The Bundeswehr Army Band in Berlin has expanded its repertoire to include Turkish sounds. Alongside traditional military music, the band now also performs oriental pieces featuring the baglama string instrument and the cajón box drum.
The instruments are intended to bring a different soundscape to Bundeswehr music. However, according to the musicians, the pieces are not suitable for marches, but rather for performances outside the traditional military context.
The two soldiers behind these new sounds are Staff Sergeant Ali Eba Balli and Senior Lance Corporal Jan-Ole Meyerdierks. Balli plays the baglama. Meyerdierks accompanies him on the cajón. The duo has already performed at venues including Berlin Cathedral. Turkish music often deals with love, nature, pain and joy, Balli explains to the newspaper Tagesspiegel.
According to Balli, he was asked a few years ago by the head of the Army Band, Lieutenant Colonel Reinhard Kiauka, to play the baglama. The instrument had not previously been a regular feature of the band. Meyerdierks, meanwhile, spoke of a marked difference from classical military music. With these pieces, he said, something happens “in the here and now” that isn’t on the sheet music. This is “a completely different contrast to how military music is usually presented”.