Beschrijving

Hermann Dostal was born in Strelice in northern Moravia. He grew up in a musical environment and then studied at the conservatoires of Prague and in Vienna. Dostal entered military service, presumably as an apprentice musician with Infantry Regiment No. 93 in Olomouc. He then transferred to the band of the 4th Bosnian-Hercegovinian Regiment, which had been stationed in Vienna since 1894. This made it possible for Dostal to complete his studies at the Vienna Conservatory. Franz Lehár, who directed the band of IR 26 at that time, recruited the young musician for his band as harpist (!) and recommended that Dostal be appointed his successor as bandmaster in 1902 when Lehár left the regiment. Dostal remained as conductor of this band until 1911, when he became bandmaster of IR 67. In 1918 he took over as leader of the 99th IR band. With it he participated in the last changing of the guard at the Imperial Palace in Vienna in November 1918. According to period sources, the band marched off to the strains of Czibulka’s “From the Banks of the Danube”. The end of Austro-Hungarian band music had come. After 1918, Dostal was active as a conductor of bands and orchestras in and around Vienna, contributing much to maintain the best of Austro-Hungarian band tradition. Dostal died in Vienna on December 20, 1930. Shortly before the outbreak of World War I, the first successful tests in aviation created almost an “aviation frenzy”. In 1912, Hermann Dostal had this phenomenon in mind when he composed “The Flying Cavalry Captain”. The “Aviators’ March” originates in this operetta. Consequently, it was in demand as a concert, but not as a military march for a long time. Today things have changed fundamentally, as both the German Federal Armed Forces and the Austrian Federal Army assigned the “Aviators’ March” as official march to chosen units.