BANDA MUSICALE DELL’ARMA DEI CARABINIERI

CARABINIERI WEAPON MUSIC BAND

The Banda Musicale dell'Arma dei Carabinieri is known all over the world for the variety of its repertoire, for the formal perfection of its performances, and for the fascination aroused by its orchestral musicians, with their splendid uniforms, magnificent composure, and deep musical vocation. And public participation in the concerts of the Banda dell'Arma remains one of the many aspects of that natural sympathy that drives citizens toward the Carabinieri. In Piedmont, as a result of the new order given to the Army from Carlo Alberto in 1831, the number of musicians for each line regiment and 24 for the "Company Guards of the HM Corps" were established at 18. By subsequent royal determinations all matters pertaining to the service of "military music" were regulated, which thus attained a vast and comprehensive form of organization. It was in those years that the Carabinieri Corps had its first trumpeters, an original nucleus of musicians who gradually, with successive rearrangements in personnel and instrument endowment, gave birth first (in 1862) to the "Fanfare" and then to the "Music." from this eventually derived the "Band," which, through successive refinements, has assumed its present physiognomy.

Since July 1, 2001, the Band has been conducted by Maestro Massimo Martinelli. Today, with its 102 orchestral musicians, recruited and selected through public competitions, the Band of the Carabinieri constitutes a complex structure capable of performing some of the most celebrated compositions.

Its very rich repertoire ranges from traditional military marches to classical pieces and to modern and contemporary ones. In halls from concert halls, theaters, radio and television, wherever it performs, the Band reaps successes and wins praise from the harshest critics.

The Band of the Arma can thus today be considered a complete orchestral formation, fully united and committed to the constant search for the best musical setting.

Not to coincidentally, in fact, some journalists have called it "a symphonic band that sounds like an orchestra" and "a wind orchestra."

But for all may be worth the judgment of Paolo Monelli, who identified the secret of such perfection "in the fact that these musicians are precisely Carabinieri and bring to the execution of their task the great heart and dedication that animates every specialty of the Arma in its many duties."