The Darling Saxophone Four

 

 It's attention to details that makes a great photographer.
To begin, your subjects always need to fit
into a camera's view frame
that's neither too close nor too faraway.
Sometimes shoes are just as important as hairstyles.

 

 

 

 If a photo shoot is indoors then good lighting is crucial.
Making subtle adjustment to lamps and screens
will balance shadows and highlights for best effect.
Too much glare will make whites too bright.

 

 

 

 

 But a true artist of photography
knows how to use a personal touch
to invite subjects to show off their finest features.

Smile for the camera, please.

 

 

 Today I present five superb portraits of
the Darling Saxophone Four.

They played the Palace Theatre on Sept 20th
in a dainty musical novelty.

 

 

 

 

The four young women pictured in the previous three photos were surely very pleased with their photographer's work. Even without their instruments the 8" x 10" photos could still be considered good examples of studio photography. But these young women were not bridesmaids or debutantes seeking a memento of a gala event. They were professional entertainers who needed a specialized business card, a publicity photo that showed off their act—a saxophone quartet. In a time not so long ago, before the invention of magical electronic devices that instantly record audio and video, any entertainer with ambition to make it big on America's vaudeville theater circuits had to have a good publicity photo. The Darling ladies knew a great picture wouldn't need a thousand words to describe their talent and what stands out on these three photos is classy saxophones.

The saxophone was a relatively new band instrument that was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in the early 1840s. He combined features from both woodwind and brass instruments and designed it in 9 different sizes, though only 5 are now commonly played. The four women in these photos are holding B♭ soprano, E♭ alto, B♭ tenor, and B♭ bass saxophones. Today the E♭ baritone sax, which is shorter and more agile than the B♭ bass, is the more common bass instrument in a modern sax section.

 

The first two photos are unmarked except for the photographer's signature logo, Celebrity, Chicago which was called Celebrity Photo Shop, located on the 7th floor of 25 W Madison St. in downtown Chicago. The third photo was taken by a different photographer, Hartsook of Tacoma, Washington, a studio located at 901 Commerce St., at or near the Pantages theatre. Fortunately the back of this one is marked with the name of the group—the Darling Saxaphone(sic) Four and a faded rubber stamp imprint: The pro[perty?] of Darling Saxophone Quartet. Also added was "Palace Sept. 20" and "In a dainty novelty."

That was just enough to give me something to search for and I quickly found them. On 3 September 1916 the Tulsa World printed a picture of the Charming Melody Maids, Darling Saxophone Girls in a musical interlude appearing at the Empress Theatre. It's a different publicity photo that shows four younger girls, possibly not all the same musicians as in my photos.

 

 

Tulsa OK World
3 September 1916

 

The word saxophone was frequently misspelled in newspapers as saxaphone since the instrument was still relatively unfamiliar to the public. The group also chose to call their group a saxophone four more often than as a quartet (or even  quartette). This made research challenging to track down all the variations but I found them again in an August 1915 theater review from the Seattle, Washington Daily Times. "Too Many Burglars,: a jolly little farce, has caused much merriment and the four Tacoma girls, calling themselves the "Darling Saxophone Quartette," have made a decided hit.

 

Seattle Daily Times
20 August 1915

Using this clue to their origin I was able to find a very brief report from the 19 June 1914 Tacoma News-Tribune that said "the Tacoma Girls Saxophone quartet played at the Sunday evening service of Trinity Methodist church." From these few, seemingly trivial, single-sentence newspaper references I conclude that in the summer of 1915, four ambitious Tacoma girls set off to take their saxophones onto the vaudeville stage. They (or their agent) changed the group's name to the Darling Saxophone Four probably to give themselves a more cosmopolitan style more like a refined Chautauqua ensemble. 

None of the advertisements or notices of the Darling Saxophone Four ever listed a program. America wouldn't discover jazz music until 1918 so the few adjectives applied to the music that they played was just "classical", "ragtime, and "popular".  They probably adapted the wide range of saxophone voicing to vocal arrangements of popular songs.

