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Franz von Blon

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Franz von Blon

Biography

Franz von Blon (16 July 1861, Berlin – 21 October 1945, Sielershof, Germany) was a German composer and conductor.

Blon played the violin as a young boy and attended Stern's Conservatory of Music, studying with Joseph Joachim. It was considered a great honor at that time to become a student of this celebrated virtuoso, and Blon was one of six accepted among the 123 who applied. He fulfilled his military service obligation as a member of the 12th Infantry Regiment at Frankfurt on the Oder from 1880-1883. During that period, he began composing and making many transcriptions for band.

After his army service, Blon continued to study in Berlin and then went to Hamburg, where he became konzertmaster at the Hamburg Municipal Theatre. Later, he founded the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Orchestra. This was not strictly a wind group; it included a few stringed instruments. The organization gained an international reputation and toured throughout Europe as well as in the United States.

Blon was a prolific composer of violin, piano, choral, orchestral and band music. He considered the march form more of a concert composition in miniature than a piece of music used to keep soldiers in step. Along with Carl Teike and Hermann Blankenberg, he is rated by many band enthusiasts to be among the most famous of German march composers.

In addition to his fine marches, he wrote a number of characteristic pieces such as Melitta, Blumengefluster, and Zug der Gnomen. His serenade,Sizilietta was popular with both orchestras and bands around the world for many years. He also enriched the repertoire of the popular operetta with Durchlaucht in Hosen, Sub-Rosa, and Die Amazone, among others.


Works for Winds


Resources

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