1903 the Band provided the music to the first ever audio recording ever to be made in Portugal, in memory of the recent visit of British King Edward VII to the country. The band also has been active in a number of foreign engagements beginning in 1922, when musicians performed in Brazil to celebrate the country's centennial year of independence. As the Navy's sole band, it continues the heritage and traditions of the bands that have had served the Navy for many centuries. Fanfare Band of the Navy Known in Portuguese as the Fanfarra da Armada, its history dates back to 1837. Until that year the Royal Brigade, ancestor to the Marine Corps, have had drummers, fifers, buglers and trumpeters in its ranks, a tradition inherited by the current Brazilian Marine Pipes, Drum and Bugle Corps, by itself a descendant of the field musicians of the Royal Brigade that arrived in Brazilian lands in 1808. The current formation actually is rooted from the twin formations of the Naval Battalion formed that year: the Corps of Drums/Field Music (Charanga Marcial) and the Fanfare Section of the battalion, the former organized in the British and French manner of a corps of drums and the latter as a drum and bugle corps. Combined the ensembles were composed of 51 members, divided into 34 musicians (1 bass drummer, 10 snare drummers, 5 fifers, 5 bass trumpeters, 8 buglers, 10 trumpeters) and 16 field musicians (the latter made up of a drum major, a bass drummer, 5 fanfare trumpeters and 10 drummers). It was to be the basis of the field music of the units under the Corps of Military Seamen and the current form was established in 1937 on the basis of the regional drum and bugle formations of the Navy within Portugal and overseas. Since 1975, the band has been composed solely of personnel of the Marine Corps, and today is committed to fulfill the ceremonial duties of the Corps as well as of the entire Navy. With 30 drummers and trumpeters, it reports to the Marine Corps Command in Lisbon, and attends ceremonial events of the Navy as well as local events within Portugal. Playing solely using percussion (bass drum, tenor drums, snare drums and cymbals), fanfare trumpets and optionally helicons (and formerly bugles), the Fanfare Band is led on the field and parade by the Drum Major, using since the 1980s