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Marches and Bugle Calls of the Argentine Army
code: TR020103
The repertoire of this CD constains instrumental and choral marches and bugle calls of the Argentine Army.
Performed by the Military Band of the National Military School, we would like to note San Lorenzo by Cayetano Silva that was performed more than 100 years ago, i.e., in 1902.
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Since the dawn of the Spanish conquest of South America in the Sixteenth Century, the military forces that had come from the Metropolis to protect the colonization of the Governorship, and since 1776, the Viceroyship of the River Plate were insufficient to confront the risks of aggression by other European powers - Portugal and Great Britain - and the attacks of the wild indians, which permanently stalked the huge length of the inland borders.
Since its very start, the history of Argentina is interwoven with the feats of arms. Therefore, in order to comprehend it, it becomes necessary to understand the political confrontations and their military consequences.
The May Revolution reached its heyday when on the 25th of said month, in 1810, the people of Buenos Aires - the capital city of the Viceroyship - approved the creation of a government independent from the Spanish authority. It was the so-called First Government Junta, the starting point of a period of ongoing war on land and sea, first to win and then to sustain Independence, which put an end to the Spanish power in South America in 1826. The main influencing factors included: the War of Independence in the United States of America against its colonial metropolis and the 1776 American Declaration of Independence; the Enlightment that preceded the 1789 French Revolution, and the ideas of political and economic freedom ideas that it propounded, which were opposed to the absolutist and monopoly-based system imposed by the Spanish State; the British Invasions of 1806 & 1807 - with the respective Reconquest and Defense of Buenos Aires - that demonstrated in practice other government criteria and also generated greater confidence on the local potential; the chaos prevailing in Spain as a result of the Napoleonic invasion and the dissolution of the Seville Central Junta by the French Empire, at the beginning of 1810. This Junta had been governing on behalf of the King and had appointed Admiral Baltasar H. de Cisneros as the last effective Viceroy of the River Plate, in 1809.
Viceroys were the direct representatives of the Crown, and served as Governor and Captain General in their territory. All civilian and military authorities reported to them; among the later, were permanent officials, such as the Inspector General, the General Commander of Frontiers, and the Sargent Major of each station. Besides, temporary commissions were granted at times of war.
After the first British Invasion, the militia units made up of local people, i.e. citizens born in the Americas, acquired an organic structure and greater relevance and power than the military units coming from Spain.
After the independence events of 1810, the resulting authorities immediately provided a new structure for the existing military organization. An order of the Government Junta, dated May 28, sets up the Government and War Department and appointed Dr. Mariano Moreno, one of the secretaries of the Junta, as its head. Moreno shared the old viceroyship office of General Arms Commander with the President of the Junta, Colonel Cornelio Saavedra. On May 29, a bans considered the foundational instrument of the Argentine Army was issued, setting up the first army units.
Five infantry regiments were created, numbered 1 to 5, on the basis of the criollo battalions of 1806 and 1807. Regiment 1, Patricios, on the basis of the First Patricios Battalion; Regiment 2, on the 2nd Patricios Battalion; Regiment 3, on the previous Arribeños Battalion (made up of criollos from the North of the Viceroyship); Regiment 4, with the Mountaineering Battalion, and Regiment 5, with the Andalusian Battalion.
The Buenos Aires Dragoons cavalry received the denomination of Dragones de la Patria (Fatherland Dragoons); the King's Hussars - formerly Pueyrredon's Hussars, became the Fatherland Hussars and the Blandengues (cavalry corps that defended the inland frontier against the indians; their name deriving from the sword or lance that they brandished, from the Spanish "blandir"), became called the Fatherland's Cavalry Volunteers Regiment.
The Royal Corp of Artillery, within which the field artillery had been organized in 1796, become the Fatherland's Corp of Artillery, with the land batteries of the Buenos Aires stronghold and port and of Ensenada de Barragán reporting to the same, together with the arsenals and storehouses.
The first efforts of the Government Junta were directed at securing its executive powers in order to immediately pursue the expansion of the revolution to all the regions comprised in the viceroyship. This initiative had varied results for the original dream of keeping the territory of the Viceroyship of the River Plate together.
The provinces within the viceroyship were asked to send representatives to Buenos Aires, take part at a congress that would determine the most convenient form of government. At the same time, military expeditions were sent towards the Eastern Board (today the Eastern Republic of Uruguay), the provinces of Paraguay (currently the Republic of Paraguay) and those in the Upper Perú (today the Republic of Bolivia) with different outcomes.
The General Constitutional Assembly began its deliberations in 1813. It instituted and proclaimed several of the National symbols that have identified the new nation since then. Already on February 18, 1812 the government had decreed, at the urge of Manuel Belgrano, a member of the Junta, "... that the National Cockade of the United Provinces of the River Plate will have the white and light blue colors." The Assembly commissioned Blas Parera to compose the music of the National Patriotic Song, with the lyrics written by Vicente López y Planes, that would later become the Argentine National Anthem.
After the victorious battles of Tucumán - September 24, 1812 - and Salta -February 20, 1813 - in the Second Campaign of the Northern Army under the command of the recently appointed General Belgrano, the patriots occupied the Potosí Imperial Village. When the news reached Buenos Aires, the Assembly ordered, on April 13, the first issue of coins at the Ceca (after the Arab sikka, coin die or mint) of Potosí. They were to be similar to the Spanish coins but with the Seal of the Assembly - currently the Argentine National Crest - without the sun, instead of the Arms of Spain, and, on the reverse, the sun with 32 flaming and straight interleaved rays, replacing the king's effigy. The Triumvirate issued a circular ordering the newly minted coins to be accepted like the Spanish ones, since they had the same weight and mineral content as the former. Among others, one-ounce gold or 8-Escudos coins were minted - such as the one reproduced here, showing the crest with a border of flag, with two crossed cannons at the bottom and below them a war drum, symbol of the importance and prestige that military music was awarded, ever since the birth of the nation.
 
First National Currency, made in Potosí, today Republic of Bolivia, in 1813.
Original belonging to the Numismatic Museum “Dr. José E. Uriburu” of the Central Bank of Argentina
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