The four young women certainly offered a sophisticated fashion that was unlike any group of chorus girls in a burlesque act. But high class vaudeville entertainers needed more than fancy costumes, they had to have talent to sell tickets. Beginning in August 1915, the Darling Saxophone Four played in theaters around the Pacific Northwest like Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver. In the following year they appeared on playbills in Denver, Tulsa, Chicago, Duluth, and St. Paul.

Their act rarely got more than a short notice in newspapers, and never any critical review. One comment from the 29 September 1916 La Crosse WI Tribune was typical, saying, "Four happy young ladies in pretty costumes and with pretty faces, calling themselves "The Darling Saxophone Four," gave fifteen minutes or so of entertainment that seems to strike La Crosse theater audiences just right." Since their act was just one of a string of variety artists that a theater would book for a week's run, they regularly shared the stage with other entertainers like Japanese acrobats, Italian jugglers, Irish comedians, mysterious magicians, champion Australian whip crackers, and countless vocalists, dancers, and trained animal acts. Shows twice a day, matinees and evenings, and often interspersed with the latest silent film. 

Muncie IN Star-Press
10 December 1916

By December 1916 the Darling Saxophone Four were in Muncie, Indiana appearing at the Star Theater in the "last half", i.e. the second half, of a vaudeville show. The local newspaper ran their picture to promote the show that looks similar to my first photo. A photographer's mark is barely visible and I think it is also by Celebrity of Chicago. The saxophones and long white gowns are all there, but I'm unsure if all the players are the same as the tenor sax player looks different.

The big feature of the group was obviously the gigantic bass saxophone, an ungainly but imposing instrument that is rarely played in modern bands. It's pitched an octave below the B♭ tenor and its lowest note is a rumbling A♭1. Due to its size and complexity to make, Adolphe Sax made very few of them in the 1840s and by the 1850s bands and orchestras had better and louder bass instruments like the tuba and helicon. But in the 1890s the American band instrument manufacturers, like the C. G. Conn company, began turning out thousands of saxophones in response to a new enthusiasm for the instrument. Many of the first saxophone ensembles included the bass sax just because of its impressive size. So it was only natural that the Darling all-girl saxophone quartet would want to feature a bass sax and get a portrait of its player too.

This photo, also by the Celebrity photo shop of Chicago, shows the bass saxophonist with her instrument resting upright on the floor. The bass stands about 4½ feet tall but is actually closer to 9 feet long if  it was straightened out. The young woman wears a different satin gown which matches the style of the two women in the first duo photo.

In February 1920 she appeared in another newspaper picture promoting the Darling Saxophone Quartette show at the Gem Theatre in Twin Falls, Idaho. The advert adds, "One of the Best in the West if you are Critical. Don't Hesitate, It's a Musical Treat." The alto and tenor sax players in the center are the same women as in my second duo photo, and in the lower right corner is a faint signature that matches the same Hartsook photography studio of Tacoma, Washington.

Twin Falls ID News
27 February 1920

On the back of the bass saxophonist's photo is a penciled note:
4 Harmony Maids.

 

 

Tacoma WA Daily Ledger
20 January 1920

 

The early vaudeville career of the Darling Saxophone Four seems to be have been cut short, as the group's name only came up in newspapers for two seasons from August 1915 to November 1917. However after time off they returned to touring in the winter of 1920 and in January a Tacoma newspaper reported that, "Residents at the Masonic Home were delightfully surprised with two concerts Sunday afternoon by the Saxophone quartet of Tacoma composed of the Darling sisters, Seze, Lois, Medora, and Phyllis Darling."

This is the only reference I could find that identifies the four women as the Darling sisters and gives their individual names. But what is peculiar is that despite my best efforts I can not find any of those names in the usual official records of Tacoma, and not even in the state of Washington either. Though they look like they could be sisters, their unusual combination of names does not show up in any 1910 or 1900 census. It's a puzzle that will need more investigation to solve. 

The Darling Saxophone Four left Washington and were in Idaho in February/March; Buffalo, New York in May; Topeka, Kansas in July; Omaha, Nebraska in August; and finally Des Moines, Iowa on 4 December 1920 playing at the Empress Theatre, 2:00, 3:30, 6:30, 8:00 and 9:30. After that date the Darlings changed their name to the Four Harmony Maids.

