Johann Gottfried Piefke

Preussens Gloria

The Prussian military musician and composer Johann Gottfried Piefke, born in Schwerin in 1815 as the son of an organist and town musician, began his military service in 1835 in the music corps of the Leib-Grenadier-Regiment (1st Brandenburg) No. 8 in Frankfurt an der Oder. Three years later he began his private studies at the Kgl. Musikakademie in Berlin, after which he was transferred back to his regiment in Frankfurt an der Oder and promoted to staff oboist on 01 Jun 1843. There Piefke continued to work on himself to a considerable extent, so that he himself mastered almost all the instruments represented in his music corps. A new field of activity opened up for the ambitious staff oboist when his music corps relocated to Berlin. Piefke's transcriptions and arrangements of the works of his great contemporaries prompted Hans von Bülow to write an enthusiastic article in 1858 in which he praised Piefke beyond measure. During this time, on June 23, 1859, Piefke was appointed Royal Prussian Director of Music, an honor bestowed by the Prussian Academy of Sciences. Because of his achievements, Piefke was appointed 'director of the entire music choirs of the III Army Corps' on March 20, 1865. This was a position that did not exist before or after Piefke; his unique position is thus also underlined in a striking way with a prominent military appointment. After the end of the war years, Piefke, a convinced Wagnerian, devoted himself increasingly to the cultivation of classical music. Numerous concerts in Frankfurt and various concert tours made the Frankfurt Music Corps of the Leibgrenadiere one of the best military orchestras of the Royal Prussian Army.