This is a blog about music, photography, history, and culture. These are photographs from my collection that tell a story about lost time and forgotten music. Mike Brubaker
I have hundreds of antique photos of children holding cornets and violins. But a kid holding a treasured pet cat? Only this one.
For some mysterious reason, people back in the olden days may have featured their baby in a tuba or a small boy with a too-large trombone, but they rarely included a cat. Even in nonmusical families cats are uncommon to find in old photos.
I don't think it's because cats were not considered part of a family's household, but apparently in past times most people didn't seem to think a cat was worthy of being in the family photograph.
Or maybe it's just a cat thing.
Today I present two families, one German and the other French, that aspired to play music for the public.
Only one had a cat.
In this first postcard we meet the Dümke family from München, Bayern; known as Munich, Bavaria to most English speakers. The five members of this little band are grouped around a trapezoidal xylophone called a Strohfidel which is played with tiny wooden mallets held by a young girl. She stands next to her father, Herr Dümke who has a rotary valve trumpet. Two younger daughters hold trumpets, the one on the right is larger, perhaps a flugelhorn. On the floor is a baritone horn which is probably the xylophone player's second instrument.
Opposite Herr Dümke is a young woman with a rotary valve trombone. I presume she is his wife and mother to the three girls who look about ages 7,9, and 11, though it's difficult to say for sure She could be an older daughter, but as she is dressed in a more mature ladies' fashion rather than the sailor-suit tunic of the girls, I think she is their mother.
The postcard has two postmarks of 18 November 1904 from Wiesmühle? and Altenmark? The marks are a bit obscured but the first one may be a place name in Germany and the second in Austria. Someone stole the stamp.
* * *
The Familie Dümke returned to the a different studio some time later for a similar pose with the same instruments. The girls have matured by at least another two years. The xylophonist wears her hair styled for a young woman, not unlike her mother's. The girls wear matching outfits that look vaguely like folk costumes. Bavaria border Switzerland and Austria, so the Dümke brass band likely played traditional tunes from the Tyrol region.
The postmark dates 24 May 1905 from Nuernburg or Nürnberg, Germany. The back includes a helpful printed name of "Postcard" in 17 languages. The dates of the two cards are too close to each other to explain the age difference in the girls. The first card's photo was surely taken in 1901-02, if the second image was made in 1905.
* * *
My next family band is the Harmonie des Minimes - Famille Poupelin. Mother and father bookend six children, two older boys and four younger girls. Father Poupeli holds a clarinet while his sons hold a piston valve trumpet and a baritone horn. The tallest daughter holds a triangle. The girls are all dressed alike and I expect they sang together in the family's performances.
They were photographed by the Maschek studio of Bordeaux, France. The postcard was never posted but it likely dates from 1905 to 1910.
* * *
The Poupelin family returned to monsieur Maschek's studio for a second postcard and this time have brought their pets. They are called the Harmonie de La Bastide, which is a neighborhood along the Garonne River’s right bank in Bordeaux. Mother and the eldest daughter are absent, but father Poupelin and sons have the same instruments and sport summer straw hats while the girls wear darker patterned dresses. But it's the youngest girl that caught my attention. She is holding a short-hair tabby-mix cat who is struggling to escape the brother's trumpet. It's a charming photo that I think shines with life and personality.
And there's a dog too. A Jack Russell Terrier, I think. Its attention is focused on someone beyond the camera. Madame Poupelin perhaps?
Family bands were once a very common entertainment to find throughout Europe and America. Typically they were the product, so-to-speak, of a talented father who had musical training and desired to promote his music through a family troupe. The children might have some talent, but it was unlikely they were Wunderkind like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Their main qualification was that they worked for free.
In the early 20th century most family ensembles performed in venues near their hometowns and very few achieved regional or national celebrity. In France, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria a family band was a wholesome entertainment found in village inns, wine gardens, and hotel restaurants.
Yet there was a problem shared by parents of every family band. Within a few short years their children grow taller and lose that adorable quality that makes grandmothers smile. Listening to a child of six thumping on a tuba is amusing, but hearing a boy of sixteen squawk on a clarinet is just annoying. For that reason most family bands had a short career in show business. But I suspect many children like the Dümke and Poupelin siblings learned valuable lessons about self-confidence, family teamwork, and personal discipline from performing music at such young ages. I would like to have heard them. Where's my time machine, Mr. Musk?
