German Parade Music

[Steven Broomfield]

Not a book, but seems appropriate to post here. I've just ordered (£18.80, inc. P&P) a CD of Imperial German Army parade music, apparently recorded pre-1916, and found in an attic in E Germany in 1997. It sounded too good to be true (there's an audio clip on the N&M website).

Anyone heard it? Have I invested wisely? Is it safe to tell Mrs Broomfield?

[Guest]

Can't say, but I have a 1960s recording of much the same by a German army band which sure sounds good in the car.

Surely at under £20 cou will not get into too much hot water with Mrs B.

Warning: do not play at full volume early on Sunday morning when the neighbours are trying to catch up on some sleep!

[Steven Broomfield]

Can't say, but I have a 1960s recording of much the same by a German army band which sure sounds good in the car.

Surely at under £20 cou will not get into too much hot water with Mrs B.

Warning: do not play at full volume early on Sunday morning when the neighbours are trying to catch up on some sleep!

Thanks, Angie. I also have a couple of LPs (ask your mother, younger members ), but they won't fit in the car CD player!

Volume warning appreciated, but young Lee next door deserves it!!!

As for Mrs B, well.............

[bob lembke]

I have not bought or even played anything of the sort for many years, but US catalogs seem to list a number of such recordings, along with larger numbers of WW II and post-war recordings of marches. I bought one (I don't even know where it is now) that had a rather poor quality but fascinating recording of the (if memory serves) Wacht=Kompagnie in Berlin from about 1900, complete with the very impressive shouted orders, as well as the music. It was a "changing of the guard" ceremony. Very impressive, such voices coming across from over 100 years ago; not surprisingly, very military.

Years ago, I was making my first extensive foray into Italy, driving across the north from Slovenija west toward Switzerland to scout out Zermatt for the first time for mountain climbing; I ended up coming with my Slovene guide for five summers. (Previously, I had only made small forays across the border from Slovenija into the Dolomite area, which itself was a rather Hunnish area.) My North German (Prussian) family had instilled in me a suspicion of things Italian (My grandfather, before WW I, was hiking in Italy, doing the ethnic thing, and he sat by the trail and ate salami and bread by the trail-side, cutting the food with his trusty hunting switch-blade. Along rode a mounted Carbinari, who noted the meal, put him under arrest, and dragged him off a police station. It seemed that there was an Italian law that no adult could carry a knife with a blade length greater than his little finger, to prevent the population from slashing each other, at least not effectively. My grandfather was able to identify himself as a respectable tourist, and a Prussian staff officer, and it was thought advisable to free him. But this rediculous incident was burned deeply in the family collective memory.

As I drove, I repeatedly noticed what seemed evidence of non-North German disorder. Traffic lanes seemed to be mere suggestions, not direct orders. A driver repeatedly slapping his adult son in the "suicide" seat, the women in the rear seat, all laughing uproariously. Rampant non-Germanic disorder! I finally hit Switzerland, very fatigued, and a few miles further in stopped at a big simple roadhouse and took a room. As I drifted off to sleep I was comforted by the sounds of a large number of people in the Festsaal (banquet hall) below my room lustily singing WW II German Army marching songs, pounding out the cadence on the tables with their beer mugs. I was safe!

The next morning I noticed that the parking lot was full of BMW motorcycles. There was a convention of an international BMW biker club taking place. The group had adopted a German culture, although most of the license plates seemed to be French and Belgian.

Nothing like good military music to sort things out!

A great military music experience is the mehter band that the Turkish Army maintains in Istanbul, HQed at the Askeri Mueze (Military Museum); a true Turkish Army unit, they play, sing, and drill to the Turkish military music of say 1500, wearing the uniforms, armor and weapons of the day, playing the old music on the instruments of the period. Very strange and stirring. One would not want to stand on a plain somewhere while a bunch of 150,000 men armed with very sharp instruments and singing and playing this eery music marched toward you intending to truncate you with axes and the like.

Bob Lembke

[tintin1689]

Yes this is true

Tony Dean, the guy who found the music is a close personal friend. He travelled in the DDR frequently and his collection is fantastic. Imperial, Weimar and DDR material.

There is more stuff than is on the CD as well - this is purely the most "commercial" material

There is a book in the offing also (I am one of the co-authors)

[Steven Broomfield]

Yes this is true

Tony Dean, the guy who found the music is a close personal friend. He travelled in the DDR frequently and his collection is fantastic. Imperial, Weimar and DDR material.

There is more stuff than is on the CD as well - this is purely the most "commercial" material

There is a book in the offing also (I am one of the co-authors)

Well, tell him from me the disc arrived today, and what I've heard so far is...well....bloody good!

[squirrel]

I've ordered this CD from N & P.

After reading this I can't wait to get the wrapper off when it turns up.

German Army Bands do have something about them. Have a selection on vynyl including Traditionsmarsche, 3 volumes and it is very good. Surprising how many of the marches are used by British Regiments, a few as regimental marches; Nachlager von Granada for the Ox & Bucks Light Infantry comes to mind.

Have two CD's of Carl Teike (Alten Kameraden) marches by the Potsdam Police Band; not all brilliant but some very good tracks.

Also have CD by the Russian Navy Admiralty Band; good selection of Imperial Russian Army Regimental Marches including some German ones and three different Russian National Anthems.

Another is by an Austrian Orchestra which includes German and Austrian marches as well as some from Serbia, Croatia etc.

One track is "The Bosnain's are coming", another the march of The Carpathian Mountain Rifles.

Woops! Didn't mean to ramble on so much.