BALLYGOWAN FLUTE BAND
Carl Teike
When the young Carl Teike asked his new musical director for an opinion of his latest march composition, Old Comrades, he surely was not expecting the reply; "chuck it in the fire!"
No doubt the recommendation was later to haunt the unfortunate gentleman, but he could never have guessed that, one-
Carl Teike was born in Northern Germany in 1864 in relatively poor circumstances. As a young lad he made himself known to the local military band, and their musical director took an immediate shine to him -
At the age of 16 he went to Ulm in Southern Germany as a travelling player. After three years he joined the military band there, and started private study with the ambition of qualifying as a conductor. It was soon obvious that he had a unique talent, and he composed his first march "On the Banks of the Danube" when he was 21, "Old Comrades" being one of many to follow.
On leaving the army at 25 years old and married, he moved back north, and over a 20 year period became nothing short of a legend. It was in Potsdam, while working as a police bodyguard, that he wrote his other immortal march "Steadfast and True". Teike was credited during his lifetime with being a world-
In 1909, for reasons of ill health, he and his family moved to Landsberg, in modern-
Finally, an unnamed Teike march turned up in Berlin archives 44 years after his death, and his nephew was granted the task of finding a title. We are left pondering how long he took to come up with the suggestion, "New Comrades"!
Click for soundtrack of Old Comrades
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