Some species of instrumentalists are hard to spot in the wild as they are few in number and very wary of photographers.
Others are often mistaken for players of more common instruments and it requires careful scrutiny to discern their unique features and confirm an identification.
Though their natural habitat covers a broad range, in some regions they are more difficult to find. It helps that sometimes these rare creatures mix in with flocks of other species which makes it easier to observe their distinctive appearance and unusual habits.
Today I present three antique portraits of singular English musicians of the double reed variety, two male bassoonists and one female oboist.
My first portrait is a gentleman dressed in a formal suit and playing a bassoon. His instrument gives the impression that he is a tall man, but since a bassoon is 4 feet 5 inches (1.34m) long when folded up, [8 feet, 4 inches (2.54m) when unfolded], I calculate that his height is actually about 5 feet, 1 inch (1.55m) which a stature not much more that his instrument. What I especially like about this bassoonist's photo is that from the tight expression of his mouth I'm pretty sure he was actually blowing a note when the photo was taken. Because he wears a three-piece suit and not a bandsman's uniform I think he is a member of an orchestra. Is he a professional or amateur musician? That's hard to say, though he looks to be a capable musician. After searching newspaper accounts for a bassoonist in the vicinity of Hereford, I was unable to find anyone who deserved mention, but this is not surprising since bassoonist rarely get the spotlight.
His bassoon lacks the complex keywork of a modern bassoon so I believe it is a transitional design that evolved from the earlier classical era instrument which only had a few keys. Bassoons are made of hard maple with a conical bore that is folded at the bottom. Because of its length as a bass woodwind instrument the tone holes are farther apart than on a short instruments like an oboe or clarinet. Keys allow a player's fingers to cover a wider spread of holes than they might otherwise be unable to reach.
This sepia-tone print is mounted on a carte de visite card, 4½ x 2½ inches (11.4 x 6.3 cm) with a plain cream color matte and square corners. It's a style that comes from the early years of CdVs so I believe this musician had his photo taken around 1865. The photographer's logo is stamped on the back: Mr. & Mrs. Bustin, Photographers, Hereford printed around an illustration of an artist's palette and brushes.
After research I determined that this was the studio of Richard Britton Bustin and his wife Mary Ann (aka Marian or Marion) Warren Bustin. According to census records, Richard was born in Barnstaple, Devon in 1836 and his wife Mary was born in London in 1837. They settled in Hereford where in the 1861 census Richard's occupation was as Master of a School for Artists. Intriguingly his wife also had an occupation listed as Photographer.
In the 1871 census, Marian Bustin, age 37, and her son, Richard S. Bustin, age 18, were both recorded as photographers, though Marian/Mary's husband, Richard Bustin Sr., is absent from this census. He returned in 1881 and now Richard B. Bustin and Marion Bustin were respectively: Art Master/Teacher and Artist. By the time of this census the Bustins were parents of 13 children. I found references to later photos marked "Richard Bustin & Son" so I feel sure my bassoonist dates from 1860 to 1869 before Richard Bustin Jr. became a partner, with 1863-65 more likely because of the simple card mount.
* * *
The next musician is a woman with an oboe, pictured on a larger cabinet card mount. She is seated at an ornately carved desk or side table and dressed in a beautifully embroidered blouse with huge leg-of-mutton sleeves (also known in French as the gigot sleeve) Her instrument is neatly held upright as if she is attentively listening to a conductor's instruction. She appears to be in her 20s and has rings on both hands, so I assume she is married.
An oboe is typically made from Grenadilla, also known as African blackwood, which is the same timber used to make clarinets. The black color of both instruments is the reason photos of oboes are regularly mistaken for clarinet. However the instruments are very different. The standard B-flat clarinet is slightly longer, has a cylindrical bore with a flared bell, and most noticeable, has a single-reed at the top. An oboe is made in the key of C with a conical bore that begins with a very narrow tube at the top where a double-reed is mounted and then gradually widens to a small round bulb at the bottom. The modern oboe, which I think is pictured here, has 45 key mechanisms.
