Music and Vinyl: Prussian Grenadier Songs and Marches

This 1968 recording from Deutsche Grammophon's Historical Music Studio is an excellent example of what made the Archiv label so fascinating. Music that occupied a historical niche or forgotten byeway of cultural life was given new life with the highest performing and recording standards, and documented with academic care and insight.

Frederick II

Like many rulers in the 17th and 18th centuries Frederick the Great of Prussia (1712-1786) was a patron of music while also a composer himself and a flute player. C.P.E.Bach was one of his court musicians, and his meeting with J.S.Bach in 1747 apparently let to the writing of Bach's Musical Offering.

While an enlightened ruler who modernised Prussia he also had a very large army, and it was commented that Prussia was not so much a State with an Army, but an Army with a State. The Prussian army was a formidable one and had many battlefield successes, often led from the front by Frederick himself.

This recording, like football, is a game of two halves. Firstly there are a couple of Frederick's compositions on side 1, and then on side 2 there is a selection of Prussian marches, and three songs, which I've posted in this video. The notes on these, and the sung texts, are reproduced below (click on the images to enlarge them).