From the Life of a Bandmaster in the Early Years of Military Music

The Luxembourgish town of Fels (Larochette) had been shaped by its wool spinning and cloth weaving industries since the Middle Ages. Thanks to international trade in the 19th century, the town experienced not only economic prosperity but also a cultural flourishing. As early as 1836, interested citizens of Fels founded the Philharmonische Gesellschaft, one of the oldest in the country. They established an orchestra and a music school that provided free tuition to boys and girls aged between 8 and 20 after an entrance examination. The founding of a choral and theatre association naturally followed.

It was in this musical environment that two boys who would enter Luxembourg’s musical history grew up: Johann Anton Zinnen (1829–1898), composer of the national anthem Ons Heemecht, and Philippe Decker (12.11.1840–09.02.1881). Both received their first music lessons at the Fels music school from Johann-Baptist Zinnen, father of Johann Anton. By the age of 15, both had already stood out for their exceptional talent in the then still young military band in Echternach under Franz Ferdinand Hoebich (1813–1900), eventually rising to the position of bandmaster.

At the time of their birth, Luxembourg had no military band of its own. Since the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the country had been under the rule of the Dutch kings while simultaneously being a member of the German Confederation. Those who enlisted as soldiers in Luxembourg served in the Dutch army, while Prussian soldiers of the German Confederation were stationed in Luxembourg City, for whom the Luxembourg Fortress was an important stronghold against France. The Dutch military was organised as a militia army, meaning that a Luxembourgish soldier had to travel 250 km to Breda for one year, could then return to civilian life in Luxembourg for four more years, but had to report for certain manoeuvres. There was conscription, but it only applied to those selected by lot from the male population.

The establishment of Luxembourgish armed forces on Luxembourgish soil only became possible with the Treaty of London in1839. Echternach and Diekirch became garrison towns, hosting the 1^st and 2^nd Jäger (Rifle) Battalions. The term “Jägerbataillon” referred to a lightly armed troop. They consisted of volunteers and Luxembourgish soldiers recalled from Dutch service. In 1839, Luxembourg remained under the rule of Dutch King-Grand Duke William I and was still a member of the German Confederation, which is why the Jäger Battalions were also part of the Prussian army.

Since time immemorial, military troops have been accompanied by musicians, consisting at the very least of a drummer (tambour) and a fifer, who were deployed whenever a commander’s voice was no longer sufficient to relay orders. The first mention of a military band in Luxembourg dates back to the time when the Jäger Battalions were established in Echternach and Diekirch. On 29 December 1842, the appointment of Fernand Hoebich as Echternach’s bandmaster was officially documented. The military band consisted of 29 men. The musicians were called hornists, regardless of the instrument they actually played, and the bandmaster was referred to as the “Stabshornist” (staff hornist). At that time, military bands served purely military purposes and had little artistic significance. The signals blown by the hornists directed soldiers during drills and structured their daily life in the barracks with signals for “wake-up”, “roll call”, “lunch”, etc. In public life, the hornists appeared during occasional marches, manoeuvres, and parades, as well as during the evening “tattoo”, when they used signals in the main square to call the dispersed soldiers back to the barracks.

Among the hornists, Decker and Zinnen stood out for their musical competence. When Philippe Decker joined the 1^st Jäger Battalion in Echternach as a horn student on 26 February 1855 at the age of 15, he advanced within five years to become the 1^st cornettist, the highest-paid musician after the bandmaster. Johann Anton Zinnen became bandmaster of the 2^nd Jäger Battalion in Diekirch at the age of just 18 in 1847.

At the age of 21, Decker applied to the military authorities for a year’s leave and a scholarship to study at the Conservatoire in Brussels. Fearing that Decker might flee abroad during his studies and join the Belgian military band, where he would earn a significantly higher salary, the authorities finally approved the scholarship in 1861, with the condition that he commit to ten years of service in the Echternach Jäger Battalion afterwards. To raise the general musical level of the military band, the hornists were encouraged in 1844 with a small scholarship of 100 florins to enrol at the capital’s music school, which had been founded that same year by Henri Cornely (1785–1866).

Foreign mercenaries also frequently applied to join the military band. Bandmaster Hoebich himself, incidentally the grandfather of composer Lou Koster (1889–1973), was born in Prussian Silesia in 1813 and had already served as a military musician in Breslau before coming to Luxembourg. Wilhelm Albrecht, father of the later bandmaster of the military band Pol Albrecht (1874–1975), also moved from his home in Saxony-Anhalt to Luxembourg in 1847 to join the hornists.

Life for the two military bands in Echternach and Diekirch was quiet. These were times of peace. Sometimes, the soldiers would swap barracks, with the Echternach troops moving to Diekirch and vice versa. On one such occasion, Decker composed Abschiedstöne des 1. Bataillons in 1860. Every October, part of the corps was dispatched to Walferdange Castle, where Prince Henry, appointed by his brother King-Grand Duke William III as Lieutenant Governor of Luxembourg, resided with his wife Princess Amalia for the winter, before the soldiers returned to their garrison town in February.

