ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the development of circus music from 1780 to 1950. It draws on primary sources from Britain, America and Australia – countries with continuous and mutually influential circus traditions – and builds on the existing scholarly work. The ‘blaring’, ‘brassy’ sound of the wind band is the sound most identified with circus music. In the early modern circus, before the establishment of the wind band as the preferred accompaniment, the choice of instrumentation was opportunistic, reflecting ‘diverse and often jumbled network of performing practices and organizations which incorporated entertainments taken from fairground and theatre’ that comprised the earliest circuses. Regardless of the instrumentation or repertoire of the circus band, element that continues to underpin the function of circus music is rhythm matched to the style of act, rather than distinctive harmonic or melodic features. The predominant emotional role of the music is to affirm the demonstration of control and this provides, in effect, a meta-discourse.
