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History of Marchingbands
Marching bands have their origins in military formations that emerged in Europe during the Middle Ages. In the 19th century, civilian marching bands in the USA and Europe began to be organized along the lines of military bands. During the American Civil War, marching bands played an important role in entertaining and boosting the morale of troops. In the early 1900s, high school and university marching bands became popular in the United States and often performed at sporting events. The Ohio State University Marching Band, founded in 1878, is one of the oldest and best-known marching bands in the USA. In the 20th century, marching bands evolved to incorporate complex choreography and musical arrangements. Today, many marching bands participate in competitions and parades around the world, such as the Tournament of Roses Parade and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Marching bands are cultural symbols and help promote school spirit, community and music education.
Music corps have long been an important part of Norwegian musical culture. Due to the remoteness of the villages and the possibility of achieving a lot of sound with relatively few musicians, the influences of European marches merged with traditional Norwegian music. With the increasing electrification and industrialization as a result of the discovery of oil deposits in Norwegian waters, the importance of electrical engineering in Norway only grew in the late 20th century. As a result, four enterprising electrical engineering students founded our sister orchestra 'Dei Taktlause' on February 14, 1990 as part of the electrical engineering fraternity 'Sanctus-Omega-Bruderskab'. In doing so, they joined the ranks of other fraternities that already had a corps as part of their representation and entertainment. There were already 16 interested parties at the first competition and a few weeks later they made their first appearance in the Sanctus Omega fraternity's 'Commandoloeb'. Their first big goal was to take part in the Norwegian Student Orchestra Meeting SMASH. The search for a name was an adventure - they almost called themselves '30 percent less fat' before finally deciding on 'Dei Taktlause' (Norwegian for 'the beatless'). The first uniforms, dark red with their logo, were also created. With name, logo, uniforms and a flag, they were ready for SMASH in the fall of 1990.
In the early years, they performed regularly at SMASH, Mini-SMASH, Commandoloeb, Phaestum and diploma ceremonies. The iconic uniforms were created in 1992 - although they thought they looked like clowns when they first saw them! The following years were marked by big events: the 5th anniversary in 1995 was celebrated with a concert and party, and in 1999 a wedding of two members took place in Nidaros Cathedral. 10 years later, in 2000, old and new members were invited and the celebrations extended to Prague. The 15th anniversary in 2005 was celebrated with a gala dinner and a concert. In 2012, members received magnificent medals for their services to the orchestra and membership began to grow rapidly. Between 2016 and 2018, the orchestra reached over 60 active members, which required new uniforms and instruments. Despite the pandemic, the orchestra was able to celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2020 and participated in SMASH again in 2022, and today Dei Taktlause stands as a vibrant and active orchestra that looks back on a rich history and many memorable moments.
Frequenzgang is a marching band that mainly performs on the TU Berlin campus. In the world of electrical engineering and computer science, students are often regarded as socially incompetent, and their studies as demotivating and isolating. Frequenzgang, however, defied these stereotypes with laid-back, fun performances that make everyday university life unique for everyone who experiences it.Through an Erasmus stay in Trondheim, looking for a musical ensemble, Michael came across the E-Technik Orchester and found a vibrant community full of happy, creative and crazy people. The strong cohesion and local student identity was inspiring.Back in Berlin, they started looking for like-minded people. The first rehearsal was organized with Sven from Dei Taktlause, who was doing Erasmus in Berlin at the time, and other Erasmus students. Only a few came at first, but the number of participants grew steadily thanks to targeted advertising campaigns. The reliability of the members played a decisive role here. However, after the first planned performance at a graduation ceremony fell through, this was quite a blow to their motivation.Nevertheless, they continued to organize their own performances undeterred. And the first successes were not long in coming: representatives of the press were invited to the Lichthof performance, they played at the TU Christmas market and were booked as a highlight for the Long Night in the summer semester.