As is usual with Rudolf Achleitner, this lively 6/8 march – dedicated to Archduke Otto – begins with fanfares. The brother of heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand and father of the last Austrian Emperor Charles I was called “Bolla” and is considered the most attractive Habsburg of all time. In his role as an unmarried philanderer, “handsome Otto” felt very much at home. He partied wildly with ladies of dubious reputation, drank a lot of alcohol and felt little attachment to the strict Habsburg customs. And the whole piece is just as light-footed. In the bass part, the staggering of the often drunken archduke could even have been musically traced. The main voices in the trio are soft and monophonic and are colourfully underlined by an imitation in the tenor register. A tutti sforza tone leads to the musically particularly interesting short section in 2/4 time, before the grandioso is heard again in 6/8!

The fact, that the Bolla March (or Archduke Otto March) by Rudolf Achleitner exists in printed form, is a world sensation!
The almost completely preserved handwritten sheet music of the ensemble of that time was found at the end of 2023 in the private music archive of Josef Kleindienst (platoon leader in the Imperial and Royal 3rd Tyrolean Kaiserjäger Regiment) in South Tyrol and given to MUNODI Edition for publication.
The Tyrolean composer and arranger Engelbert Wörndle, who is very well known in wind music circles, adapted the sheet music into a contemporary setting, taking into consideration the musical language of the time, so that the march can be heard in all its fullness.