In the 19th century some bands might include a single oboe, or sometimes two, to play melodies mainly from operatic repertoire, but during this era, all-female wind bands, unlike in America and Germany, were very rare in Britain, so I believe it more likely that she was a member of a women's orchestra.
The photographer was A. Hamilton & Sons of Paul SI, Kingsdown, Bristol in Gloucestershire, a short distance south of Hereford across the River Severn. The photo has no notes or imprint on the back, but a list of historical Bristol photographers dates Allan Hamilton & Son from 1896 to 1910.
* * *
My third portrait is another CdV photo and it shows a young bassoonist dressed in a military bandsman's uniform. His short tunic has traditional swallow-tail epaulets on his shoulders which was a uniform feature used by military bands of many European countries. He looks young with a whisp of a light color mustache, around age 20 or even 18.
Since this photo was purchased from a British dealer, I'm fairly confident that he is a British bandsman, though there are not enough clues to identify his unit. The backdrop is crude drapery or a blanket and I think he is seated outdoors on a grass lawn. I imagine this is the work of an enterprising photographer who set up a simple stage near a park bandstand to take individual photos of bandsmen after a concert.
There is nothing on the back of the photo but the photographer left an embossed mark, E. SEARS, on the front lower left corner, which I believe is an English surname. However it is too common a name to get a better fix on the location. This CdV card has rounded corners and a line border which was used from 1870s onwards. In America the CdV format stopped being used in the early 1890s but in Britain it was still popular up to the 1900s. My guess it that he dates from roughly 1885 to 1900.
It takes great patience and perseverance
to track down sightings of these
these curious instrumentalists.
Compared to other species of the woodwind family
like flutists, clarinetists, and even hybrids like saxophonists,
the historical photographic evidence
for bassoonists and oboes is very slim. But once you know how to recognize them it is very rewarding to capture even a glimpse of one.
Back in days long past, a man's preference in headgear said a lot about him. But sometimes its style was not by choice but by order.
This was especially true of military men whose hat or helmet was specified by regulation.
For a soldier, a helmet signified duty and service. And the best headgear was reserved for only the elite. A soldier's honor and pride couldn't get any better than wearing a hat style approved by an emperor.
Today I present photos of musicians wearing the ultimate helmet of the German Imperial Guard, the trumpeters of the Kaiser.
The first image comes from a German postcard of a stern-faced soldier dressed in an impressive parade uniform. His sword, shiny high boots, and cuirass, mark him as a cavalryman. But it is his impressive helmet topped by an eagle that really catches attention. His piston valve trumpet adds extra bling. The caption reads:
Willy Metz, als Stabs-Trompeter v. Regt. Garde du Corps (Leipziger Krystallpalast- Sänger)
A "Stabs-Trompeter" translates as "staff trumpeter", a military rank similar to a sergeant and equivalent to a trumpet major in a British cavalry regiment. Originally the purpose of a trumpeter was to be an officer's signaler on the battlefield directing troops in battle, or blowing various calls for announcing ordinary duties while in camp. With today's modern communication systems, a military trumpeter no longer performs any tactical service but still plays a ceremonial role preserving military traditions.
This trumpeter's uniform was of the Regiment der Gardes du Corps, the personal bodyguard of the king of Prussia and, after 1871, of the German Emperor, the Kaiser. It was an elite unit of Life Guards cavalry which is still found today in several European countries along with a mounted band led by trumpeters.
This card was sent on 3 July 1906 from Plauen, a large city in Saxony, Germany, not far from Leipzig. When I first acquired this postcard I assumed this man was a musician of the Gardes du Corps band, as in this era it was very common for military bands to perform at concert halls. Perhaps Willy Metz was featured as a soloist. His postcard is similar to postcard photos of individual French and British military bandsmen from this same era.
Stabstrompeter Reinhold Fellenberg (1848–1912) Source: Wikipedia
When you look up the word "Stabstrompeter", you are directed to the German Wikipedia page for Stabsoboist, another German military musician's rank, which includes Stabswaldhornist for bandsmen in light infantry regiments, Stabshornist for engineer regiments, Stabstrompeter for artillery and cavalry. Basically the position was equivalent to a sergeant who was the chief musician and band leader. In 1908 the position was raised in the German army to Militärkapellmeister or military bandmaster which was a non-commissioned rank just below officers. On the Wikipedia page is this portrait of Stabstrompeter Reinhold Fellenberg (1848–1912) illustrating what a typical German Stabstrompeter looked like in uniform. Besides being an accomplished cornet and flugelhorn player, Fellenberg was a prolific composer whose music was well known throughout Germany and Europe during his career.
