On a map, the two great rivers,
the Danube and the Nile
are unconnected.
Flowing through separate continents,
one river runs west to east,
and the other south to north.
the Danube and the Nile
are unconnected.
Flowing through separate continents,
one river runs west to east,
and the other south to north.
Yet once upon a time
they shared a connection
through the sound of music.
The story starts with a colorful postcard showing a small orchestra
posed outdoors on a river wharf or a boat deck. The caption reads:
posed outdoors on a river wharf or a boat deck. The caption reads:
The celebread (sic) Austrian (Bohemia) Lady Band.
Propr.: Anton Klecar, Chef d'Orchestre, Cairo (Egypte).
Propr.: Anton Klecar, Chef d'Orchestre, Cairo (Egypte).
The ensemble has 8 men and 10 women. Despite the location in sunny Egypt, the women are all dressed for Prague's climate in identical long black skirts and white shirts, while the men wear woolen three-piece suits. The image of the river behind them is likely a photographer's studio backdrop, but it gives the colorized photo a very realistic quality.
Most of the women are string players except for a woodwind player in the center row, maybe a flutist, and two drummers on the right. Presumably the bearded violinist standing center is the leader, Herr Klecar. Placed in front is a sign with the name of the group above a line of musical notation. Orchestre A. Klecar, Le Caire. At the top of the card is a handwritten note: V..z..(?) in Alexandrie, 16/12 1907.
The back has a postmark of 16-12-07, 5:30 PM from Alexandria, Egypt over a brilliant red 4 milliemes stamp picturing the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid of Cheops. It was addressed to Wohlg(eboren) Fräulein Rosa Popelinsky of 18 Stiegergasse, Wien, Austria. The
message on the back is a Christmas/New Year greeting from Mitzi
Polok(?). I suspect the writer is a member of this orchestra sending her
best wishes to a friend, perhaps another musician.
It's a typical vacation souvenir, not unlike a postcard from a British seaside resort or a German spa. But the postcard's German message and confused English and French caption spelling, seems out of place with its Egyptian postmark. These Bohemian musicians on the Nile are a very long way from the Danube. Yet this insignificant ephemera speaks to a time when the world was divided into vast colonial empires and Egypt was the crossroads where all the compass points met.
In 1907 Egypt was ruled by Abbas II Helmy Bey (1874–1944) the Khedive, or viceroy, of the Khedivate of Egypt an autonomous tributary state of the Ottoman Empire, which included control of Sudan and other parts of Africa and the Middle East. However as a result of the Anglo-Egyptian War of 1882, the British occupied Egypt under a so-called Veiled Protectorate.
The French had briefly occupied Egypt during Napoleon Bonaparte's campaign in Egypt and Syria, until he was defeated by the British in 1801. However France remained a major colonial power in Africa and the Middle East. In 1854 a French diplomat, Ferdinand de Lesseps, was granted a concession from Sa'id Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt and Sudan, to form a French British company that would construct a canal between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. This is where the connection to Austria comes in.
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Opening of the Suez Canal, 17 November 1869 Source: The Illustrated London News 18 December 1869 |
In November 1869, Franz Joseph I (1830–1916), the Emperor of Austria,
King of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia, and monarch of all the states of
the Austro-Hungarian empire, traveled to Egypt on his royal steamship Elisabeth to help inaugurate the Suez Canal. He was perhaps the most highest ranking royal personage at the event which included the French Empress Eugenie
on her Imperial yacht L'Aigle, the Crown Prince of Prussia, and Prince Louis of Hesse.
Excavating the Suez Canal had employed an estimated 1.5 million people during the 10 years it took to complete. Its geographic benefits of shortening the travel time between Asia and Europe was not initially considered worth the huge financial cost, or the thousands of laborers' lives lost during its construction. Similar complaints were made about another marvel of modern engineering just finished on the other side of the world.
One of the American representatives invited to Egypt for the Suez Canal's inauguration was a Californian mycologist and naturalist Harvey Willson "H. W." Harkness (1821–1901). Earlier in May 1869 he was a participant in the grand ceremonies opening the first Transcontinental Railroad. Harkness was in charge of holding the celebrated golden spike that symbolized linking the Pacific Ocean with the Atlantic. Now six months later he would witness another wonder, the canal that would link the world of the Orient with the Occident.
