La Garde Républicaine has a distinguished history in France, and its musicians were regulars in the recording studios, from the Gramophone Company, to Odeon to Columbia. I have a number of French Odeons of them, to follow at a later date.

Verdi – Le Trouvère – Fantaisie
Garde Républicaine    

Verdi – Le Trouvère – Fantaisie – Garde Républicaine
(mp3 file – click to play, or right click the link, then select “Save as”)

Odeon 33318/33319
Matrices 33318-2 x, 33319-3 x
Recorded c December 1904
76.1rpm

Waldteufel – Toujours ou jamais Waltz
“Clarkes London  Concert Band” – Musique de la Garde Républicaine

Waldteufel – Toujours ou jamais – Garde Republicain (G flat major)
Waldteufel – Toujours ou jamais – Garde Republicaine (G major)

(mp3 file – click to play, or right click the link, then select “Save as”)

G&T Gramophone Concert Record G.C.-2-145
Matrix 4397o (2-145)
Recorded 1904-5, Paris

Curiously, after the end of the Waldteufel, there is a gap in the grooves, and then another track – a few seconds of a steady single note on a trumpet.

Although named on the label as “Clarkes London Concert Band,” this recording was issued in the French catalogue as being played  by the Musique de la Garde Républicaine, and its use of the o-series matrix number also suggests a French recording.

The French military had already adopted diapason normal by this time and this recording plays in G flat major at 75.9rpm. At this speed, this trumpet tone appears as A440. A speed of around 80.4rpm would put the work in G major, with the test tone as a B flat, this would put result in many of the transposing instruments playing in A major and E major, which may be less likely than playing in A flat major and E flat major. However, I’ve provided transfers at both pitches, and leave it to the listener to decide which sounds more likely. The original orchestral key of E major is unfeasible!

There is a great deal of wear and distortion, particularly near the start of this record.

Iosif Ivanovici – Flots du Danube (Valse)
Johann Strauss II – Le Beau Danube Bleu
Garde Républicaine

Ivanovici – Flots du Danube ( Donauwellen) – Valse – Garde Républicaine

Johann Strauss II – Le Beau Danube Bleu – Garde Républicaine

(mp3 file – click to play, or right click the link, then select “Save as”)

Odeon 3814/6483
Matrices 3814-4 x, 6483 x (P 2279)
Recorded January 1906
74.2rpm playing in F minor and E flat major at A435

Auber – La Muette de Portici – Overture (abridged)
Suppe – Cavallerie Légère – Overture (abridged)
Musique de la Garde Républicaine

Gramophone Monarch 030039, 030040
Matrices: 840½i, 841½i
Recorded 1908 (passed for issue 22nd September 1908)

Rouget de Lisle – La Marseillaise
François van Campenhout – La Brabançonne
Musique de la Garde Républicaine

Columbia DCF 25
Matrices: CL 8602-1, 8603-1
Recorded c1940

On each side the piece is played twice.