Erschienen in: Itinerario : International Journal on the History of European Expansion and Global Interaction ; 41 (2017), 2. - S. 327-352 https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0165115317000390 Itinerario, Vol. 41, No. 2, 327–352. © 2017 Research Institute for History, Leiden University doi:10.1017/S0165115317000390 Cultural Brokers in Uniform: The Global Rise of Military Musicians and Their Music MARTIN REMPE* E-mail:
[email protected] The article assesses the role of the military in the global dissemination and exchange of music in the long nineteenth century. It shows that, first, Western military music and its instrumentation were influenced by cross-cultural encounters, primarily with the Ottoman Empire. Second, I argue that educational professionalization and instrumental standardization were important vehicles for the global rise of the military band beyond its original purpose. Third, tracing the transnational careers of some German military musicians will make evident that competition with respect to national prestige, rising imperialism, and the increasing commercialization of musical life were crucial features of the spread of military musicians all over the world, making them cultural brokers not only of military music. Keywords: military band, Germany, imperialism, professionalisation, commercialisation. Introduction In the spring of 1909, a debate in the German Reichstag about the budget for the army witnessed a peculiar detail: Eduard von Liebert, one of the speakers, had heard through the grapevine that blacks were serving in military bands of the German army, one of them even as a bandmaster: “If this turns out to be true,” he complained, “this would constitute an egregious act. I would like to see a Briton or an American subordinated to a coloured man—this is unthinkable! It would end in rebellion and mutiny.”1 The bandmaster that von Liebert had heard about was Gustav Sabac el Cher (1868–1934), the son of the Nubian August Sabac, who was donated to Prince Albert of Prussia during his trip to Egypt in 1843.