonel Sisay has been a music and education professional. The Marching Band, which formerly flashed in schools and that helped to produce a diversity of musicians, was to be revived. This in mind he began knocking on doors of schools. Lieutenant Colonel, who had served as a general music teacher and lieutenant for many years, began his volunteer work at Menelik II School to revive the marching band scene in schools.
The scenes were mostly used for protocol works and in the form of parade performances, where brass, woodwind, saxophone, clarinet, flute, trumpet, euphonium, sousaphone and other musical instruments were used. He was a young boy when he first fell in love with this profession. In his early age, while he was attending his formal education with his classmates, his heart was drawn to the song of the marching band trainees at the Emperor Gelawdewos of Nazareth’s school while playing a variety of musical instruments.
“During my stay in the school I was eagerly expectant of the days when I will start to seek a niche in a marching band profession,” According to him, a love for music welled up in his heart since he was a kid. Often, he was very much inspired by the music the March band used to organize in the school. But unfortunately as it may sound the marching band in his school did not endure. Even if the marching band’s training screeched to a halt in the school, his childhood dream lingered likely to come true in the course of time.
History shows that marching bands began in the 17th century. It evolved out of military bands. Military values are enhanced and parade shows are highlighted in this art. In the UK, the United States and other Western countries, marching bands have reached their peak in defence institutions. Gradually, it spread to schools. If the United States were to rise as an example, it had several marching bands with up to 800 people participating at a time in colleges and universities alone.
When we come to the case in Ethiopia, the Marching Band was introduced by the Armenians during the reign of Haile Selassie I. Then the emperor selected people from Benishangul Gumuz area to take training and celebrate his coronation in 1931, but it was disrupted due to the Italian invasion.
From 1945 onwards, however, it expanded into a military unit formerly known as the imperial body Guard, followed by the Ground Army, Police Army and later the Navy and Air Force. All military units also had marching bands.
Orchestras and marching bands were prevalent in all the so-called Northern Command, Western Command, Eastern Command. In particular, Northern Command had a marching band that was no smaller than the Central Command and the ground army.
It later began to spread to schools. Strong marching bands were in high schools, especially from the mid-1968s to the mid-1966s.
Lieutenant Colonel Sisay flipped through information and asked those who knew the history and told us that the Marching Band was first formed at the school level in different parts of Ethiopia at Dessie Woyzero Sehen School. Later, it spread to the schools of Harar Medhanealem, Addis Ababa KokebeTsebah, Menelik II, Emperor Gelawdewos of Nazareth and Arsi Ras Darge.
Many well-known musicians from the Navy also came out of the Menelik II School Marching Band. Solomon Lulu, Yared Music School teacher Bekele Debre and director Tekleyohanes Zeke, Mesfin Abebe, Alemayehu Woldeyohanes and many other professionals came out of the marching band and orchestra. This was also the result of the establishment of the Marching Band of Emperor Gelawdewos of Nazareth.
This marching band, which was born in the military during the reign of Haile Selassie and later expanded in schools, was disrupted from school in the mid-1978s. “The presence of the marching band in schools will boost the music industry, it will be the basis for interested students to join the field. And it is a source of employment and income,” said Lieutenant Colonel Sisay.
In order to revive the marching band and orchestra, which has been discontinued in schools for the past 40 years, he recruited and trained students for free. In 1983, when he was a student at Emperor Gelawdewos school, he joined the school’s marching band. He was disappointed that his training was interrupted without much study.
The opportunity to go abroad for peacekeeping work was attended by many introductions with foreigners. A three-day visit to Entebe, Uganda, not only won him trophies, but also provided a good opportunity for him to achieve his goals. But he didn’t want to buy a house or buy anything else. Instead, he bought a variety of musical instruments in order to achieve his goals.
He planned to share the knowledge and experience he accumulated during his three decades as a music teacher in the defence and with many friends with students. He took his personal musical instruments and devised a one-year work plan and recruited 30 students from Menelik II School in 2022 for three months training in the summer season. He also trained students in the marching band outside of school hours during the remaining period of the year.
Interested students are undergoing various musical instruments training alongside with their formal classes. They also plan to undergo vocal training in the future.
Lieutenant Colonel Sisay pointed out that live band-accompanied music is disappearing and is being replaced by electronics. This tragic episode prevents many professionals from coming out efficiently and in large numbers. While he doesn’t have the money to pay for his noble practice in the field, he believes that in the future, the Addis Ababa Education Bureau and other institutions will support him and institutionalize him.
He added that if such students don’t get paid for their pursuit of the education, it doesn’t make sense. Trained students can generate income by performing in the street marching band in parks, holidays and annual festivals.
Lieutenant Colonel Sisay, who was trained in the Navy for a year as a sailor in 1984, told us that he enjoyed the enriching opportunity at the Yared School of Music due to the opportunities he had in competition, he served one year in the Navy as a music teacher and quitted his job in 1991 due to a change of regime.
However, two years later, the vacancy of the Ministry of Defence for a music teacher created a good opportunity for him. Since 1985, he has been employed by the ministry as a music teacher and has served for more than 25 years.
According to the evidence of his service in the Ministry of Defence, from 1985 to 2019, he served as a clarinet player in the Navy and as a teacher and head of the Department of Defence Music.
Lieutenant Colonel Sisay, who brought his experience as a music teacher in the National Defence Forces to Menelik II High School, began training students in marching band at his own expense. Still he cannot evade challenges.
While the school principals and others are encouraging him offering him a hall where he can provide training, he is concerned that the work is not generating income, and that it is an unrealistic prospect for the students whom he trains.
The lack of experience in volunteer training in the music sector, the lack of qualified teachers, the lack of talented music equipment, the high budget the music industry presupposes, the overall sector and the challenges that he has undertaken, have challenged him personally.
Lieutenant Colonel Sisay, who recalled that the former Menelik II School Students Association did offered full uniforms for the students he trains, also called the Ministry of Education, Education Bureau and other institutions to turn the voluntary work they started personally into an institution.
BY NAOL GIRMA
The Ethiopian Herald September 28/2023