Beginning early in his training Stabstrompeter Fellenberg served in several cavalry bands which, I think, is evident in the type of helmet he wears. However he was never a member of the Garde du Corps in Berlin so his helmet's finial only has a sharp point and not an eagle. The Imperial Eagle on a Garde du Corps helmet carried a level of prestige several degrees higher in grandiosity.
Model 1894 Prussian Kurassier Helmet Source: The Internet
The reason for the extra glitter was, of course, due to the fashion tastes of the German monarch, Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859–1941). In this postcard Kaiser Bill appears in the full uniform of a Prussian Garde du Corps complete with cuirassier and a brilliant eagle on his helmet, which I presume was made of solid gold. The Kaiser was undoubtedly the most photographed person of his time, and he almost always appeared in military uniform, sometimes even wearing a general's outfit from another country's army. See him as a Spanish general in my story from September 2021, A Pair of Kings. His valet must have been an expert in military accoutrements to keep the Kaiser dressed in perfect order.
Like most royalty, the Kaiser also acquired a taste for military music from countless parades and military review. I suspect he even greeted many of the Stabstrompeters in his household guard by name. Who wouldn't like having a trumpet fanfare to announce your every entrance?
This next cabinet card photo shows another Imperial trumpeter dressed in nearly the same Garde du Corps uniform as Willy Metz. He has the same eagle helmet, sword, and tunic. The differences are that this man has no cuirass chest protector and holds a valveless natural trumpet with a Prussian state banner. This photo is not like a souvenir postcard but is clearly a portrait of a musician of some distinction.
The photo was taken at the studio of Max J. Bartsch & Co. of Berlin, at Königsgraben No.20. Curiously the photographer's imprint on the back of the photo has a telephone number: 3127, AMT V. This dates the card to after 1881 when the city of Berlin first acquired telephone service. But I think the fine quality of the photo print as well as the classy imprint suggests a date of mid-1890s.
So the question is, were these two men the same person? Their faces certainly share similar characteristics, though nearly every man in imperial Germany had a mustache with a Wilhelmine curl. But Willy Metz, the postcard trumpeter, looks to be in his mid-30s while the Berlin trumpeter is surely late 40ish or even 50+. Willy's postcard is dated 1906 and the cabinet card is from maybe 1895, so unless the Kaiser had a time machine, it doesn't add up.
Maybe there is another reason for the resemblance.
This next part of my story demands a soundtrack. So as you continue reading, listen to this rendition of the "Rote Funken-Marsch" composed by Hermann Kipper and Stabstrompeter Reinhold Fellenberg in 1890.
A few years ago I acquired a stereo view photo that shows a German band that is not in Germany. It is captioned:
8397. The Royal German Band, German Village, Midway Plaisance, Columbian Exposition.
The photographer's name is printed along the side and on the back:
copyright 1893, by B. W, Kilburn.
Photographed and Published by B. W. Kilburn – Littleton, N. H.
The photo was not taken in New Hampshire, but in Chicago, Illinois at the World's Columbian Exposition. This enormous spectacle was designed to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492, though belatedly a year later. It opened on 1 May 1893 and closed six months later on 30 October.
The exposition was built on the shore of Lake Michigan at Chicago's Jackson Park. It occupied 690 acres (2.8 km2), and featured almost 200 new (but deliberately temporary) buildings of neoclassical architecture connected by a network of walkways, gardens, canals and lagoons. Forty-six countries including Germany sent representatives to exhibit and present their nation's finest art, dazzling innovations, and most appealing culture to the citizens of the United States.
In the summer of 1893, 27,300,000 visitors came to see the wonders of the Chicago World's Fair. And Mr. Kilburn's company took a picture of every single one of them. The wonders that is! For a small price you could enjoy a 3-D experience touring the great Columbian Exposition in fabulous sepia tone.
