Wilhelm Wacek

Wilhelm Wacek, born in Sobeslau, Bohemia, came from a musical family: His father, Ignaz, was a choirmaster, and his younger brother, Ignaz, was, as few know, also a military bandmaster for a few years with the 2nd Tyrolean Imperial Rifle Regiment, one of the four Imperial Rifle bands. Thus, one family produced a bandmaster of both the Deutschmeister and the Imperial Rifle Regiments.

Wilhelm Wacek studied at the Prague Conservatory from 1879 to 1882 and then served in the military from 1883 to 1886 with Infantry Regiment 73. From 1886 to 1894, Wilhelm Wacek was the city music director in Brixen, the episcopal see of South Tyrol.

Carl Michael Ziehrer initiated Wacek's move to Vienna, and as Ziehrer's direct successor in 1894, Wacek took over the music of Infantry Regiment 4 "Hoch- und Deutschmeister." He held this position very successfully and continuously until the dissolution of the monarchy in 1918, thus becoming the last Kapellmeister of the Deutschmeister Band of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His tenure also saw numerous guest performances abroad, including the highly successful South American tour of 1910. This tour was the longest ever undertaken by an Austro-Hungarian military band. Julius Herrmann, his eventual successor, was already among the members of the Deutschmeister Band at that time. Wacek later dedicated the "Krupp March" to the tour's sponsor, the Berndorf industrialist Arthur Krupp.

After the end of the First World War, Wacek was the driving force behind the Deutschmeister Band's tradition, which was soon taken over by Julius Herrmann, and performed in many venues in Vienna until the 1930s (including the Schweizerhaus). In the years leading up to his death in 1944, he also conducted the Vienna Philharmonic on several occasions in concerts specifically dedicated to Viennese music. His musical talent lived on in his son, Otto Wacek, who also became a military bandmaster during the interwar period and, in the post-war reconstruction years in Vienna, very successfully founded and led the Vienna Fire Brigade Brass Band.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Wilhelm Wacek's original autographs (bearing the regimental stamp) came into the possession of the Original Hoch- und Deutschmeister and have thus returned home. After his death, the sheet music passed to his son, Otto Wacek, and Otto Wacek's widow gave it to Prof. Dr. Werner Hackl, formerly a trombonist with the Lower Austrian Tonkünstler Orchestra and bandmaster of the "Original Kaiserjäger." We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to the Original Hoch- und Deutschmeister for this extraordinary donation!

Barbara Boisits, Art. „Wacek (Vacek), Familie‟, in: Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon online, Zugriff: 6.1.2023 (http://www.musiklexikon.ac.at/ml/musik_W/Wacek_Familie.xml).

Historische Aufnahme unter der Stabführung Wilhelm Waceks: Philippovic-Marsch (35er Regimentsmarsch)

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