"Contemporary Napoleonic Music and Marches" Topic

Can anyone recommend good CDs of contemporary Napoleonic marches for anyone other than the French. There seems a great deal for them but getting music in the correct timeframe (i.e. from the late 18th Century onwards) for the British, Prussians and Austrians (not to mention Bavarians and Dutch) seems difficult. The 'historical march' CDs I have come across seem mostly for the mid- to late 19th century. Now and again you come across an individual gem of a track in a collection, but so far I have not found much that would have been heard on a Napoleonic battlefield. I suspect Prussia might be relatively straightforward, but what about the others? Can anyone help?

My only suggestion would be when reading memoirs, you find a reference to a song being sung here or there. Those song names would be where you'd want to begin. I have also had an interest in non French or British period songs and curious as to what the Russians were singing. Would it be anything like a Red Army choir? Don't know, virtually nothing tangible on the subject.

Try this store, they have a huge collection of cds.
link
They do sell abroad. Berlin Zinnfiguren.
Beware that much of the "traditionnal" German fast marches are rather post mid XIXth cty.
One sure for Austrians would be Prinz Eugen, can be found on utube.

On youtube you have a bunch of decent titles. You can get a free program that loads the music from it then.

PeninsularWar,

The Russian army sang a "Te Deum" in honour of Wellington's victory at Vittoria in 1813 – I think the only time this was done for a foreign success. Beethoven also composed a "Battle Symphony" to commemorate the occasion, but according to friends who know about this sort of thing, not one of his best works.

Beethoven also composed a "Battle Symphony" to commemorate the occasion

Wellington's Victory

Beethoven also composed some marches which I suppose were for the Austrian Army.

Judge for yourselves on Ludwig van….

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Well this French march from the Revolution probably didn't go down well with Napoleon.

YouTube link

Wellington, meanwhile hated this one, because it was played too often for his taste;

YouTube link

Beethoven's 7th Symphony was premiered at a charity concert for wounded Austrian soldiers. Not sure if you could march to it though…

Some recordings which include quite authentic period military music (this is by no way an exhaustive list, more pieces are dispersed over various locations):

Prussian military music up to 1806:

amazon.com/Altpreu%C3%9Fische-Milit%C3%A4rmusik/dp/B00EKVZVP4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466190571&sr=8-1&keywords=altpreussische+Milit%C3%A4rmusik

After 1806, Prussian military music virtually ceased to exist. It was so much depleted that Prussia had to fall back on the repertoire of the Russian Imperial Guard bands whose instructor Anton Doerfeldt was an eminent composer and arranger of military music and the editor of the so called Imperial Russian Collection of Army Marches (from 1809/1810 on) which served as a basis for the Royal Prussian Collection of Army Marches (from 1817 on).

Many, if not most, pieces of the Doerfeldt collection can be heard in their original early 19th century version on youtube. See members "PetrovFed"; example:

youtube.com/watch?v=67ZGZ1yrUWg&feature=related

…,"duxdemontis98"; example:

youtube.com/watch?v=KZLqg66xOTQ

…, or "Kanaal van MrLeoBelgicus"; example:

youtube.com/watch?v=PbESOQuan4U&feature=related

(despite Frederick the Great's effigy, this is a Russian march!)

Most have been recorded by Stadtmusik Wien, Director Gustav Fischer, and a few by Heeresmusikkorps 6, Director Johannes Schade.

