Brass music was his life

Why do millions of people love Ernst Mosch's music more than anything else? This is a basic question. After all, there are a lot more great wind orchestras in Germany and even Ernst Mosch's single flute, three clarinets, one trumpet, four tenor horns, three trombones, two tubas, and a percussionist had only the usual twelve notes of an octave at hand. So what was the secret of his success?

Ernst Mosch once said: "Our music is far more than German 'oompah'. We create music shaped by enthusiasm and passion. Brass music not only without rattling but smooth like a string band. That makes the difference." When rehearsing a title he used to tell each musician exactly how to play the notes. This sometimes aroused heated discussions but in the end they got this out-standing "Mosch-Sound" - often imitated but never equalled.

Conducing to the success of this sound were the inimitable vocals of Ernst Mosch and Franz Bummerl, of Barbara Rosen, and later Helga Reichel, accompanied by true love for the homeland an a vital musicality. And last but not least the congenial arrangements by Frank Pleyer and the short-lived Gerald Weinkopf: This gifted artist knew how to write tailor-made arrangements for each and every one of the musicians.

	Due to the high quality of the Original Egerlander Musicians he could create an unique score for every instrument, no part had to be doubled at all. This is how they accomplished a multi-layered complexity. No flimsy "tatara" but a heart-filling and warm sound softly swinging between the highest and lowest notes.
Ferenc Aszodi

To this day, that sound, played live and with original lineup even in the recording studio, gives people a cheering feeling. With his immense musicality Ernst Mosch easily could realize his many ideas' full potential. He recorded operetta and film melodies, played a "Polka-Swing-Parade", and he published gutter songs in his editions of "Strassenmusikanten", which in German means "buskers".

	With his swinging rhythm he earned an overwhelming success on his 1966 United States Tour: Sold-out tickets in St. Louis, Missouri, and Chicago, Illinois, a jammed New York Carnegie Hall, a "Special Police Award" from the Mequon, Wisconsin, Police Department and enthusiastic reviews which gave him the title "Most Famous Brass Band of the World".
	Special Police Award Ernst Mosch Mequon, Wisconsin 1966

In 2001 Gerhard Schilling, editor at Hesse Broadcast, raved in the catalogue foreword:

"Yet in his lifetime Ernst Mosch was a legend, a monument of brass music culture and furthermore he was an extremely vital source of inspiration for young and young at heart musicians of various entertainment sectors. Again and again the former big-band jazz player delivered high quality brass music for the heart and the soul which was interpreted with softly swinging finesse by his orchestra.
Like no one else he was able to create an astonishing balance between expressive moments and emotional cantilenas that got under the skin. His sound was full, smooth, and facetted like a superb wine, matured in an old Barrique. In his music light-hearted wind-band tradition met desire and passion. His unique feeling for the right titles and his elaborate arrangements and productions earned him decoration after decoration, filled the biggest concert halls in the world and made him an icon of national and international music business, placing him on the same level with the most prestigious pop stars.
It was a quite natural consequence that with an appropriate styling of each song and a good dash of nostalgia the Original Egerlander Musicians hit the charts time and again - you can call them Chartbreaker."

Ernst Mosch himself had a considerably less poetical explanation for his music's success: "It's all true. The audience can feel this. Our waltzes, polkas and marches go straight to the heart. It's that simple ...!"