BALLYGOWAN FLUTE BAND
Hermann L.Blankenburg
Hermann Ludwig Blankenburg was surely the world's most prolific march
composer, having written over 1,000 (probably over 1,300). No composer before or
since has had more marches published (about three hundred counting scores for
piano and chamber orchestra), and few can equal the figure of 126 marches
recorded at one time or another.
He was born in Thamsbrück in Eastern Germany in 1876, the only son among three
children of a sheep farmer, and in fact was christened Hermann Louis - the
Beethoven connection having been adopted in later life!
He taught himself the fife as a boy and retained a love for the instrument
throughout his life; he also learned bassoon, violin and tuba. On completion of
his studies he was drafted into the army where he played tuba for the Field
Artillery Regiment No.6. After that he played mostly bassoon in a number of
orchestras in Dortmund, Duisberg and Wuppertal before being recalled into the
army in 1923 (Field Artillery Regiment No.43).
By this time the name Blankenburg was well known among bandsmen around the
world, and the reason for the fame was a march he had written when he was
eighteen years old called "Germany's Princes". It had been rejected by
several publishers in Germany, but some of his colleagues coaxed him to enter it
in a March competition in London. It was placed first out of over 500 entries
and forever more was to be known as "The Gladiators' Farewell". This
success gave the composer a great boost in confidence and Hawkes & Son were
to record more of his works as time went on.
His fame eventually reached Germany itself - something which the modern German
is really quite proud of - and Blankenburg by now was turning out a march a
week, a feat he kept up for over twenty years. Those best known to us are the
above mentioned "Gladiators' Farewell", "Action Front",
"Flying Eagle", his own favourite "My Regiment" and arguably
the best of them all "True Comrades in Arms". He was to call his
1,000th composition "Jack of All Trades".
H.L. Blankenburg was a very respected conductor of his time, and his bands
drew huge crowds wherever they appeared, playing a wide range of music from
popular tunes to the classics. Offstage he was a modest individual and usually
short of a penny, but in his tuxedo it is said that he was one of the all time
great bandleaders. He also expected his marches to be played at a nice tempo
(i.e. not too fast) - once described as like playing marches on a Sunday!
Blankenburg tended not to accept commissions but rather he wrote marches down
when the inspiration came to him. He would be heard constantly whistling a new
tune or sometimes found tapping out a new melody on the piano. Otherwise he
composed without a musical instrument. In fact he had to call a schoolteacher
friend to play the final drafts because he wasn't pianist enough himself!
He died in his 80th year and it is claimed that he was composing pretty well up to the end. Sadly many of his marches have not survived the interim years. No doubt there are many reasons for this, but it is known that he often submitted up to a dozen at a time to publishers, resulting in them being "picked through", and during the second world war his house was bombed - by the time he was allowed to return, a wealth of manuscript had gone missing.
It is perhaps for reasons like this that different people in different parts of Germany have undertaken research to bring his compositions together and to preserve his musical heritage as the uncrowned king of German march composers. This includes The International Blankenburg Organisation, dedicated to raising awareness of his achievements. He lived the last thirty-five years of his life in Wesel on the Rhine, just downstream from Cologne and Düsseldorf, and it was here that 40 of his marches were discovered in 1972 in a theatre basement.