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| Opening of the Suez Canal, 17 November 1869 Source:Wikimedia |
On 17 November 1869, Franz Joseph and the other dignitaries set off on their ships to cruise 193.3 km (120.1 miles) from Port Said to the canal's southern end. However the canal's depth was not a consistent measurement and on the first day, a French ship ran aground blocking most of the convoy for a while until it was pulled off the next day. When everyone finally reached Ismailia, the midpoint of the canal, the organizers arranged celebrations with a military review, illuminations, fireworks, and a ball at the Governor's Palace. The next day the convoy continued to Suez to finish the grand opening before returning to Cairo for more events and tours. Emperor Franz Joseph even visited the Great Pyramid of Cheops, though it's unlikely he climbed to the top as the violinist Ole Bull did a few years later in 1876.
The musical connection between the Danube and the Nile is because of an Austrian composer, Johann Strauss Jr. (1825–1899) who was arguably a bigger international celebrity than any royalty.
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| Egyptischer Marsch (Egyptian March), Op. 335 by by Johann Strauss II |
Johann Strauss composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, and quadrilles and other music, but his most famous work is his opus 314, "An der schönen, blauen Donau", better known by its English title, "The Blue Danube". This waltz was written in 1866 and performed to great acclaim at the 1867 Paris World's Fair. That success led to a commission in 1869 from the organizers of the Suez Canal grand opening for a new piece, appropriate for Egypt. The music's title is Egyptischer Marsch (Egyptian March), op. 335.
I think it is a safe bet that Anton Klecar's Austrian-Bohemian ladies orchestra included "The Blue Danube Waltz" in the group's repertoire. (Though without a horn player, it wouldn't have sounded as good on trombone.) But I also feel sure that 38 years after Emperor Franz Joseph first heard it played, Strauss's "Egyptian March" was a standard for Herr Klecar's ensemble.
Here is a nice performance of Strauss's "Egyptian March"
performed by the GRAN ENSEMBLE DE CLARINETES,
with Jose Franch-Ballester, conductor on 28 December 2018
at the Teatro Banda Primitiva de Lliria, in Valencia, Spain.
This is not Johann's original orchestration,
but an arrangement for a clarinet festival band.
There's a couple of tubas for additional bass support,
but this is about as many clarinets as anyone would ever want to see.
The little E-flats are on the first desks by the conductor's podium,
the giant contrabass clarinets are at the back.
No piccolos, flutes, oboes, or bassoons.
Just clarinets all the way up and down.
At one point Strauss stipulates that the musicians sing
the melody to the syllable "La".
performed by the GRAN ENSEMBLE DE CLARINETES,
with Jose Franch-Ballester, conductor on 28 December 2018
at the Teatro Banda Primitiva de Lliria, in Valencia, Spain.
This is not Johann's original orchestration,
but an arrangement for a clarinet festival band.
There's a couple of tubas for additional bass support,
but this is about as many clarinets as anyone would ever want to see.
The little E-flats are on the first desks by the conductor's podium,
the giant contrabass clarinets are at the back.
No piccolos, flutes, oboes, or bassoons.
Just clarinets all the way up and down.
At one point Strauss stipulates that the musicians sing
the melody to the syllable "La".
This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where sometimes everything tastes like Turkey.
3 comments:
The postcard of the orchestra by the conjunction of the rivers (whether real or a painting) is lovely. And the Egyptian March is quite lively. But pulling together such a high percentage of clarinets to play it must have been quite a deal. If it was being played as a number in a concert, I wonder what the rest of the orchestra members - the flutists and etc. - did while that one number was being played with all those clarinets, and then what did the extra clarinetists do when the orchestra was playing with their usual percentage of instruments? Or did Strauss write other orchestral pieces which also required an abundance of clarinets?
I enjoyed learning the history of the Suez Canal...as well as the illustrations. The Austrian Lady Band was a far cry from the clarinet concert of the Egyptian March. Yet you've woven their connection together very nicely. I did see a bassoon (I believe) in the back of the clarinets.
Another fascinating history. Reading the discussion of Napoleon and the Austrian monarch brought to mind my Italian ancestors -- rural workers not unlike those who built the Suez Canal -- whose land seizures and other struggles led to the independence of a united Italy from Austrian rule in 1861 (just a few years before the canal opening shown here). A small world even then, before technology. Of course the musical connection is important -- and then, as now, music has a way of uniting us all.
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