Janissary music

What it means

Janissary music is the traditional military music of the Ottoman Janissary infantry, played mainly with cymbals, large and small drums, triangle, and shawms. Its loud, rhythmically striking sound was meant to intimidate on the battlefield and rouse one's own troops.

Musical use

In the 18th century European travellers and military men encountered Janissary music and brought instruments such as cymbals, bass drum, and triangle into European military bands. At the same time a fashion called “alla turca” arose in art music, in which composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with his piano sonata movement “Alla turca,” or Ludwig van Beethoven, in the finale of his ninth symphony with cymbals, bass drum, and triangle, created a supposedly Turkish impression of sound.

Janissary music itself, the authentic Ottoman military music, should be distinguished from the European “Turkish music” or “alla turca,” which took up only individual sound elements without reproducing the actual musical tradition. It also differs from general military music of other cultures through its specific instrumentation and historical origin.

Performance practice

In Janissary music, listen for the interplay of loud percussion and shawms, producing a powerful, march-like rhythm. When listening to European “alla turca” music, recognise the typical sound elements of cymbals, bass drum, and triangle as an allusion to this model.