For both young men from Fels, this was likely not enough of a challenge: Johann Anton Zinnen left the military band in 1855 to take over the management of the Conservatoire in the capital. Philippe Decker, after returning from Brussels and fulfilling his military band obligations, devoted himself to composition and, exactly ten years later, also took up a position as a music teacher at the capital’s Athénée. He composed primarily marches and polkas for military bands, including Grande marche festivale pour Guillaume III, Roi des Pays-Bas in 1874 and Marche funèbre pour la mort de Prince Henri in 1879, who died of measles in Walferdange. Among his works are also several operas, such as Euphrosine von Falkenstein (1865, libretto: Nicolas Steffen), Le serrurier (1866, libretto: François-Antoine Quétant, 1764), and the comic play De’ Mêschter Uodem (libretto: Nicolas Steffen, 1865).

With the dissolution of the German Confederation in 1866, Luxembourg faced the prospect of renewed unrest, as tensions between Prussia and Emperor Napoleon III flared up once more. Lieutenant Governor Prince Henry proposed stationing the Jäger Battalions in the now-vacant fortress of the capital while maintaining the Grand Duchy’s neutrality. This plan was formalised in the second Treaty of London on 11 May 1867.

Four months later, on 8 September 1867, the Prussian troops left Luxembourg after 50 years of presence in the country. At the same time, the Luxembourg Jäger Battalions’ affiliation with the Confederation contingent also ended. On 9 September, the Echternach troops set off on foot at dawn for the 35 km journey to the capital. At Dommeldange station, they met the Diekirch Battalion, which had arrived by special train. Together, they marched into the city to the sounds of the military band and the cheers of the population, and took up quarters in the capital’s barracks.

Luxembourg’s neutrality meant that soldiers were no longer required to service in the defence of the country. Instead, the number of soldiers was limited to what was necessary to maintain internal order. The now reduced number of soldiers formed the Volunteer Corps. With the abolition of the militia law, conscription was also discontinued. The two military bands were merged under Hoebich’s leadership. Joseph Alexandre Muller (1831–1895), the bandmaster of the Diekirch corps, was released until his retirement, and the remaining musicians were reassigned to administrative posts, such as customs. Surplus musical instruments were auctioned off.

Philippe Decker continued to be regarded as Hoebich’s second-in-command. As early as 1866, he was referred to as “sous-chef”, although he did not officially hold the position of deputy bandmaster at that time, as evidenced by a document from the National Archives dated 1872, cited by Joseph Lorent in 135^e Anniversaire de la Musique militaire Grand-Ducale:

“As the senior horn player, 1^st class, who is required to conduct in the absence of the staff hornist [i.e. the bandmaster], may not always possess the necessary qualities for this task, it would be highly advisable, in the interests of service and discipline, to formally appoint a horn player, 1^st class, whose musical talent qualifies him for this duty, and to create the position of deputy bandmaster within the battalion for this purpose. This position exists in all military bands in Belgium and France. [...] Horn player Decker, 1^st class, is designated to fill the position of deputy bandmaster, should the attached proposal be approved.”

With the relocation to the capital, the military band took on a new and important role as a concert orchestra. Music-loving citizens formed a broad audience and appreciated the diverse programme, as the military orchestra could perform both as a wind and string orchestra, since every musician had to master two instruments. Weekly concerts on the parade ground became established, but other open-air venues such as the General’s Garden near Villa Amberg or the Louvigny Garden were also used. What Hoebich had begun, Philippe Decker continued when he was appointed bandmaster on 1 January 1879, after Hoebich retired following 35 years as “Stabshornist”.

Critical voices also emerged among the population regarding the concerts, as seen in letters to the editor in the Luxemburger Zeitung. There was consensus on the high quality of the performances, which, however, could only be achieved by engaging additional top musicians at considerable expense from the already strained coffers. While some considered concerts unnecessary in general and believed that the military band should return to its original tasks, others argued that in a neutral country, where soldiers’ duties were limited to maintaining internal order, there was no need for a military band at all. They advocated for its abolition or restructuring into a professional symphony orchestra. Additional costs would not arise for this, as instead of blowing signals all day, the musicians would then have time to rehearse. “Then we will get to hear more refined music. […] We will have symphony concerts, and the tedious Belgian solos for piston, piccolo, baritone and other instruments, along with other such dull stuff, will be done away with.”

Amid the turmoil surrounding the question of the military band’s right to exist, on which the Chamber of Deputies ultimately voted in favour of its retention, Philippe Decker died after just two years in office on 9 February 1881. The 40-year-old had served as a valued and competent member of the military band for 26 years.

His compositions continued to be performed by the military band for decades. Various markings on the manuscripts bear witness to the temporary whereabouts of the sheet music, such as “Poss[edet] Louis Decker”, son of Philippe Decker (1865–?), also a military musician and composer, as well as the stamp of Nicolas Even (1897–1968), who worked for the military band from 1915 to 1960 (see Abb. 6). Today, manuscripts of around a hundred of Decker’s works are held in the composers’ archives of the Cedom at the National Library.

This article was originally published in German. The English version was translated using AI and reviewed by the author.