The publisher of this image was one of the most successful American entrepreneurs in this unusual photographic medium. Benjamin West Kilburn (1827–1909) was both a photographer and businessman whose factory in 1893 could print 23,000 "views" a day. By the opening of the fair Kilburn was already well-known for his popular stereoscopic photos of American and Canadian landscapes. His exclusive contract to record the exhibits and people of the Columbian World's Fair was a major achievement, and during the short duration of the fair Kilburn's photographers produced hundreds of unique photos of this grand event.
Looking closely at the Royal German Band we see 23 bandsmen standing in a double row in front of a Germanic timber frame castle, not unlike something Walt Disney would create for a theme park. All the men are dressed in the same uniform that my trumpeters wear and every man sports an upturned Prussian mustache. Musicians at each end hold natural trumpets with Prussian banners but those in the center hold swords. Casually piled on the ground are some other brass instruments.
The German village was designed by a Berlin architect and funded by German banks, reportedly costing $1,200,000. All the timbers for the "castle" were cut in Germany and shipped to Chicago along with 23 German workmen to supervise its assembly at the fair. The "village" was supposedly staffed with German "peasants" in folk costumes, serving traditional Old World cuisine, and displaying various German regional crafts. It was pointedly designed to appeal to German-Americans and promote German culture.
The so-called "Royal German Band" was intended to be the headline entertainment for attracting visitors to the German Village. On one poster for the fair a gallant German cavalry trumpeter announces that there will be two concerts daily.
1893 Chicago World's Fair German Village Poster Source: The Internet
The Royal German Band was described in newspaper reports as having 100 men selected from several imperial military bands around the country. Each was chosen by examination of their musicianship, and perhaps even their height, as some newspapers gleefully reported that every bandsman was over six foot tall. In fact there were two bands, one of 55 infantry musicians and the other of 25 cavalry musicians. The infantry band used woodwind, brass, percussion, and even string instruments with a couple of double basses. Their uniforms were of Prussian blue. The cavalry band needed only brass and percussion instruments and wore white uniforms in the style of the Garde du Corps, just like the trumpeter on the poster and the musicians pictured on Kilburn's stereoview card.
Buffalo NY Sonntagspost 4 June 1893
The infantry band was directed by Kapellemeister Eduard Ruscheweyh and the cavalry band by "Stabs-trompeter" Gustav Herold. Both men came with impressive credentials as musicians and composers. Apparently a good number of the bandsmen, including Ruscheweyh, were no longer in military service but had been recruited to leave their civilian musical posts to undertake this concert tour of America.
In 1893 Kaiser Wilhelm II was striving to make Germany a more dominant player in international politics. The German Empire was actually quite young having been declared in January 1871 after the victory of the German confederated states in the Franco-Prussian War. The Kaiser and his ministers were then not burdened by the thorny problems they would face twenty years later. A world's fair in Chicago was considered a perfect opportunity to promote German prosperity and leadership, especially because the United States had a very large population of German immigrants. When plans for the fair's German Village were announced the Royal German Band received generous coverage in German language newspapers all across the country. Several papers, like the Buffalo, NY, Sonntagspost printed woodblock portraits of the two bandmasters, Ruscheweyh and Herold, with detailed description of the band's artistic merit. Oddly there is no mention of whether the band ever performed on horseback. Traveling with German horses or hiring American horses may have been too costly for even the Kaiser.
The 1890s was a great age for band music and German military band music was just as popular as German symphonic music. Most rosters of American orchestras and military bands were filled with German surnames. Likewise many famous conductors and bandleaders were also German or Austrian nationals. Musical training in Germany was considered second to none, and many young American musicians dreamed of attending a Berlin music conservatory to complete their education. In 1893 many musical instruments were relatively new German inventions. They were manufactured in German workshops that strived to perfect every instrument from harmonica to bass tuba.
Trumpeters from the German Village Band at the 1893 Columbian Expostion in Chicago Source: The Internet
When the Royal German Band arrived in New York in April 1893, they were initially detained on Ellis Island as their entry into the United States was challenged by the fledgling musician's union of New York City which objected to foreign workers taking jobs away from American citizens. The German bandsmen were understandably very indignant to be subjected to a law intended to protect common laborers and skilled workers from foreign immigrants. They argued that they were artists who should be granted a temporary entertainer's visa to perform as a group. An impromptu concert was quickly set up for the immigration commissioner in New York who, after hearing the band's virtuosity, overruled the protest and allowed the German band to continue on to Chicago. But not before they played a few warmup concerts in Madison Square Garden.
