Timpani - Defilada 2018

@ Bydgoska Chorągiew Husarska

Salve omnes,
again I am bringing your attention to the Polish Armed Forces Day parade - 15th August 2018 - in Warsaw, where spectators could see Old Poland military men reconstructed.
Among the winged hussars' reenactors there was the musician group - seen already in this Marek Kalisinski's photo:

Marek Kalisinski @ winged hussar musicians

Mosci Marek Holak from Bydgoszcz, Poland reconstructed the timpanist or the musician on horseback playing the timpani. There were also trumpeters. For the first time in reenactment the winged hussar banner had a prescribed music element.


  in Marek Kalisinski's photo

winged Hussar pauker or timpanist

In Joanna Wolska photo

winged hussar timpanist and trumpeter behind him

It was perhaps for the first time since 1939 that Polish cavalry was seen marching  accompanied by a timpanist.
Chapeau bas, mosci Marku!
                                                      ! vivat Hussaria!
Valete

Turkish Embassy in Vienna AD 1628 - Thanksgiving Eve

Salvete omnes,
Thanksgiving upon us - like this holiday at the end of the dreary month of November . If you are in the States or simply celebrate Amercan Thanksgiving then tonight  your turkeys are baking, roasting or just getting prepared for the feast tomorrow, along with sweet potatoes and some other delicious foodstuffs.
I encountered this interesting print from AD 1628 (Wiki Commons ) .
It supposedly shows the ceremonial entry of the Ottoman Turkish embassy  into the imperial capital of Vienna in October AD 1628.
 Note the Hungarian lance-armed hussar cavalry, some are wearing pointed helmets and the first lancer has a  what seems to my eyes as a chain-of-mail armor. Wild cat pelts are ubiquitous among the Hungarians and the Ottoman riders alike. The imperial musicians on horseback include various trumpeters and a tympanist (kettle-drummer), while the Turkish embassy music ensemble appears to consist of a drummer and several trumpeters, all on horseback . Spare parade horses are led in hand by the mounted (Hungarians & Austrians) or walking (Ottoman) attendants.  The ambassador is proceeded by two peyk bodyguards with two large double-bladed battleaxes.

so first comes the Hungarian escort from Komarom with the officers of the city company bhind them shown in bulk in the next row

 then the City officials

the company of men of the city of Vienna city burgermeisters plus the officer and musicians of the next company

the body of the 'cammerers' company followed by the Turkish embassy riders and parade horses

Turkish lance- and bow-armed riders led by the fine rider, followed by the Imperial trumpeters, the ambassador with the Austrian officials and commander from Komarom and the remainder of  the embassy staff, followed by Turkish pack mules and Turkish wagon

Ottoman Turkish Sultan or Emperor  at the time was Murad IV and the king of the Kingdom of Hungary and the Holy Roman Emperor was Ferdinand II.
unfortunately at this time I do not know who was the artist who drew and printed this print.
enjoy

Musicians - a sketch in progress

Salve,
 in this post I brought  into this blog  the prints of de Bruyn - particularly the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth horsemen. In this sketch, nota bene I am using my older sketch just to play with the idea, well, here I am going for the horsemen-musicians from XVII century. There is still lots of work to be done here.
     Apparently the trumpeters or buglers  and timpani (horse drummers) (in Polish cavalry we called them ''paukers'') were part of every winged hussar cavalry banner,  or the period iconography and surviving documents lead us to believe such was the situation.

     They were paid and were armed, since they could be fighting too, and they were busy on the battlefield playing out their part in the military operations and fighting. From the information provided in this regimental roll (record of enlistment from 1659-61)  you can see that the Western style cavalry  or Foreign 'Autorament'/Contingent (reitars) regiments  in Polish armies of XVII century a  ''pauker'' was part of the regiment's headquarters while trumpeters were attached to each company, so the regimental drummer in this particular example gets 2 as much salary as each of the companies' trumpeters.
I intend to draw some reitar musicians too, some day soon.

 Perhaps the most colorful trumpeters, due to the color of their uniforms and also horses and their tack, can be seen during the Napoleonic period.
                                                      


Kircholm battle

Klushino battle

Beresteczko battle

Chocim (Khotyn) battle

...

Abraham de Bruyn's western European lancers

Salve,
 I would like to begin by wishing good luck to my friends and family on the East Coast of the US, as the hurricane Sandy  landed there last night.

Going back to Abraham de Bruyn and his prints, today a set showing armoured lancers of the Western Europe:
..
 Tournament harness

.. another fully armoured lancer

..
 Italian lancer

.

.

.. French lancer

.. Netherlands' (Low Countries) lancer

..German standard bearer

..
Interestingly de Bruyn shows no Spanish heavy lancer but only two bullfighting horsemen  riding à 'la gineta' style and a herreruelo or a pistol-and-arquebus (wheel-lock) armed cavalryman. Also he shows a Belgian armoured commander of cavalry that fought for the Spanish in the war in Flanders.
 a la gineta

Spanish herreruelo

eques Belga

and finally a drummer, as no cavalry could have been without music

..