Based on various Old English hunting signal motifs, the Laridah March (HM II, 154) was composed by military bandmaster Max Hempel during World War I in 1918 in France.
Max Hempel, born in Göttendorf in Thuringia in 1877, studied music in Weimar from 1891. In 1895 he joined the Bavarian army as a military musician. In 1903 he was sent to the Academy of Music in Munich, where he studied until 1907. On July 1, 1906, he took over the regimental band of the 1st Infantry Regiment in Munich as music master, with which he also went into the field on August 1, 1914. After the First World War he became music master at the 2nd Battalion Infantry Regiment No. 19 in Augsburg. This band was considered one of the best military bands in Germany and was incorporated into the Augsburg Infantry Regiment 40 when the Wehrmacht was reorganized, to which Max Hempel belonged until the end of World War II. After the war he conducted the "Augsburg Wind Orchestra", composed of his former military musicians. The pioneer of our Bavarian brass music, composer and adjudicator Max Hempel died on December 25, 1959 in Augsburg. Max Hempel arranged numerous classical works (e.g. numerous overtures by Franz von Suppe) for wind bands. In addition to his many compositions, the "Laridah" is still a much-played and popular march for many bands.
Source: Blasmusik im Überblick, Georg Ried (Verlag dvo, ISBN 3-927781-17-7)