Prussian Cavalry Music, with its distinctive trumpet & kettledrum instrumentation and its instantly recognizable ‘trotting cadence’ was always an important part of the German military musical inventory and one of its leading exponents was Spandau’s Musikkorps.3.Batl.9.Inf.Regt. originally directed by Adolf Becker.

Following the disbandment of the German Army in 1919 in compliance with the Treaty of Versailles, a new 100,000-man Reichswehr was created for the new Weimar Republic, and with only a handful of regiments compared to those of Imperial Germany, new battalions would have to represent the hard-won honours & traditions of former regiments in those inter-war years and thence into the newly-created Wehrmacht of Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany.

So it was that the III Battalion 9th Infantry Regiment’s Musikkorps became the new ‘Tradition-bearers’ for the old Kaiser Franz Garde-Grenadier Regiment Nr.2 and, often referred to up until 1945 as the ‘Franzers’, was initially led by Adolf Becker, who had been bandmaster of the old Kaiser Franz Regiment, and the very epitome of the Prussian soldier and one of the youngest ever Guard Obermusikmeisters.

The original band members of the 3.Batl.9.Inf.Regt. were drawn from the old Prussian Guards ‘Franzers’ band and continued to be led by Adolf Becker, until Adolf Berdien took over the position upon Becker’s retirement in the mid 1930’s and now, along with two rare performances by the Wehrmacht’s mounted Trompeter-Korps d.Reiter-Regt. Potsdam supported by the in-house military orchestras of the Odeon & Grammophon record labels, this wonderful CD offers a producer’s introduction and 14 evocative tracks including:

Der alte Dessauer-Marsch - Allen voran -Hohenfriedberger Marsch - Marsch der finnländischen Reiterei - Kavallerie Parademarsch - Defiliermarsch - Herzog von Braunschweig Marsch - Kreuzritter Fanfare and  Mit allen Schikanen