The Musical Archeologist

In this episode of The Musical Archeologist, Craig Dabelstein returns to Hermann Eichborn's On the History of Instrumental Music to ask a different kind of question: not only what the book tells us, but what its sources leave out.

Eichborn's world is full of town musicians, court trumpeters, guild players, military bandsmen, civic appointments, and official musical privileges. It is a fascinating history of music inside institutions — but it is also, almost entirely, a male and official world.

This episode explores the people institutional music history often forgets: women, amateurs, domestic musicians, informal teachers, servants, children, street performers, and others whose musical lives did not always leave paperwork behind.

The forgotten idea is simple but important: music history is not only made by the people institutions remember. It is also made by the people institutions forget.

The Musical Archeologist: Forgotten Ideas from Music's Past

Written and presented by Craig Dabelstein

Music composed by Jeffrey A. Young

This episode is based on ideas arising from Hermann Eichborn's On the History of Instrumental Music, translated by Craig Dabelstein and published by Maxime's Music.

Buy the book: https://books.by/maximes-music

Podcast webpage: https://craigdabelstein.com/podcast/

In this episode of The Musical Archeologist, Craig Dabelstein explores Hermann Eichborn's challenge to a familiar historical image: the medieval musician as a despised, wandering outcast.

Eichborn argues that the truth was more complicated. Some travelling entertainers certainly lived on the margins of society, but skilled musicians could also be respected court servants, civic professionals, tutors, companions, and even trusted envoys.

Behind the question is a larger forgotten idea: music itself was not necessarily despised, but a musician's status depended on where he belonged, whom he served, and whether society recognised his place.

This episode asks how stereotypes about musicians are formed, why the line between artist and outsider has always been unstable, and whether modern musical life still carries traces of the same old tension.

The Musical Archeologist: Forgotten Ideas from Music's Past Written and presented by Craig Dabelstein Music composed by Jeffrey A. Young

This episode is based on ideas from Hermann Eichborn's On the History of Instrumental Music, translated by Craig Dabelstein and published by Maxime's Music.

Buy the book: https://books.by/maximes-music

Podcast webpage: https://craigdabelstein.com/podcast/

In this episode of The Musical Archeologist, Craig Dabelstein explores one of Hermann Eichborn's most wonderfully specific examples of musical regulation: the old wedding rules of Lübeck, where even music at a feast could be controlled by civic authority.

At certain weddings, the "great ensemble" was permitted to play during the meal only once — during the roast course. It sounds comic, but behind the rule is a serious forgotten idea: music was not merely entertainment. It was a public display of rank, wealth, order, and social meaning.

This episode asks why a city would regulate wedding music, what instruments and musicians represented in civic life, and how something as ordinary as a feast could reveal a whole society's anxieties about status and display.

The Musical Archeologist: Forgotten Ideas from Music's Past

Written and presented by Craig Dabelstein

Music composed by Jeffrey A. Young

This episode is based on ideas from Hermann Eichborn's On the History of Instrumental Music, translated by Craig Dabelstein and published by Maxime's Music.

Buy the book: https://books.by/maximes-music

Podcast webpage: https://craigdabelstein.com/podcast/

In this episode of The Musical Archeologist, Craig Dabelstein explores one of Hermann Eichborn's strangest and most revealing stories: a world in which playing the trumpet was not merely a musical act, but a matter of privilege, authority, and professional control.

Eichborn tells of a dispute in Hanover where court trumpeters allegedly broke into a town musician's house, confiscated his trumpet, and even knocked out several of his teeth — all in the name of defending their professional rights.

Behind the absurdity is a serious forgotten idea: musical instruments once carried legal, social, and ceremonial power. The trumpet was not just a brass tube. It could be a badge of rank, a signal of authority, and a protected professional privilege.

This episode asks what happens when musical standards, professional identity, and social status become tangled together — and whether "protecting the art" can sometimes turn into musical policing.

The Musical Archeologist: Forgotten Ideas from Music's Past Written and presented by Craig Dabelstein Music composed by Jeffrey A. Young

This episode is based on ideas from Hermann Eichborn's On the History of Instrumental Music, translated by Craig Dabelstein and published by Maxime's Music.

Buy the book: https://books.by/maximes-music

Podcast webpage: https://craigdabelstein.com/podcast/

What happens when a critic is so overwhelmed by a pianist that he reaches for storms, devils, fireworks, and dancing skeletons?

In this episode of The Musical Archeologist, Craig Dabelstein returns to Oscar Comettant's 1874 portrait of Francis Planté to explore a lost style of music criticism: extravagant, comic, passionate, and deeply attentive. Nineteenth-century critics may have written with glorious excess, but they were trying to describe what actually happened in the music.

This episode reflects on criticism as a form of musical attention — not mere judgement, not polite publicity, but listening turned into language.

Written and presented by Craig Dabelstein.

Music composed by Jeffrey A. Young.

Based on Oscar Comettant's Francis Planté: Portrait musical à la plume.

