Frackmusik

The date was the 31^st of December 1999. I was in a melancholy mood, being alone and also officially on call just in case for the great Y2K non-event. I rented a movie and bought a bottle of Asti. The Asti was cold, refreshing, and delicious. The movie was The Harmonists.

I’ve been smitten with the music of the Comedian Harmonists ever since hearing it that fateful night. Larger than life, they were arguably the world’s greatest musical act of their time. Formed in depression era Germany, they took the world by storm into the 1930’s until the Reichskulturkammer banned them from performing; in part it was that half of them were Jewish. In part it was that the prevailing artistic climate was, shall we say, not kindly inclined toward that kind of music – it wasn’t epic or patriotic enough. Ahem.

Nevertheless, the group split in two. The three who left Germany continued their performances in prewar Europe, Australia and the United States usually under the banner of the Comedy Harmonists, while those who remained and performed in Germany became known as the Meistersextett, the name Comedian Harmonists having been forbidden along with the three Jewish members. The former lost popularity with the outbreak of World War II, while the latter were simply eventually banned outright.

Since that night, I’ve managed to collect quite an assortment of their music, which I’ve recently learned is often known as Frackmusik; frack, in English, means “evening dress”, specifically the tux jacket with tails and all that implies.

Through Internet happenstance, I stumbled across Ensemble Six, who have revived the genre and have a large number of Comedian Harmonists songs in their repertoire. Andreas Wellen, one of the Ensemble Six tenors, has a project to collect all 179 78rpm recordings of the Comedian Harmonists and put them out on CD. The first set of CD’s was printed last year; the rest of the project is temporarily on hold.

I made the rather silly assumption that the Comedian Harmonists were the example, singular, of the genre, never mind that The Revelers from the United States were one of their big inspirations. They just happen to have history on their side; after all, there is a lot of material available about them, including many CD’s of their music.

While there were many groups that were their contemporaries, who themselves had good songs, you won’t likely get to hear any of it unless you buy the modern Ensemble Six renditions on their recent CD, Zieh Dich Wieder An, Wir Gehn Ins Bett, (translated: Put Your Clothes Back On, We’re Going to Bed!) It is a collection of songs by 1930’s Frackmusik groups that are all quite amusing and entertaining in their own right. I particularly like Mein Bruder Macht Beim Tonfilm die Geräusche (translated: My Brother Makes the Sounds for the Movies, although the reactions to "My Brother is a Foley Artist" are more fun).

I’m both happy and thrilled that Ensemble Six are around, and I hope they produce more CD’s for my collection. To them I say, “Viel Glück und viel Erfolg!”