Teike, Karl

Karl Teike was born on February 5, 1864 in Altdamme ( German Altdamm , Polish. Dąbie ), a suburb of Stettin , in the family of a blacksmith. He was the fourth child in a family of 14 children. Shortly after his birth, the family moved to another suburb of Stettin, Tülchow ( German: Züllchow , Polish. Żelechowa ). Teike inherited his musical talent from his mother, who sang well and a lot. At the age of 14, he began to study music with Paul Böttcher ( German: Paul Böttcher ), the city bandmaster of the town of Wolin , who gradually introduced him to various musical instruments. The horn became the main and favorite instrument of Teike. Such a fact speaks of Teike's early manifest abilities: already in his second year of study, Bötcher took young Teike for the summer season as an artist and soloist in the orchestra of the seaside resort Bad Misdroy , which he directed for 25 years.

At the end of five years of training, in 1883, at the age of 19, Teike voluntarily entered the military service for three years as a musician in the orchestra of the 123rd (5th Württemberg) Grenadier King Karl Regiment, who was stationed in the city of Ulm . There, he immediately proved himself to be an excellent musician and soon became an oboe player ^[4] . In his free time, Teike played in the orchestra of the city theater, which was not uncommon at the time ^[5] . With a favorable attitude towards himself from the company commander Captain Rampacher and regimental bandmaster Julius Schreck ( German: Julius Schreck ) Teike began to prepare for the career of military bandmaster, especially since here, in Ulm, he began to show the ability to compose marches, the first ^{[ 6]} of which was completed in 1885. However, in 1886, Shrek was replaced by a certain Elt ( German Oelt ) as a bandmaster, a limited and envious man who began to annoy Teika with small formal nit-picking . Tired of them and not feeling support for his dream and creativity, Teike did not renew his contract for another term and in 1889 resigned from military service.

After his dismissal from military service, Teike began to serve in the police of the city of Ulm and on November 12, 1889 he married the daughter of his householder, Babette Löser ( German: Babette Löser ). But apparently, the quiet provincial life of southern Germany was not very suitable for a native of the north, and in 1895 his transfer report was satisfied, and he moved with his family to Potsdam , where he continued to serve in the police. The peculiarity of the service in Potsdam was that there was the residence of the Prussian king and the German emperor, so the requirements for police officers were increased. In the harsh winter of 1907, Teike caught a cold during night shifts and fell ill with pneumonia , from which he was treated for a long time. When in 1908 it became clear that for health reasons he would not be able to serve in the same volume, he asked to be released from night duty, but he was refused and offered to quit. Despite some fame at that time, Teika was unable to stay in Potsdam ^[7] .

With the assistance of Crown Prince Teika, he managed to get a small post in the city of Landsberg am Wart , where he moved with his family in February 1909 and where he lived the rest of his life. Despite the benevolent attitude of the authorities, colleagues and new acquaintances towards Teika, the family that had grown by this time experienced some financial difficulties. With the outbreak of World War I, in which Teika did not take part by age, he, who had gained fame by this time, was invited as a guest conductor to charity concerts performed by local brass bands. This, to some extent, helped his family survive the difficult war and post-war period. In 1922, the effects of pneumonia made themselves felt, and on May 22, Teika died. At the funeral of Karl Teika there were several orchestras that performed several of his most famous marches.

On the tenth anniversary of the death of Teika, a monument was erected on his grave ^[8] , and on the 75th anniversary of his birth, he was posthumously awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of Landsberg am Wart, with the renaming of one of the city squares in Carl-Teike- Platz.

Researchers of Teika's work conditionally divide his career into three periods: Ulm, Potsdam and Landsberg. The ability to compose music, namely marches, began to manifest in Teike in the Ulm period, during his service as a military musician. The first march of Am Donaustrand (“On the Bank of the Danube”), completed in 1895, was followed by others, which were readily copied and performed by other military orchestras of the Ulm garrison. The marches of this period are characterized by an emphasized major, enthusiastic tonality, reflecting the joyful perception of life by a young creative person. The apotheosis of creative activity in the Ulm period was the creation of the march “ Alte Kameraden ”, which will be discussed below. After dismissal from military service, creative activity drops sharply, and the period 1890 - 1894 is not marked by any notable works. Obviously, Teike belonged to the category of creative individuals whose creative abilities were pretty much dependent on the surrounding spiritual and material environment.

