On Monday, the association for the promotion of Austrian military music in Vorarlberg – the “Militärmusikfreunde Vorarlberg” – held its 17th public general assembly in Cubus, a modern event building in Wolfurt. This was followed by the first public concert of the year by the Vorarlberg Military Music Band, which was joined by musicians from the state of Vorarlberg under the direction of Major Wolfram Öller.
For this concert, the Military Music Vorarlberg was reinforced by around 20 volunteer musicians, all of them students of the State Conservatory, music high school students or other interested people over the age of 16 who play at upper school level. The Military Music “Plus” project was actually launched for a final concert in which the Vorarlberg Military Music supported young conductors as an orchestra. However, this concert could not take place due to the Covid-19 measures. The aim was to supplement all registers of military music with piccolos, flutes, oboes, bassoons, clarinets, bass clarinets, saxophones, tenors/baritones, horns, trombones, tubas, percussionists, double basses and harp in order to achieve a particularly broad sound.
The concert opened with the European anthem to mark their 50th anniversary. This was followed by: Fanfare – the Benefaction from Sky an Mother Earth (Satoshi Yagisawa), Midway March (John Williams), L’ Italiana in Algeri (Gioacciono Rossini), El Camino Real (Alfred Reed), Don’t Worry, Be Happy (Bobby McFerrin), Zauber der Montur (Carl Michael Ziehrer). As an encore, as many had hoped, the Radetzky March by Johann Strauss was played. Military bands are important image bearers of the Austrian Armed Forces and the brass band system as well as musical and ceremonial performers. However, they also serve as a training ground for the further education of the country’s interested brass musicians, who usually put this knowledge into practice throughout their lives on a voluntary basis in their music clubs in the communities, thus preserving the great tradition of brass music folk culture. The association was founded in 2004 to support the activities of Militärmusik Vorarlberg and to contribute to the public image of military music. The association has been a member of “Militärmusikfreunde Österreich” since 2009 and made a decisive contribution to the preservation of military music in the respective federal states in 2014/15.