Brooklyn NY Standard Union 24 April 1893
On 24 April 1893 a Brooklyn reviewer in the Standard-Union praised the band as:
"the most interesting and enjoyable entertainments ever given... There is a becoming military air about them. They wear the German uniform, and the glory of their great nationality is manifest in their buttons and pose and music. We may convey an idea of their richness of variety, their strength and softness and the gorgeous sweep of their programme, if we say they mingle the severe art of Theodore Thomas with the popular energy of the late Patrick Gilmore. Something of the immense inspiration and grandeur and picturesque reminiscence and ambition of the gigantic empire founded by Prince Bismarck thrills in the atmosphere of this martial music. In part second, last night, the most unique and fascinating feature was— a. Salute to the Emperor. b. Old German Rondeau. Arranged for mediaeval trumpets and tympani.... J. Kosleck. It must have been very dull and thin blood that did not warm to the weird and searching splendors of the trumpets."
[ I should note that Theodore Thomas (1835–1905) was a celebrated German-American violinist and orchestra conductor, formerly of the New York Philharmonic and later the founder of the Chicago Symphony. Patrick Gilmore (1829–1892) was a well-known n Irish-American bandleader and composer who settled in Boston and established one of the most successful concert bands in America and popularized "monster concerts" of massed brass bands. ]
This enthusiastic response for the natural "mediaeval" trumpets was repeated by many other reviewers at their concerts.
Gustav Herold, Leader of German Cavalry Band at German Village, Columbian Exposition, Chicago 1893 Source: Portrait Types Of The Midway Plaisance by Frederic Ward Putnam, 1894
The bandsman mentioned in reports as responsible for this musical novelty was Stabstrompeter Gustav Herold. I had great hopes that he was the trumpeter in my Berlin photo. However as I have learned over the years to never give up on research, I found his picture in a wonderful souvenir album called Portrait Types Of The Midway Plaisance by Frederic Ward Putnam. Published in 1894, the book is preserved at the Internet Archive. It's obvious that though the two men wear the same uniform they are not the same person. Gustav is younger and his mustache has less dark wax. In the following summer this portrait was used to promote the sale of another photo collection.
St. Paul, MN Globe 11 June 1894
After the Chicago World's Fair closed at the end of October, the Royal German Bands took their time returning to Germany by playing concerts in other major cities in America. Reviews in Louisville, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Boston, St. Louis, and Philadelphia praised the bands' precision, dynamic range and made note of the cavalry trumpeters. Programs were varied and featured band arrangements of orchestral music by Richard Wagner, Franz Suppe, Johann Strauss Jr., with an occasional Italian opera overture too. This review from a November 1893 concert in Boston is typical:
The best brass and reed band playing is oppressive in Music Hall, but it should be said to the credit of these organizations that much of the oppressiveness is removed by the rare accuracy of their work. That begin and end with the exactness of the best symphony orchestra, they produce a gradually increased or diminished tone with splendid steadiness, and they show in all other respects a technical mastery that commands admiration. The playing by the clarinets of the violin figure in the "Tannhäuser" overture was wonderfully fine. An interesting performance was that by the cavalry band on old-style trumpets. The scales of these instruments do not permit much of a melody and the piece played was a sort of fanfare. To hear the trumpet tone, pure, unalloyed with any of the modern improvements, was a great satisfaction. [Boston Evening Transcript, 1 December 1893]
The natural trumpets that Gustav Herold brought to Chicago were instruments that came with a very long heritage in Germanic music, but they were an unusual and unfamiliar sound to American audiences. I'm sure they were chosen for their brilliant noise and spectacular effect. A loud flourish by trumpeters dressed in such grand uniforms will instantly grab the attention of any crowd.
