The cavalrymen of the Reichswehr and Wehrmacht ride again in this magnificent CD compilation from Brandenburg Historica!

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 mounted musicians 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, all of which have been carefully selected to provide a representative sampling 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 numerous cavalry presentation marches played by ancient regiments long celebrated in the annals of German military history.

Most strikingly and uniquely, "Wohlauf, Kameraden" also features magnificent vocal renditions of classic German cavalry battle songs heard in campaigns ranging from those of the Wars of Liberation (1813-1815) to the World Wars of the twentieth century.

Among the treasures featured in "Wohlauf, Kameraden" are such musical rarities as:

The "Marsch der Pappenheimer Reiterschwadron," a dynamic concert march written in honor of the Reichswehr formation that maintained the traditions of the heavy cavalry of the Bavarian Royal Army; a textbook performance of a rarely-heard but essential cavalry classic, the fanfare- like "Paradepost" of the Prussian Cavalry, which was a regular feature at German cavalry parades; and the percussive "Trabmarsch" of the Prussian Army's élite Regiment der Gardes du Corps, performed by its actual successor regiment of the Reichswehr at Potsdam!

Also heard here are: "Der Hohenfriedberger," the musical signature of Frederick the Great's Bayreuth Dragoons, presented in an authentic yet seldom-heard arrangement for cavalry Trompeterkorps; a rare performance of the stirring "Galoppmarsch" of the 1. Leibhusaren-Regiment at Danzig, performed by the band of Reichswehr's mounted supply-train detachment at Berlin-Lankwitz; and two traditional Saxon cavalry marches performed by the Trompeterkorps of the Wehrmacht's 4th Artillery Regiment at Dresden, appropriately introduced by cavalry bugle calls!

"Wohlauf, Kameraden" also presents several of the most important songs sung by German cavalrymen throughout the last two centuries, including: "Was blasen die Trompeten, Husaren heraus!," Ernst Moritz Arndt's paean to the Prussian Hussar General Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher; the "Schwedter-Reiterlied," the regimental song of the Wehrmacht's Kavallerie-Regiment 6 at Schwedt on the Oder, written by a young Prussian aristocrat who commanded one of its Reiter squadrons; and the album's title track, "Wohlauf, Kameraden" ("Come on, Comrades!"), the cavalry battle song of the Wars of Liberation (1813-1815) written by the poet Friedrich Schiller, performed here by a soldiers' chorus with the "First Post" of the Cavalry Zapfenstreich as its introduction!

The recordings assembled in this compilation date from an era that saw significant advances in recording technology, and have been skillfully engineered to maximize the considerable fidelity already inherent to them. These restored performances capture a dash and élan invariably missing from postwar military music programs, yet they communicate a crispness and immediacy that speak powerfully to modern listeners. 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, brass tones of helicon tubas. Even the ancient, valveless "Feldtrompeten" of the German cavalry - instruments once used by the "Guilds of Heralds" of the Holy Roman Empire - speak again on this album with renewed, full-spectrum dynamism!

Years in the making, painstakingly researched and magnificently produced, "Wohlauf, Kameraden" is accompanied by a richly illustrated, twenty-four page booklet 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 the featured musical selections.

"Wohlauf, Kameraden" is certain to excite the "inner cavalryman" of all its listeners, and is sure to be a valued addition to your military music library. Its complete contents include:

Marsch der Pappenheimer Reiterschwadron (Rupprecht) / Was blasen die Trompeten? Husaren, heraus! (Trad.-Arndt) / Parademarsch AM III, 1f (Krause) / Der Hohenfriedberger AM III, 1b (Trad.) / Parademarsch der 18. Husaren HM III A, 58 (Müller) / Trabmarsch des Regiments der Gardes du Corps HM III B, 7 (Trad.) / Hurra, Viktoria! (Trad.-Buchhorn) / Signal "Galopp" und Amazonenmarsch HM III B, 37 (Hertel) / Paradepost und Schwedischer Reitermarsch AM III, 70 (Trad.) / Kreuzritter-Fanfare (Henrion) / Schwedter-Reiterlied (Bronsart von Schellendorff) / Signal "Schritt" und Parademarsch im Schritt HM III A, 64 (Baum) / Trabmarsch des Dragoner-Regiments 2 HM III B, 30 (Trad.) / Galoppmarsch des Leibhusaren-Regiments 1 HM III B, 22 (Trad.) / Reiters Morgenlied [a.k.a. "Morgenrot"] (Silcher-Hauff) / Des Grossen Kurfürsten Reitermarsch AM III, 72 (von Moltke) / Trabmarsch aus der "Quadrille" HM III B, 9 (von Redern) / Hie guet Brandenburg allewege (Henrion) / Trabmarsch "Ich hört ein Bächlein rauschen" HM III B, 46 (Schubert) / Der Pappenheimer AM III, 138 (Trad.) / Kürassiermarsch "Grosser Kurfürst" AM III, 142 (von Simon) / Wohlauf, Kameraden! (Zahn-Schiller)

Total Time: 63:41.

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