Wohlauf, Kameraden! German Cavalry Marches and Songs, 1928-1941

This album features TWENTY-TWO tradition-steeped cavalry marches and songs from the last three hundred years of German history, presented in archival performances recorded between 1928 and 1941 by the musicians of the mounted formations of the Reichswehr and Wehrmacht, as well as other German military bands and choruses of the interwar period.

Featured on this album are a host of historic and unmistakably 'equestrian' marches, which have been carefully selected to illustrate all of the work tempos employed by German mounted units on parade. These include slow marches, marches at a trot and marches at a gallop, as well as august presentation marches played by ancient regiments whose names have long been celebrated in the annals of German military history. Most uniquely, 'Wohlauf, Kameraden' also features magnificent vocal renditions of classic German cavalry battle songs, the stirring lyrics of which were once heard in campaigns ranging from those of the Wars of Liberation (1813-1815) to the World Wars of the twentieth century.

The electrical recordings assembled in this compilation date from an era which saw significant advances in recording technology, and have been skillfully remastered to maximize their already considerable fidelity without compromising their historical authenticity in any way whatsoever. The treble tones of German cavalry trumpets resound here once more in all of their crystalline clarity, backed by the thundering basses of kettledrums and the weighty, heavy brass tones of tubas. Even the ancient, valveless 'Feldtrompeten' of the German cavalry - instruments once used by the 'Guilds of Heralds' of the High Middle Ages - speak again on this album with renewed, full-spectrum dynamism.

Years in the making, painstakingly researched and magnificently engineered, 'Wohlauf, Kameraden' is accompanied by a twenty-four page booklet (richly illustrated with a wealth of previously unpublished photographs) that presents a thorough discussion of the cavalry arm in the Reichswehr and Wehrmacht, its traditions, the structure of German army mounted bands and the background of all the featured musical selections.