The duty call “The Troop” has eluded clarification for decades.
During the course of my research, I came to the conclusion that “The Troop” should be broken down into four classifications:
3) “Trooping the Flag”
4) “A Short Troop”
With these four classifications in hand, I found it significantly easier to focus my research and discuss how each of these components of the guard mounting functioned.
Understanding the function also aided in determining which tunes or beatings applied to different circumstances as well as how to most likely utilize them.
This report represents truly just the beginning of research into this topic; however, I feel that it’s classification method and more specific breakdown provides a unique perspective that will hopefully clarify the main aspects and use of the major duty call “The Troop”.
Do you have questions about the function or performance of The Troop? Contact me and ask.
To find out more, continue to my next section “The Troop, or Assembly”.
Or, jump to my discussion “The Troop: Forming the Guards” to learn how to perform the full Troop sequence and for interpretations of the 18th century drum beating.