Bemidji MN Pioneer
20 December 1920

This name change still retained "The Saxaphone (or Saxophone) Four" in their subtitle, but the number sometimes changed. Some theaters listed "Three Harmony Maids" or even "Five Harmony Maids" in their notices. Besides playing saxophones the group also sang, though programs were not given. In March/April 1921 the Four Harmony Maids were now in California. A short notice in the San Luis Obispo newspaper identified them as the "four Darling girls, and they are darling girls, are known to the theatrical profession as the Four Harmony Maids and they play saxaphones (sic) with a master hand and some lip. If you doubt it , drop into the Elmo Theater tomorrow and note their attractive appearance and worthy offering."

San Luis Obispo CA Daily Telegram
23 April 1921

By the summer of 1921, both the Four Harmony Maids and the Darling Saxophone Four disappear from theater notices.

 

This last portrait of one of the Darling saxophonists was also taken at the Celebrity studio in Chicago. Seated on a wide claw-foot settee, a woman holds in her lap a small soprano saxophone. She's the same woman second from right in the quartet photo. Here she is dressed in a slightly shorter satin gown and her hair curls have a different twist with maybe a different color too, though her shoes are the same. It's unusual to see a small soprano sax with sinuous curves like the larger saxophones as in its modern form it is usually straight like a clarinet.

 

Her stage costume matches that of her colleagues in the first duo photo and the bass saxophonist portrait. Her smile and dimples gives her an engaging, even elegant, poise that surely appealed to anyone who saw her perform.

 

However the back of this portrait adds a new layer of confusion to the group.

 

 

Two printed stamps read:

Property of
Mel-O-Dee
Saxaphone Four
Eva Darling, Manager

FROM
Bert LEVEY CIRCUIT
Publicity Department

The Bert Levey Circuit was connected to an association called the Independent Vaudeville Theatres, and Bert Levey (1885-1972) was one of the theater owners and promoters who ran an agency for vaudeville artists from the Alcazar Theatre in San Francisco. 

 

The Mel-O-Dee Saxaphone (sic) Four was a group that first appeared in a Moscow, Idaho theater notice in November 1923. They were part of a set of acts that toured together in western states that winter. One newspaper described them as "a  quartette of talented and expert musicians, two males and two females. They are accomplished artists who present an offering under the title of "Music De Luxe," a musical program that unquestionably pleases every patron. Their act is presented in a most interesting manner and is charmingly costumed. This quartette of musicians furnishes its entertanment via the saxophone and piano route on which instruments they are experts. Their repertoire is composed of classical, popular, and jazz numbers."

 

The Mel-O-Dee Saxophone Four played shows in Oregon in December 1923 and then from January to March 1924 were in southern California. They appeared at the Hippodrome Theater in Los Angeles in February and the newspaper listing came with a map of the LA theater district showing the location of 23 theaters in the city's center. The last notice I could find of the Mel-O-Dee saxophone quartet was from 10 March 1924 in Bakersfield, California. After that all is silent.

 

Los Angeles Evening Post-Record
2 February 1924

The iconic Hollywood sign, originally Hollywoodland, had been erected just the previous year. For anyone visiting Los Angeles is must have been obvious that the great age of motion pictures, first silent and soon talking, was about to take over America as the principal medium of entertainment. The age of vaudeville was closing. 

 

 

 

I suspect, but can't really prove, that this last portrait of the soprano saxophonist of the Darling/Harmony Maids/Mel-O-Dee Saxophone Four is its manager, Eva Darling. But whether it is her maiden name, her married name, or just a stage name I can not say. It's a puzzle piece that does not fit into the expected picture. And the names of the other women are still not confirmed. I don't know which one is Seze, Medora, Lois, or Phyllis, much less Eva.

 

Like the previous names of the Darling sisters, Eva Darling is not found in Tacoma directories. In the 1910 US census there was a Mary E. Darling, age 18, single, living with her mother, Addie L. Darling, age 45, widow, with an older sister Addie Crane, age 27, divorced. Mary listed her occupation as musician, Music Hall, and I discovered in other reports that she  played the organ and piano at a Tacoma cinema. It may be a close connection but there's no mention of saxophones or of other sisters. It's odd that in a city like Tacoma there is no record of a family of musical sisters who became a successful saxophone quartet.