The Stadtmusik Wien has also recorded a few Austrian marches of the Napoleonic era, but many are arrangements made from piano versions. Other contemporary marches by Joseph and Michael Haydn, Beethoven or Krommer can be found e.g. here:

amazon.com/Im-Gleichschritt-Fortschritt-Marsch-Bla/dp/B005M8EUWE/ref=tmm_acd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1466194171&sr=1-2-fkmr0

amazon.com/Beethoven-Harmoniemusik-Zefiro/dp/B000RT39IE/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1466194324&sr=1-1&keywords=zefiro+beethoven

amazon.com/Krommer-Partitas-Op-45-Marches/dp/B00005B1D4/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1466194396&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=krommer+marsch

A recent British late 18th century military music CD:

amazon.com/Music-Christopher-Ely-1785-1794/dp/B00149543O/ref=tmm_acd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1466191887&sr=8-1

Digital music:

amazon.com/Royal-Heritage-Collection-Elegance-1795-1863/dp/B006LEF3A6/ref=sr_1_1?s=dmusic&ie=UTF8&qid=1466192190&sr=1-1-mp3-albums-bar-strip-0&keywords=coldstream+band+age+of+elegance

amazon.co.uk/Military-Stereo-Version-Trevor-Ensemble/dp/B00I1HBELI/ref=sr_1_1?s=dmusic&ie=UTF8&qid=1466192245&sr=1-1-mp3-albums-bar-strip-0&keywords=trevor+sharpe

amazon.com/Sounds-Military-Vol-1-1600-1750/dp/B0051CBOZW/ref=sr_1_1?s=dmusic&ie=UTF8&qid=1466189264&sr=1-1-mp3-albums-bar-strip-0&keywords=band+of+the+royal+military+school

amazon.com/Sounds-Military-Vol-2-1750-1790/dp/B0051CBJGG/ref=sr_1_5?s=dmusic&ie=UTF8&qid=1466189246&sr=1-5-mp3-albums-bar-strip-0&keywords=band+of+the+royal+military+school

Bavarian late 18th – early 19th century military music has never been available on CD, but only on an LP called "Unter Bayerns Rautenbanner":

amazon.de/Rautenbanner-Regimentsstreiche-Truppenzeremoniell-Jahrhunderts-Originalbesetzungen/dp/B006YN97EM/ref=sr_1_22?ie=UTF8&qid=1466192675&sr=8-22&keywords=unter+bayerns+rautenbanner

An identically named CD available as a download has nothing to do with the LP and does not include any authentic Napoleonic era military music. Don't waste your money on that download but try youtube. To begin with, "Figatter 1791" (Assembly 1791):

youtube.com/watch?v=A7cPI8WuFT4

Find more yourself. The original late 18th and early 19th century pieces were recorded by the Musikkorps des Grenzschutzkommandos Süd, München, Director Josef Pollinger.

As far as I know, no Dutch band has ever released an LP or CD containing late 18th and early 19th century Dutch marches played according to the original scores. That's all the more surprising as the Dutch have a vibrant military music tradition but, unfortunately, only as far as modern brass band music is concerned.

Better version of "The Downfall of Paris"

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14th Foot 'won' is march at the battle of Famars when the Colonel order the fifes and drums to play Ça Ira and 'beat them to their own damned tune'

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Got to love the visuals with this one:

YouTube link

138SquadronRAF

The last one was brilliant. And it was interesting to see one of the Revolutionaries playing a set of bagpipes, an instrument not related just to the Scots it appears.

"And it was interesting to see one of the Revolutionaries playing a set of bagpipes, an instrument not related just to the Scots it appears."

Of course not. Bagpipes are old and widespread instruments. In medieval Europe, varieties of bagpipes could be seen everywhere. The Revolutionaries playing the bagpipes in the movie are meant to be Bretons, but they play the wrong type of bagpipe, the Great Highland bagpipe, called binioù bras in Brittany, which was only introduced during the early 20th century, when in fact in the movie they should play the binioù kozh, with a single drone. Moreover, the binioù kozh was normally accompanied by the bombarde, a type of shawm. This is a link to musicians playing a Breton dance tune on binioù kozh and bombarde (they start playing at c. 2:20, the actual dance begins at c. 2:53):

youtube.com/watch?v=k43FreOLW3o

Like the Bretons, the Revolutionaries coming from Marseille are also carrying with them a folk instrument typical of their homeland, in this case the Provençal Galoubet-Tambourin (one-handed three-hole pipe and elongated drum).