The Military Band and the Musical Organization of an Army

Following the victory of the band of the Prussian Guards at the 1867 European Military Band Competition in Paris, Wilhelm Wieprecht, the director of all the music of the Royal Prussian Guard Corps, promised Emperor Napoleon III of France that he would write him a detailed memorandum on the purposes and organisation of military music. Repeated illness and official matters prevented Wieprecht from presenting this memorandum to the Emperor in person, and finally the Franco-German war made it impossible. The memorandum was eventually published after Wieprecht’s death in 1872. This work contains Wieprecht’s detailed instructions for the instrumentation of all military bands, as well as the roles and responsibilities of the conductors and musicians.