Nazi Motorcycle Military Band score collection
Collection
0401-SCPA
The Nazi Motorcycle Military Band score collection contains 66 scores. At one point most of them were owned by the Nazi Musikkorps, as indicated by stamps reading "Musikkorps J.R. 81" and, less frequently, "Kradschützen Bataillon 3, Bad Freienwalde (Oder)". Before accession into Special Collections in Performing Arts at the University of Maryland these scores were at the Music Library, University at Buffalo. They were donated to Buffalo by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra Librarian, Albert Steger. Although labeled a band collection, the scores are for orchestral music, perhaps indicating the breadth of music the organization played. Other than a strength in German scores and German publishers, the repertoire is standard orchestral repertoire.
Some material may be of an offensive nature.
Good condition, some brittle pages, but all scores legible and most complete.
3.0 Linear Feet
66 scores, most are orchestral scores from the Nazi Musikkorps. Most scores are written by German composers and published by German publishing houses, although there are some notable exceptions.
Content may be upsetting for some patrons. Contact SCPA's curator if you would like to discuss the collection before viewing or accessing it.
Germany has a long tradition of military music, dating back at least to the 13th century with the foundation of trumpet and kettledrum guilds. The modern German military band arose with the formation of a course to train bandmasters at the Musikhochschule in Berlin in 1873. Soon, Berlin was a center for the training of bandmasters. By 1900, there were 560 military bands in Germany. Over the next decades, the prominence of band music declined somewhat, with only 140 bands remaining after World War I. The Nazi party saw band music as an important tool. The band of the Luftwaffe was especially prominent with an expanded woodwind section and active encouragement of new compositions for band.
The Nazi state valued music as a marker of cultural identity, a vehicle for propaganda, and a signal of the refinement to the regime's detractors abroad. The government invested heavily in Germany's musical institutions, including the establishment and support of many military bands and orchestras. In every case, arts administration and funding excluded Jewish musicians from employment and Jewish composers from performance. Similarly, the music of certain composers thought to be particularly German, like that of Richard Wagner, was celebrated in Nazi propaganda. Nonetheless, the Nazi regime did not create or enforce a defined musical aesthetic with any success.
Based on the available evidence, it is difficult to determine exactly where these scores fit into this larger historical picture. Stamps on the scores reading "Musikkorps J.R. 81" and "Kradschützen Bataillon 3, Bad Freienwalde (Oder)" suggest that these scores were part of a music library for a motorcycle battalion. Typically such music ensembles were wind bands, but here we have a collection of orchestral scores, nearly all of the them requiring string instruments. Perhaps, in this instance, the motorcycle battalion ensemble was a full orchestra. However, because it was common practice for musicians in German bands to be trained to play both wind and string instruments, it is our supposition that these scores were owned by a band and used when the musicians performed with local orchestras or formed the basis for band arrangments.
Scores have been arranged alphabetically by composer.
The collection came to Special Collections in Performing Arts from the Music Library, University at Buffalo. They were donated to Buffalo by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra Librarian, Albert Steger.
Good condition, some brittle pages, but all scores legible and most complete.
Part of the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library