Preparation for Beating Retreat ceremony

Beating Retreat ceremony near Presidential House in New Delhi. Vijay Chowk (Victory Square) at Rajpath, with Secretariat Buildings in the background which is the venue of the Beat Retreat ceremony.

In India Beating Retreat, officially denotes the end of Republic Day festivities. It is conducted on the evening of 29 January, the third day after the Republic Day. It is performed by the bands of the three wings of the military, the Indian Army, Indian Navy and Indian Air Force. The venue is Raisina Hills and an adjacent square, Vijay Chowk, flanked by the north and south block of the Rashtrapati Bhavan (President's Palace) towards the end of Rajpath.

The Chief Guest of the function is the President of India who arrives escorted by the President's Bodyguards (PBG), a cavalry unit. When the President begins to arrive, a Fanfare is sounded by the trumpeters of the Brigade of the Guards on their natural trumpets, and then the PBG commander asks the unit to give the National Salute, which is followed by the playing of the Indian National Anthem, Jana Gana Mana, by the Massed Bands, and at the same time by the unfurling of the Flag of India on the flagpole right at the Vijay Chowk.

The ceremony was started in the early 1950s when Major Roberts of the Indian Army developed the ceremony of display by the massed bands in which Military Bands, Pipes and Drums Bands, Buglers and Trumpeters from various Army Regiments besides bands Navy and Air Force take part.
The ceremony starts by the massed bands of the three services marching in unison, playing popular marching tunes like Colonel Bogey March, Sons of the Brave and Qadam Qadam Badaye Ja. The Fanfare by buglers then is followed by the bands of the Indian Army marching forward in quick time, then breaking into slow time, then by the 'compound march' involving movements to form intricate and beautiful patterns. The massed military bands, again, breaks into quick time and goes back to the farthest end of Raisina Hills. Then the Pipes and Drums of the Indian Army play traditional Scottish tunes and Indian tunes like "Gurkha Brigade", Neer's "Sagar Samraat" and "Chaandni" . This band also does a compound march and formation numbers. The last bands to perform are the combined bands of the Navy and the Air Force. This part of the ceremony ends with their compound march. One such beating retreat ceremony by the Armed Forces bands was during the 1982 Asian Games New Delhi closing ceremony for which the credit goes to retired Indian Army's Music Director Late Harold Joseph, Indian Navy's Jerome Rogrigues and Indian Navy's M S Neer, one of the greatest musician, conductor, composer and instrumentalist of the Indian Armed Forces bands, who had led the massed bands at the ASIAD 82 closing ceremony.

The three band contingents march forward and take position close to the President's seat. The drummers, mostly from the pipe bands, give a solo performance, known as the Drummer's Call. A regular feature of this pageant is the last tune played before the Retreat, when the National Flag is lowered.
This is followed by the bugle call for Retreat by the buglers, and all the flags are slowly brought down. The band master then marches to the President and requests permission to take the bands away, and informs that the closing ceremony is now complete. The bands march back playing a popular martial tune and the official march of the Armed Forces, Saare Jahan Se Achcha.

source - Wikipedia

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