But I suspect that the band's use of natural trumpets also impressed the audiences at home too, and inspired many imitators in Germany and Austria, especially with female brass players. You can see bands with these same natural trumpets on postcards I featured in my stories: Ladies with Brass, Even More Ladies with Brass, and Still More Ladies with Brass. That kind of musical fad had to start somewhere, and I think the trumpeters of the Royal German Bands of 1893 were a major influence in how brass bands evolved in the empires of central Europe.
Though I'm disappointed that my Berlin trumpeter is not Stabstrompeter Gustav Herold, nonetheless I believe that this bandsman must be standing in Kilburn's stereoview photo. Maybe the man on the far left? There's something about his mustache that makes him seem familiar. :–)
But what about the Leipzig trumpeter, Willy Metz? Was he a member of the Garde du Corps cavalry band?
The answer is Yes and No. Apparently he blew his trumpet in several military bands, and had a uniform for each one.
He also seems to have owned a time machine too.
In the 1900s music hall entertainers in Europe and especially in Germany often produced promotional postcards of themselves in multiple scenes of their different stage characters or skits. But Willy Metz paid extra to have his postcard printed in color. It shows him in a center vignette portrait, sans mustache, and then in four different full height views portraying different types of trumpeters. The caption identifies him as:
Willy Metz Gesangs und Instrumental - Humorist ~ Singing and Instrumental - Humorist
The postcard was never mailed but the publisher was Dr. Trenkler & Co. of Leipzig, a very large graphics firm that printed thousands of catalogs, brochures, advertising material and postcards. Many of the German postcards in my collection were produced by this company.
Willy Metz's four characters are each neatly identified in small type. Beginning on the upper left is Willy as a Stabstrompeter a Totenkopf-Husaren (Leib–Rgt No. 1) ~ Staff trumpeter of the Deathhead Hussars. His wears a uniform of another elite light cavalry of the German Empire which was topped by cylindrical wool hat displaying the distinctive skull and crossbones of this unit. The connection to murderous pirates is intentional. Willy also holds a long cavalry saber and a piston valve trumpet.
On the upper right Willy is dressed in more austere dark uniform with a longer coat and trousers legs decorated with a row of large buttons. His hat is quite tall like a top hat but not cylindrical. (Here's a bit of language trivia, Zylinder is the German word for a silk top hat.) In his left hand is, I think, a natural trumpet which is a bugle without valves. The caption describes him as a Lützower Jäger, Eine Episode a. d. Freiheitskriegen, 1813-15. This cavalryman represented a trumpeter from the Lützow Free Corps, a volunteer force of the Prussian army during the Napoleonic Wars. It was named after its commander, Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm von Lützow. The soldiers were famously known as “Lützower Jäger“ or “Schwarze Jäger“ (“Black Hunters”).
The character in the lower left with his high knee boots was also a cavalryman but his broad-brimmed hat with feather plume, lace collar and cuffs mark him as a trumpeter from an earlier century. His caption reads; Wallenstein Trompeter, Episode a. d. 30 jähr Kriege. The name Wallenstein refers to Albrecht Wenzel Eusebius von Wallenstein (1583–1634), a Bohemian military leader and statesman who was the supreme commander of the armies of the Holy Roman
Emperor Ferdinand II fighting for the Catholic side during the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). The instrument Willy holds is another natural trumpet which would have been appropriate in the 17th century. It is like the so-called "mediaeval" trumpets used by the
Royal German Band.
The last musician is dressed in blue uniform tunic with red trousers and kepi hat. His trumpet hangs behind his left shoulder. The caption reads: Fremdenlegionär, Actualle Scene a. d. Franz. Legion. This trumpeter was in the French Foreign Legion, presumably representing a soldier the then recent, but brief, Franco-Prussian War which began on Jul 19, 1870 and finished on May 10, 1871. This war ended the reign of Napoleon III, and out of the French defeat came a new Third French Republic. And for the victors, it unified the German states into an empire and expanded Germany's territory with the acquisition of the French border states of Alsace-Lorraine.
With five military characters, including his Garde du Corps Stabstrompeter, Willy Metz was obviously portraying various heroic events in German history through music. We are left to wonder exactly what trumpet calls he played for each trumpeter, but as he described himself as a singer as well as an instrumentalist, I think there were definitely songs for each trumpeter. The piston valve trumpet would be the most modern instrument and could easily play more complicated tunes than the natural trumpets. What's interesting from a brass player's perspective is that Willy was described as a virtuoso of the "Piston" or piston-valve trumpet which was not the dominant instrument in Germany. German and Austrian bands used trumpets with rotary valves. The French and British players used piston valve instruments.
