Military Music And Its Story - online book

The Rise & Development Of Military Music

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	REORGANISATION.                               109
	them. At any rate, bandmasters had no military standing, something like the position held by the same rank in our service, prior to the establishment of Kneller Hall. It was owing to the non-official position of these bandmasters that a "Pension Society for Austrian Army Bandmasters" was established in the middle of the last century. Austria's most note­worthy bandmasters of the period were : Starke (1774-1835), J. Sawerthal (1819-1903), V. H. Zavertal (1821-73) and Farbach. The following is a specimen band of the Austrian infantry of the period (1848) :9 In France, reorganisation of military bands followed closely after that of Prussia. In 1845 a special com­mission which included Spontini, Auber, Halevy, Adam, Onslow and Carafa among the musical experts, with Kastner as secretary, was formed to consider the ques­tion. They attributed the bad state of their military bands to: (1) The suppression of engaged professional men; (2) use of inferior instruments; (3) indifferent instrumental combinations; (4) insufficient number of executants; (5) the inferior position held by the latter.
	'Kastner, "Manuel General de Musique Militaire," 1848.