Melody Sextet: familiar name, some new faces

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM--Six musicians from the heart of Bavaria have had little trouble in getting Heritagefest 2002 crowds tapping their toes and doing the Bavarian schunkeln.

Urging the crowd to lock arms and rock side-to-side, Gerhard Roth and the Melody Sextet from the Wurzburg area in southern Germany played the old, traditional polkas and waltzes of Bavaria, interrupted only with occasional renditions of "Ein Prosit, Ein Prosit," the toasting song.

"We're very proud and happy to be back to make these people happy," said Roth. The band made its first visit to New Ulm and Heritagefest in 2000.

"It's a special feeling to bring traditional music to these people," said the band's leader. "We know what these people want to hear."

Unfortunately, Roth said, it's almost an entirely different musical group as four musicians who were here in 2000 have left the band.

"Yes, they have been getting married and raising children or have moved to other parts of Germany, too far away. It's the way of life; everything moves on."

Roth of Wurzburg, the band leader, vocalist and accordion player, and Andres Paul of near Stuttgart, who plays clarinet and saxophone, are the two musicians remaining from the 2000 Heritagefest band.

Manfred Oster of Stuttgart plays the trumpet, and Gustav Rottmann, also of Stuttgart, plays bass guitar and tuba. Haus Roth of near Nuremberg is the band's drummer, and Viorel Schundiak of near Giessen plays guitar.

Like other German bands, when playing in Germany, their repertoire consists almost entirely of Schlager (German contemporary music), American country western and rock and roll, Roth explained.

"Yes, we do play old traditional Bavarian music for weddings," he said, "but we play other music, as well, about every weekend in big halls and clubs and, in the summertime, in tents."

Also, like most German bands, the Melody Sextet musicians all have "day" jobs. Roth, for example, is advertising sales manager for a 120,000-circulation daily newspaper, the largest circulation paper in Franken in northern Bavaria.

Roth began playing accordion when he was 10 years old "because I wanted to make people happy, and I really feel the music. All of us started young with playing traditional music.

The band has played "eight or nine times" in the United States and Canada, Roth said. The group will wind up a three-week visit to America playing at Germanfest in Milwaukee next week and spending a few days in the Chicago area where Roth has relatives.

His advice to the old-time music bands in this country is to diversify their music, adding contemporary and other music to their repertoires.

"You have to give the young people what they want."