 

Based on the few clues I could confirm the first photo the quartet was likely taken in Chicago in 1916. The three photos of the first duo, the bass,and soprano sax portraits were taken soon after, maybe 1917 or 1918. Since the women in the second duo photo look very like the women in the picture run in the February 1920 Twin Falls newspaper, also taken by the same Tacoma photographer, I think the dates from 1920 or late 1919. But it's an old show business rule that publicity photos never reveal an artist's true age.  

 

Their photos resemble those of The Three Weston Sisters, a story of another female musical ensemble that I wrote about in January 2019. The Weston sisters also used a Chicago photographer and their career spanned over 20 years. They made good use of the sibling ticket to promote their trio.

 

Another similar group was The Verdi Sextette, whose set of publicity photos from a Chicago studio I presented in February 2012. This mixed ensemble of men and women likely followed the the same theater circuits that the Darling Saxophone Four traveled.

 

Finally there is the photo of the Cadet Sextette, the "Monarchs of the Saxophone," who were featured in my story from July 2016, Sax Appeal. They had six saxophones of all sizes, including a huge contra-bass saxophone,  and were engaged by the Pantages theater circuit in the 1920s. 

 

It's frustrating that I can't add much more background to the beautiful portraits of the Darling Saxophone Four. Unfortunately this is a puzzle that will have to stay unfinished. But these four women were remarkable to be working as professional musicians at a time when American society placed too many restrictions on women. Vaudeville theaters in the pre-Hollywood cinema age employed thousands of entertainers and it was one vocation open to anyone with drive and talent. I think the four Darling saxophonists had that kind of moxie and we can see it in their photographs.

 

 

Sadly, we can only imagine the music that the Darling Saxophone Four played.
Fortunately however, YouTube offers a modern female saxophone quartet
that can demonstrate what their music might have sounded like.
Here is the Sistergold saxophone quartet from Germany
playing Gershwin's "I got rhythm"
at a concert at the Vöhl, Germany synagogue in 2013.

 

 

 

 

They are so good that I can't resist adding another of their videos.
Here are the Sistergold Saxophone Quartet from April 2018
playing "Carlos Ferdinand"
an original composition by Elisabeth Flämig.

 

 

 

 

Brava!
Encore!
"Ain´t she sweet" 

 

 The Darling Saxophone Four would have been impressed!

 

 

 

 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where every photo brings out the best in people.

Picture Perfect

 

Art does not have to be large and grand
to be appreciated for its beauty of design.
Sometimes a simple illustration
is equally charming.

 

 

 This is especially true in portrait sketches.
A skilled artist draws our attention to a face
with subtle strokes of a pen or brush.
Instantly we recognize a personality or character
that we know from our own life experience.

Today I present examples of this kind of pure natural art
created by an Austrian artist, Hermann Torggler. 

A native of Graz, Austria, Hermann Torggler, (1878-1939) first studied art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, and in 1908 moved to Vienna where he established a studio specializing in portraiture of Austrian nobility, military officers, and the upper classes of Vienna. These postcards date from his earlier career, perhaps even his student years in Munich and were published by Fr. A. Ackermann, Kunstverlag, München.

 

 

 

The first picture is a young woman in a garden setting playing a harp. The caption title is Andante, the Italian musical term for a modest strolling tempo. The postmark dates from 20 February 1900.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

The next postcard is entitled Studienkopf VI and shows a head study of a dark haired woman turned in part profile. She wears a large flower(?) in her hair and a hoop pendant hanging from her left ear, a classical style pose. Several people have signed the bottom of the card in pencil. The postmark is unclear but I think it is from around 1901, and certainly dates from the pre-war era of Kaiser Franz Joseph.

  

 

 

 

 

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The next portrait is a young musician, a woman with a violin, and given a title of In Harmonie! She is dressed in a gauzy Grecian-like gown with a flower band in her hair. Long time readers may remember her from my story Ein schönes Mädchen published in November 2019. This is a duplicate card that was sent through the Bavarian postal service in June 1899.

