Music for a War

 

 The world was at war.
The bellicose armies of Europe
mobilized to the clarion calls of trumpets.
Troops marched into battle
following the steady cadence of drums.

 

 

 

 

 

Yet there were occasions when soldiers
took up musical arms with violins, flutes, and horns
instead of rifles, guns, and cannons.

For these actions, the soldiers
did not follow a general's orders to attack the enemy.
Instead they obeyed the commands of a conductor
whose baton directed them
to make battle with musical notes. 

 

The casualties were few,
and never fatal.

Today, I present
three photos of small military orchestras
from the Great War of 1914-1918.

* * *

The first ensemble is a group of eleven musicians wearing uniforms of the British army. This is not a postcard, but a photograph, 5½" x 8", and somewhat faded which necessitated a correction for the poor contrast. There are five string players with three violins, a cello, and a double bass, as well as a trombone, two cornets, piano, and drums. Seated center is the conductor holding a slender baton. The men appear to be on the stage of a very small theater, but the wall drapery behind them is a painted illusion, I think. In the upper corner are a few strokes from an ink pen which might be letters or numbers, but it is unclear.

 

Most of the men are young, in their 20s, and wear enlisted rank uniforms, but two men are older and wear a Sam Browne belt fastened diagonally across their tunic, which, I believe, makes them officers. I don't think mixing ranks like this was a common activity, if at all, so this may have been an unofficial amateur musical ensemble. The photo does not have any note to identify when or where they are, but their uniforms are definitely from the 1914-1918 period. The camera did not have a good lens so the print is grainy and a bit out of focus, but there is enough contrast on the violinist seated third from left, to pick out some detail on his regimental cap badge.

 

The design is a circular wreath, which is a less common shape, and in the center is a three point shield-like emblem with a curved banner below. It's a very good match for the Cap badge of the Northamptonshire Regiment, an infantry regiment first organized in 1881. During WW1, different battalions of the Northamptonshire Regiment served on the Western Front in France, as well as in the Gallipoli campaign, and in Egypt, and Palestine. My hunch is that this photo was taken in France, but there are no more clues in the photo to confirm that. But at least we can trust that the men all came from the East Midlands of England.

Cap badge of the Northamptonshire Regiment.
Source: Wikipedia

* * *

My second photo is a postcard that shows another group of eleven musicians, this time dressed in Austrian army uniforms. They are posed outdoors with four women in the wooded garden of a house. Two large beer steins are in the foreground, one empty and the other half-full. The ensemble's instrumentation has five string players, four violins and a double bass, with one cornet, a horn, a rotary valve trombone, a flute, and an E-flat clarinet. One musician, fourth from right, has no instrument but he doesn't look like the conductor. More likely he is the drummer. The soldiers look relaxed, maybe because of the beer, but the women seem a bit reserved in their expression. Perhaps they have a family connection with one of the men, or to the location of the house and garden where the little orchestra has performed. 

The armed forces of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire were a confusing blend of regiments from several nationalities, the two largest being Austrian and Hungarian. But this group is Czech, I think, as the sender of the postcard writes in the Czech language. The postmark on Kaiser Franz Joseph's stamp is dated 29 VIII 15, and the card was sent by a soldier, presumably one of the  men in this photo, to his beloved parents who lived in Ostroměř , a small village in the Jičín District of the Hradec Králové Region which is now in the north central part of  the Czech Republic. Historically this was known as Bohemia before WW1, a region well known for producing great musicians like Bedřich Smetana (1824–1884), Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904), and Leoš Janáček (1854–1928). 

* * *

The third group was also pictured on a postcard and is the largest ensemble with 19 musicians. These soldiers are in German military uniforms, but without helmets or caps, as they are posed inside a large paneled room. The instruments are not all visible, but there are at least seven string instruments, five violins, a cello, and a double bass, along with a flute, a clarinet, two trumpets, a trombone, and a piano. This is large enough to make a pretty decent sounding orchestra.

The back has a note in German that is difficult to read, but I believe it identifies them as part of the Infantry Regiment No. 121 with a year date of 1918. The second line may read Offiziers Kasino(?) which would be a good reason for an army orchestra to provide entertainment at some officer's social affair.

* * *

During this era, most musicians in military bands were equally capable of playing string instruments as well as woodwind and brass instruments. For the troops, band music was best suited for outdoor concerts, and, of course, parades where marching was required. But officers preferred indoor performances with more subdued dynamics, so it was common for bandsmen to switch over to string instruments and play at their officers' dinners and social events. 

 

Unfortunately we will never know what kind of musical program these little orchestras performed. Certainly there was no jazz or ragtime for these musicians, but instead lots of waltzes, polkas, and folk songs, with maybe an occasional music hall tune. But exactly what was played is not recorded. I like to imagine that Johann Strauss Jr.'s dance music was played on both sides of the Western and Eastern Fronts, and maybe his Blue Danube Waltz could have been a musical diplomat for world peace.

 

 

But if we look at the shoes of the German and British musicians,
we get a small clue as to what a musician's life was like in wartime.
These hobnailed boots were made for marching.
Marching and slogging through the mud of Flanders and France.
 

A two-step that no one really enjoyed dancing.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where soldiers serve and protect.