(Ger.: ‘field music’).
A term used for the fanfares, and later other compositions, also known as Feldstücke, ‘needed in the field at warlike happenings’ (Altenburg, 88); alternatively it applied to an ensemble that played such pieces. The term referred originally to the corps of military trumpeters which replaced the drum and fife bands widely used in the Middle Ages.
In 1704 J.P. Krieger published six suites in his collection Lustige Feld-Music, auf vier blasende oder andere Instrumenta gerichtet, extending the term to include works for wind groups. As these groups had at first played double-reed instruments, their members were known as Hautboisten or Oboisten, (see Hautboist (i)) even though from early in the 18th century the ensemble often included other types of instrument. The Feldmusik were military musicians, but they also performed for court festivities and entertainments, either as a self-contained ensemble or as part of a larger group. These Feldmusik ensembles, especially as used for entertainment, became known in about 1800 as Harmonien and their music as Harmoniemusik. See Band (i), §II, 2(i).
J.E. Altenburg: Versuch einer Anleitung zur heroisch-musikalischen Trompeter- und Pauker-Kunst (Halle, 1795/R; Eng. trans., 1974)
G. Schünemann: ‘Sonaten und Feldstücke der Hoftrompeter’, ZfM, xvii (1935), 147–70
G. Schünemann, ed.: Trompeterfanfaren, Sonaten und Feldstücke … des 16./17. Jahrhunderts, EDM, 1st ser., vii (1936)
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