 

 

 

 

 

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The publisher Ackermann, Kunstverlag, was based in München, so their postcards were distributed widely over Bavaria, Austria, Switzerland, and Germany. This next portrait is another dark haired beauty who may be holding a lute-like instrument or a serving tray. It's partly hidden but I think her fingers are plucking at a string instrument like a mandolin or lute. Torggler liked to feature female musicians in his postcards and did a series of musical portraits which I featured in November 2020, Hermann Torggler's Great Composers - part 1 and part 2.

 

This card has a cryptic message on the front that looks like a kind of short hand scribble and is in sharp contrast to the elegant penmanship of the address. The postmark is also from Bayern/Bavaria with a date of 11 July 1902.

 

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

This weekend, (18-20 November 2022), western New York was hit with a fierce snowstorm that is predicted to dump 6+ feet of snow on the region. Being Austrian, Torggler knew something about the magical and spine-chilling qualities of snow. It's fun to watch it and sometimes play in it, but generally it's just a big icy mess that hangs around until spring. 

 

 

This last card shows two children, a boy and a girl, at play outdoors in the snow. An overly jolly snowman seems to reach out for the little girl. The title reads:

Der verliebte Schneemann
~
The snowman in love

This card was sent to Wien on 10 January 1900.

 

 

When Torggler's postcards were first offered to the public in the late 1890s, the medium of the picture postcard was still a new novelty. Instead of just sending a short message, people were discovering that they could now include an artistic gift of a picture of a pretty girl playing the harp or just gazing pensively into the distance. It was a way of conveying friendship, affection, even love. I especially like how his young women are depicted in a natural way without commercial affectations like a fashion model in an advertisement. Obviously there is some romantic sentimentality in the images, but Torggler was merely following a cultural trend that was popular in this era. 

Since his simple artwork did not require color printing they were cheap to produce. I expect Torggler probably sold entire sketch books to Ackermann's company which then chose the best ones and produced them in series. Now 120 years later we get to admire his charming artwork and share the joy they once provided. That's what great art is supposed to do, no mater how small.

 

 

 

 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where everyone is checking out the leftovers this weekend.

The Color of War

It's like a scene from ancient times.
As a demonstration of its power
a victorious army parades defeated enemy soldiers
through the ruined streets of a conquered city.

The now disarmed soldiers march in orderly ranks
guarded by troops carrying rifles fitted with long bayonets.
A photographer preserves the moment on a postcard.
The vanquished foe are now helpless captives. 

This grim black and white photo
shows hundreds of French and British soldiers
walking along a cobblestone avenue in Lille, France.
The German army occupied this city on 13 October 1914
following a ten day siege during which heavy shelling destroyed
882 apartment and office blocks and 1,500 houses,
in an area around the train station and city center.
As a result Lille, situated near the border of Belgium,
became a major depot for the Kaiser's forces
deployed along the Western Front,
and remained in German military control
until liberated by the Allies on 17 October 1918.
So a parade of prisoners of war like this
must have been a common sight for Lille's citizens.

This postcard and others like it
were reproduced as a cheap and easy way for German soldiers
to send messages to family and friends back in the fatherland.
But the gloomy gray tone of these photos
did not convey the heroic quality
desired by the German office of propaganda.
Something more was needed to illustrate
the dominance of Germany's great military machine.

What about color?

This colorized photo postcard shows a similar scene with captive French soldiers being led down a cobblestone street by German guards. But an element of reality is introduced as the French uniforms of light blue coats and red hats and trousers stand out against a background of red brick walls and green woodland.
 

On the back of the postcard is a message in German dated 30 June 1916. It also has a printed caption in both German and French that reads:  

Lille – Französische Gefangene verlassen de Citadelle
Des prisonniers quittent la Citadelle
~
French prisoners leave the Citadel

* * *

 

 

 

In this next postcard a long procession of French soldiers walk across a bridge. This colorized halftone print emphasizes their red kepis and pantaloons. They are identified in a caption at the top:

Gefangene Franzosen
auf dem Transporte
~
Captive French
on the transport

 

Almost from the very beginning of the Great War of 1914-1918, German publishers began producing countless domestic propaganda like this to validate Germany's war achievements. This became especially important as the war dragged on and German casualties increased.  On the back of the card is printed Kriegs-Eirnnerungen-Karte ~ War Memories Card. It was probably sold in order to raise funds for the war effort or for veterans assistance. The postmark stamp is from a military unit and is dated 23 December 1916.

