Pictures of Music Instruments Used in War – first of many.

The Bugle

The Vented Trumpet

“Cymbals have been used in rhythmic music when Turkish armies marched to the beating of drums and the clashing of cymbals and gongs. . . The quality of the sound produced by this special alloy spread far and wide, eventually reaching the sultan. At his behest it began to be used as a ‘weapon of sound’ by the ‘Mehteran’ or Ottoman Military Band, which produced sounds like the clashing of swords and shields in war. Avedis Usta’s tiny foundry began producing cymbals for the world’s largest army. The Mehteran, which, far more than a military company employed only in wartime, play no cymbals other than those of Avedis Usta, whose fame quickly spread throughout the empire.” From the Turkish Cultural Foundation website which is unfortunately open source and I don’t know if peer reviewed. < http://www.turkishculture.org/music/musical-instruments/turkish-cymbal-285.htm?type=1 >

http://www.turkishculture.org/music/military-mehter/military-mehter-86.htm?type=1 – – – This is a link to a discussion of military music in Turkey called mehter using drum and zurna.