The March of the Regiment Herzog von Braunschweig (AM I, 9) was written sometime before 1806 by an unknown composer, and it was one of the first marches included in the Prussian Army March Collection when it was established in 1817. The piece is often associated with Herzog Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, the Prussian commander at the 1806 Battle of Jena-Auerstedt who died of the wounds he sustained in this engagement, one of Prussias greatest defeats. Following the battle, Napoleons victorious forces swept forward to occupy one fortress city after another, until in 1807, Prussia was forced to sue for a humiliating peace. There was something star-crossed about Prussias fortunes in that fateful month of October 1806: a few days before the debacle of Jena-Auerstedt, the popular and respected Prinz Louis-Ferdinand von Preussen (a nephew of Frederick the Great who, like his uncle, was a true renaissance man) was killed at the Battle of Saalfeld, cut down by a French Hussar while leading a desperate cavalry charge against a much larger enemy force. Shortly before the battle, the Prince had reported a visitation from The White Lady, the Hohenzollern family ghost whose apparitions were said to herald calamity and tragedy for Prussias ruling house (legend has it that she also appeared in the throne room of the Berliner Stadtschloss in the early summer of 1914). Louis Ferdinand was an accomplished musician and composer who may have had a real future in the European music world, had he lived; already in 1800, Ludwig van Beethoven had dedicated his Third Piano Concerto to the Prince, in recognition of his virtuosity on the keyboard.
Posted on: Sat, 05 Apr 2014 05:33:04 +0000
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