 

 

 

 

 

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In this postcard a group of soldiers wearing khaki-colored wool capes are pictured resting outdoors under a blue sky with puffy white clouds. They are close enough to the camera so we can see individual pink faces of men young and old. Beyond them in the background is a green field filled with many more soldiers. The caption reads:

Gefangene Russen — Kreigsjahr 1914–15
~
Captive Russians — war year 1914–15

This postcard was published by the W.M.L. printing company as part of a series on prisoners of war. When the card was sent over the military Feld-Post the war had nearly reached its first anniversary as the postmark is from Rastatt 28 June 1915. 

 

 

 

 

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Another half-tone color print postcard shows a group of soldiers wearing a different khaki uniform with Red Cross armbands. The caption reads:

Kriegsgefangene 1914/15 — Engländer
~
Prisoners of war 1914/15 — Englishmen

 

This card was also sent by a German soldier using Feld-Post. The postmark dates 5 March 1915 is from Meschede.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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My last card is the most colorful with about ten soldiers dressed in kilts unloading a rail car. The caption reads:
 

Kriegsgefangene Schöttlander beim Umladen von Korn.
~
Scottish prisoners of war when loading corn.

 

The Scottish tartan is at least consistently, if crudely, painted as a green, yellow, red plaid which is probably not very authentic. The Highland regiments were a popular subject for this kind of propaganda, partly because Germans had a strange enthusiasm for Scottish fashion which I've documented in several German ladies orchestras. This card was also sent Feld-Post but neither the postmark or the soldier writing it gives a date.

 

 

 

Yesterday, 11 November 2022, known in America as Veteran's Day and Remembrance Day in other countries, marked 104 years since the the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front of World War 1.

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, beginning from the start of the Great War in August 1914 to its conclusion on 1918, 8 million soldiers fighting on the battlefields and 2 million civilians, mainly those living abroad in enemy countries or areas under enemy occupation, were taken prisoner and interned in prisoner of war camps. During the first month of the war on the Eastern Front, from 26-30 August 1914, over 92,000 Russian soldiers were captured by German forces at the Battle of Tannenberg. By September 1914 the German army's rapid westward advance through Belgium and France had taken over 125,000 French, Belgian, and British soldiers. 

This unexpected influx of so many captured enemy troops created a severe logistic problem for Germany. Camps for detention, transport, and confinement of the prisoners had to be quickly constructed. Each camp required suitable accommodation for enlisted men and officers, adequate food and water, proper sanitation and medicine, and of course personnel to support and guard each camp. Eventually there were over 170 prisoner of war camps in Germany which by the end of the war held 2,400,000 men.

My original interest in this little known history of World War 1 came from my discovery of photo postcards of orchestras and theater groups organized by captive soldiers in these POW camps. Readers can find some of my stories of those photos under the label "POW" on my blog's sidebar. But my curiosity about this topic has expanded to include more of the postcards published in Germany as part of the propaganda used to justify the German cause.

 

The bright colors and relative passive subjects pictured on these postcards hides the horrific nature of the war. As the conflict progressed into 1915, and then into 1916, 1917, and 1918 the German public was no longer insensible to its tragic consequences. I'm fascinated by the way enemy prisoners were depicted in Germany and how it changed over time. Colorful postcards were just one feature that were created to market Germany's continuation of a now grotesque war. This post is just the first in a series on the artwork and imagery used in German POW postcards. It's my small effort to "never forget."

 

 

 

 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where things are a bit unbalanced this weekend.

A Mountain Horn

For some people the wonders of nature
are found in dramatic landscapes filled with
majestic mountains, spectacular waterfalls,
verdant valleys, and glistening glaciers.

But for a musician there is
an invisible soundscape to admire too.
It's a texture of sound created by natural elements
that make the mountain winds roar, the forest trees murmur,
the alpine pastures flutter, and the ice fields crack.
It's an awareness of a topography's resonance,
a sense of echos and sonorities formed
by gigantic walls of rock and vast carpets of turf.
It's the earth's concert stage.
And the best way for a musician
to appreciate this aural phenomena
is to join the ambient noise
with their own voice or instrument.