Podcast webpage: https://craigdabelstein.com/podcast/

Buy the book: https://books.by/maximes-music

Craig Dabelstein: https://craigdabelstein.com/

Maxime's Music: https://www.maximesmusic.com/

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@maximes-music

A score is not music. It is grammar waiting to become speech.

In this episode of The Musical Archeologist, Craig Dabelstein returns to Oscar Comettant's 1874 portrait of the French pianist Francis Planté to explore the role of the performer — and the conductor — as interpreter. Planté was criticised for being "only" a virtuoso and not a composer, but Comettant turns that criticism upside down, arguing that performers keep the works of the masters alive.

Drawing also on Dr David Whitwell's idea that "Music is a Verb," this episode reflects on the score as a silent trace of musical thought, and on the interpreter as an advocate for composers who can no longer speak for themselves.

Written and presented by Craig Dabelstein.

Music composed by Jeffrey A. Young.

Based on Oscar Comettant's Francis Planté: Portrait musical à la plume.

Podcast webpage: https://craigdabelstein.com/podcast/

Buy the book: https://books.by/maximes-music

Craig Dabelstein: https://craigdabelstein.com/

Maxime's Music: https://www.maximesmusic.com/

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@maximes-music

Before recordings could preserve a performance, a great pianist might become famous across Europe—and then almost disappear from musical memory.

In this episode, Craig Dabelstein explores Oscar Comettant's portrait of the French pianist Francis Planté, a musician whose playing was described not merely as brilliant, but as poetic. What did nineteenth-century listeners mean when they called a pianist a "poet," and what might that forgotten ideal still teach us about musical expression today?

Written and presented by Craig Dabelstein

Music composed by Jeffrey A. Young

Music excerpt: Hector Berlioz, Sérénade de Méphistophélès from La Damnation de Faust, arranged for piano by Ernest Redon; performed by Francis Planté. Recorded for French Columbia at Planté's home in Mont-de-Marsan, France, 3–4 July 1928. Matrix WL 1220-1; issued as French Columbia D 13061.

Based on: Oscar Comettant, Francis Planté: musical portrait with a pen

Translated by Craig Dabelstein

Published by Maxime's Music

Podcast: https://craigdabelstein.com/podcast/

Buy the book: https://books.by/maximes-music

Craig Dabelstein: https://craigdabelstein.com/

Maxime's Music: https://www.maximesmusic.com/

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@maximes-music

Music by Jeffrey A. Young: https://jeffyoung.maximesmusic.com/the-musical-archeologist-suite-2026/

Episode 9: A Dreadful Hullaballoo

Why did one nineteenth-century French musician describe military bands as producing "a dreadful hullaballoo"?

In this episode of The Musical Archeologist, Craig Dabelstein explores Frédéric Berr's criticism of the bewildering variety of instruments found in military bands of his day. With every regiment assembling its own combination of players, no two bands sounded alike, making consistent training, repertoire, and musical standards almost impossible.

Source:

Frédéric Berr, The need to reconstitute the School of Military Music

Translated by Craig Dabelstein

Published by Maxime's Music

Learn more:

Podcast: https://craigdabelstein.com/podcast/

Books: https://books.by/maximes-music

Maxime's Music: https://www.maximesmusic.com/

Music composed by Jeffrey A. Young: https://jeffyoung.maximesmusic.com/

How can you be responsible for a band if you have no power to lead it?

In this episode of The Musical Archeologist, Craig Dabelstein explores Frédéric Berr's surprising criticism of nineteenth-century French military bands: bandmasters were expected to produce excellent performances, yet often lacked the authority to choose their musicians, enforce discipline, or shape the musical standards of their own ensembles.

Berr argued that great music requires more than talented performers. It also requires leadership, responsibility, and the authority to make decisions. His ideas reveal why effective musical organisations depend on clear roles and accountability—a lesson that remains just as relevant for bands and orchestras today.

Source:

Frédéric Berr, The need to reconstitute the School of Military Music

Translated by Craig Dabelstein

Published by Maxime's Music

Learn more:

Podcast: https://craigdabelstein.com/podcast/

Books: https://books.by/maximes-music

Maxime's Music: https://www.maximesmusic.com/

Music composed by Jeffrey A. Young.

What happens when an army's musicians are hired one day, gone the next, and loyal only to whoever pays them?

In this episode of The Musical Archeologist, Craig Dabelstein explores Frédéric Berr's colourful account of the problems caused by freelance musicians in nineteenth-century French military bands. With players constantly moving between regiments, standards became inconsistent, rehearsals suffered, and bandmasters struggled to build disciplined ensembles.

Berr believed the solution was not stricter discipline but a better system: properly trained musicians, clear career paths, and stable organisations that encouraged excellence. It is a fascinating glimpse into the hidden challenges of military music—and a reminder that many of the organisational problems musicians face today are far older than we imagine.

Source: Frédéric Berr, Reconstitute the School of Military Music Translated by Craig Dabelstein Published by Maxime's Music

Learn more: Podcast: https://craigdabelstein.com/podcast/ Books: https://books.by/maximes-music Maxime's Music: https://www.maximesmusic.com/

Music composed by Jeffrey A. Young.