From Wikipedia.org;

"Ottoman military bands are thought to be the oldest variety of military marching band in the world. Though they are often known by the Persian-derived word mahtar (مهتر ; mehter in Ottoman Turkish) in the West, that word, properly speaking, refers only to a single musician in the band. In Ottoman sense, the band was generally known as mehterân (مهتران, from the Persian plural mahtarān), though those bands used in the retinue of a vizier or prince were generally known as mehterhane (مهترخانه, meaning roughly, "a gathering of mehters", from Persian "house of the mahtar"). In modern Turkish, the band as a whole is often termed mehter takımı ("group of mehters").

The sound of the Ottoman military band is characterized by an often shrill sound combining bass drums, horns (boru), bells, the triangle and cymbals (zil), among others. It is still played at state, military and tourist functions in modern Turkey by the Mehter Band and the troops that accompany.

Mehterân usually play classical Turkish music such as peşrev, semai, nakış, cengiharbi, murabba and kalenderi. Most of the music played by mehterân is Turkish Folk Music with heroic themes from the Ottoman frontiers. Melodies and lyrics are written in Mehterhane (the house of Mehter).

The oldest extant marches were written by Nefiri Behram, Emir-i Hac, Hasan Can and Gazi Giray II in the 16th century." Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.