 

In this postcard a man
standing on an alpine hillside
does exactly that.

 

 

 Alphornbläser auf Frutt
~
Alphorn player at Frutt

 

 

The instrument is the alphorn, a long conical horn made of wood that is a European folk instrument common to the mountain people of the Alps. It's about 12 to 13 feet long (depending on whether it is in the key of F# or F), carved out of a softwood, and blown through a mouthpiece much like a bugle or horn. The physics of its sound limits an alphorn to a specific set of notes called overtones which give it a rudimentary scale of about 12-15 musical pitches. In September 2016 I featured myself playing one in The Wedding Alphorn. The wood gives it a mellifluous sound that is more akin to the human voice than to the strident qualities of brass horns and trumpets.

 

I acquired this picture postcard of a solitary alphornist as much for the note on the back as the folk musician on the front. It was sent using the Feldpost, or military postal service, to Pionier Hürlimann Ferdy on 24 October 1939. The writer used neat block letters that made translation very easy.

 

 

 

Wir sitzen wieder zusammen,

der Urlaub hat manchen befreit,

weil wir das Bier nicht verdammen,

sind alle zum, Saufen bereit!

Wir denken an die Clubkameraden

die unter der Fahne stehin,

Ihr wackeren Schweizer - Soldaten,

Ein Schluck auf ein Wiedersehen.

We sit together again,

as the holiday has freed some,

because we do not condemn the beer,

everyone is ready to drink!

We think of the club mates

who stand under the flag,

you brave Swiss soldiers,

a sip until we meet again.

The short verse is signed by about six people, all men and fellow soldiers I presume. The language is German but from the message we learn that they are Swiss. It is one of the curiosities of Europe that Switzerland has four national languages: German, French, Italian, and Romansh, with German being the most common. 

What makes the note special is the date: 24-X-39 written below the address. Just a month earlier the Second Great War  burst upon the world when Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939. Since by October 1939, Hitler had already taken over Austria, the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, and now Poland, these Swiss soldiers understood the dire threat Germany posed to their country. Within three days the Swiss army had mobilized 430,000 combat troops and 210,000 support personnel, 10,000 of whom were women. During the war years when this alpine country was effectively surrounded by a hostile force, the Swiss government maintained its neutrality but still defended its border, eventually reaching a full force of 850,000. "Brave Swiss soldiers" was not just a sentimental phrase for these men.

 

In the caption the word "Frutt" translates from German as "fruit". But "Alphorn player on fruit" would be silly. It sounds like a breakfast cereal. I wondered if it might be a location in Switzerland, and like magic, Google Maps took me instantly to this place— Frutt, in the village of Kerns, which resides in the canton of Obwalden, Switzerland. In the center of this valley is a lake called Melchsee which lends its name to the mountain resort Melchsee-Frutt. The village is situated at 1,920 metres (6,300 ft) above sea level. The resort was established in 1936 when a gondola was constructed to take visitors up toward the higher peaks: Erzegg, Balmeregg and Bonistock are at 2150m, 2255m and 2160 meters, respectively.

 

One of the amazing features of Google Maps is finding thrilling 360° photos of exotic places. Here is one that I think was taken from a drone or balloon just above the Melchsee. As you rotate around you can see several places where the alphorn player might have stood, though I can't really be sure of his exact location.

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* * *

In another coincidence I discovered a YouTube video
of an alphorn quartet playing a piece entitled
Der Frutt - Kühreihen.  
It was posted by Mike Maurer,
who is, I believe, the alphorn player on the right.

 

 

 The previous piece "Der Frutt - Kühreihen"
translates from German as "The Fruit - Rows of Cows."
Something is probably lost in my translation
but here's another alphorn quartet video
posted on YouTube by Dafydd Bullock
that might explain it.

  Innocent Alphorn Players attacked by Savage Cows  

Stay to the end for the vicious assault.

 

 

 

 

As the song says,
"the hills are alive with the sound of music."

 

 

 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where some see the glacier as half-filled
and others as half-empty.