This second postcard put Willy Metz into a different profession than a military bandsman which I had mistakenly assumed from his 1906 postcard. I now needed to find out who or what the Leipziger Krystallpalast- Sängers were. It turns out that they were an octet of men who had been performing at the Krystall-Palast music hall in Leipzig since 1889.
Leipziger Tageblatt u Anzeiger 22 August 1903
An advert in the August 1903 Leipziger Tageblatt, listed their individual names along with their specialties. There were two tenors, Karl Schewitzer and Franz Jentzsch, who were also humorists, actors, and instrumentalists. Two basses, Max Schmidt and Richard Klein, who also performed as humorists and instrumentalists. Klein was also a Drastischer Komicker and Grotesktänzer, Drastic comic and grotesque dancer. Alberti Geras was a humorist and a Rezitator or reciter, as well as a character actor, which I interpret as he told funny stories or read poetry in funny German dialects. Arthur Delitzsch was a "phenom Mezzosopran" with a specialty in "transformation" meaning he was a female impersonator. Edmund Bischoff was the choral director, pianist, and managing director of the group. And Will Metz was the "Pistonvirtuos", humorist, and actor with his own repertoire. I bet their rehearsals were fun to watch too.
Leipziger Krystallpalast- Sängers c.1900 Source: Wikipedia
The Leipziger Krystallpalast- Sängers were a "Herrensänger-Gesellschaft" or a Gentlemen's Singing Society founded in 1889 by the folksinger Richard Klein who is pictured along with his colleagues on this postcard image from the group's Wikipedia page. Willy Metz is at top right. They performed regularly in Leipzig but I don't believe they were a full-time professional ensemble that performed on the theater circuits. I think they were more like local semi-professional singers/actors who depended on other employment for their livelihood and played in their group for fun.
Willy's unique musical act was surely inspired by the heritage of German military trumpeters. While it's possible he served as a regimental trumpeter, I have a feeling that he was only a talented musician who used his passion for history to create a clever entertainment.
The Leipziger Krystallpalast- Sängers stayed together for nearly 50 years, disbanding in 1938 after the death of one their members. Evidently they were very popular in Leipzig and produced almost 200 78 records for several German labels. Several are preserved on YouTube and listening to them I can hear the charming folk element of their music along with simple accompaniments of piano and a few brass instruments. Though I do not understand the stories told in original Saxonische accent or, even less, laugh at the jokes, I can easily imagine how the gentle humor and proud Saxony heritage was presented. .
Courtesy of YouTube channel – 78 revolutions (RPM) – here is a recording of the Leipziger Krystallpalast-Sänger performing Husarentrompeter Karl - sächsischer Vortrag. It was recorded on 15 August 1911 and begins with a trumpet fanfare that I feel certain was played by Willy Metz.
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In 1893 and 1906, the sound of a trumpet evoked different feelings than how it is used in modern music today. In earlier times trumpets were directly associated with royal and military service. Any important event for a monarch always required trumpet fanfares. Composers used trumpets to paint musical pictures of majestic nobility and depict the furious battle of armies. Soldiers marched to the brassy blare of trumpets and drums, measured their days in camp listening to bugle calls, and followed the orders of battle from a signal trumpeter's alarm.
In Kaiser Wilhelm's Germany the sound of natural trumpets conveyed patriotism and national heritage. The flashy music stirred emotions and thrilled people who heard it, much more than fancy Prussian uniforms and splendid eagle helmets could do. I think Stabstrompeters Gustav Herold and Willy Metz understood that trumpets had a special power to command our attention.
This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday where all hats are half-off this weekend.
This is a web gallery of antique photographs of musicians. Most are of people whose names are now lost in time but they represent the many kinds of players, instruments, and ensembles that once defined musical culture. But these photographs also capture a moment in the history of people and places, so I write about that too.
All the photos shown here are in my personal collection.
For Best Effect Click on the Images for a Larger View
For information on my music for horn - go to the bottom of this column.
