New Year's Eve in Vienna

This is a portrait of the good field marshall.  He has a very famous "march" dedicated to him (The Radetzky March) and I was just going to post it up because it is such a toe-tapper and there is an incredible version of it played by the Venezualan Youth Orchestra conducted by Dudamel.

What brought it to mind was it was written in 1848 - the year of the revolutions that hit the Hapsburgs.  Seems the peasants got tired of paying taxes in support of the nobility - which had armies everywhere to keep the peasants from revolution and to support those armies and keep the peasants in their place...well you get the rest.

What also brought this up is it is played in Vienna at the New Year's Eve concert every year - perhaps as long as it has been around. It will boil your blood as the saying goes.

It made me wonder why we need "field marshalls" or why anyone ever did.  Well of course, there were wars all over the place and continue to be so you need commanders.  Field Marshalls to command armies that are rushed back to the homeland to defend it against the people who make up the homeland - well not so much.