Having moved to Potsdam, Teike found himself in his native military music environment, as there were eight guards regiments in Potsdam, whose orchestras and bandmasters were among the best in the Prussian army. The daily life of that time implied that any movement around the city of troops should be accompanied by an orchestra, not to mention the daily guard divorce. If we add to this that military bands also had to play music in city gardens and parks, then we can assume that Teika had heard music several times a day. All this, of course, could not but contribute to the awakening of creative activity, and it was the Potsdam period that was considered the most productive in his life. Moreover, here in Potsdam, Teika met with those phenomena of life that served as additional sources of his motivation. This is the proximity of the imperial royal court, whose representatives he, as a sincere loyal subject, devoted several marches; and the first attempts to conquer the sky and achieve success in sports, to which, according to people close to knowing him, he showed by no means an on-duty interest. In addition, he wants to go beyond one form of musical work, and is trying his hand at dance. With his usual modesty, his first waltz, written in 1906 , he called Nur ein Versuch (“Just an Attempt”). Then he wrote twenty more dances (Polish, Mazurkas, Rheinlander) and dedicated this album to his wife Babette. The album was lost, and we can not judge whether Teika in this area went beyond the scope of “attempts”.

The change of life caused by the disease, and leading to the move to Landsberg , was reflected in the work. He is not so prolific, although several good marches were created during this period. The outbreak of World War I causes a slight upsurge of activity, but subsequent difficulties in existence lead to the fact that peaceful themes become predominant in his work, and the initial warlike names of some marches are replaced by peace-loving ones, with appropriate adjustments to the musical content.

If we talk about the creative manner of Karl Teika, then she was focused and focused. Teika always had a pocket-sized music note at hand, into which he immediately entered the thoughts that came to mind in any situation. When enough material was accumulated for the new march, he accurately painted all the lots on paper, without first playing it.

Most Teike marches are not military, that is, oncoming, combatant or ceremonial. They relate to concert marches, whose freer form allowed brighter expression of those feelings and emotions that served as the occasion or owned it during the period of their creation. Some of them can even be called peculiar musical illustrations. For example, the march Graf Zeppelin ("Count Zeppelin", also known in Russia as the "Air Fleet"), created in 1903, creates the full illusion of a gigantic airship solemnly marching in the sky, from time to time correcting its course with powerful motors.

There are not many marches in the world that would be known and famous at any latitude and longitude. One of them is the march " Alte Kameraden " ("Old Friends" or "Old Comrades"), created by Karl Teike and made it world famous.

There is still no consensus on the circumstances of the creation of this march. It can only be considered reliable that it was created between 1886 and 1889, when Elt was the head of Teike, since a well-known episode is associated with the name of the latter. Teike brought Elta a new march, not yet named, to find out his opinion. He, having watched and purred the main tune and some parts, said: “We have enough marches, throw it in the stove ...” Some believe that this episode put an end to Teika’s desire to become a military bandmaster and forced him to leave military service. There is also a rather firm opinion that the march got its name as a result of a farewell party hosted by Teika regarding dismissal from military service, to which he invited his "old friends and comrades."

Despite the "competent" opinion of Elt, the march began to spread semi-underground in the Ulm garrison. Noticing this, Teike sold the copyright of the march to the publisher from Stettin, Fritz Mörike ( German: Fritz Mörike ) for twenty gold marks. According to recent studies by Hans Ahrens and Klaus Gesierich, the first public performance of the march took place in 1895 in the Potsdam Nowawes district with an orchestra conducted by Fritz Köhler ( German Fritz Köhler ) with the direct participation of the author .

Naturally, the popular and catchy melody could not remain without words. So many texts were written by the march that it became the subject of one of the dissertations. Their range is very wide: from the deputy of the Olympic anthem to the humorous and ironic song (in Sweden), glorifying the qualities of a certain alcoholic drink.

The name Karl Teika became known outside Germany during his lifetime. So, at the beginning of the century in the Belgian newspaper "Le petit Bleur du matin" was published a note on the "musical" police officer from Potsdam.

In 1914, Teike received a letter of thanks from New York with a large photograph, to which a request was made to write a march for the New York Police Orchestra. Teika, having served in the police for many years, eagerly performed it by writing the march “The Blue Police”. Traces of the march were lost.

Shortly before his death, Teique received an “explosive” order from France - to write several marches for the French army. The sharply worsened state of health and subsequent death did not allow him to fulfill it.

• Karl Anton Döll: Alte Kameraden, 1961
• CD booklet Historische Märsche - Carl Teike (1992) EAN: 4013809358834
• CD booklet “Historische Märsche - Carl Teike (2)” (1998) EAN: 4013809373936

• Page about Karl Teika with a list of marches on marchdb.net
• Page about Karl Teika on the site of Russian military music lovers