Ottoman military band

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Ottoman military bands were the first-recorded military marching bands. Though often known as mehter (Ottoman Turkish: مهتر, plural: مهتران mehterân; from "senior" in Persian) in West Europe, that word, properly speaking, refers only to a single musician in the band. In Ottoman, the band was generally known as mehterân (مهتران seniors), though those bands used in the retinue of a vizier or prince were generally known as mehterhane (Persian: مهترخانه, meaning "house of seniors"), the band as a whole is often termed mehter bölüğü ("mehter company [troop]"), mehter takımı ("mehter platoon"). In West Europe, the band's music is also often called Janissary music because the janissaries formed the core of the bands.