--- forwarded message, please reply to sender and MMD ---

 [ I sent all the letters on this thread to Jerry Hall:
 [
 [> Hi Jerry,  Your query to MMD resulted in all this fun !  If
 [> it's the Beethoven piece you seek there are several choices.
 [> But maybe you're seeking an orchestral version of the piano
 [> piece Ed Berlin mentions, called "Battle of Waterloo".
 [> Let us know sometime if your search is successful.
 [
 [ -- Robbie

Good heavens.  Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I would
get such a response.

Sorry to have gotten a few of my "facts" mixed up at first, even to the
point of the music not commemorating the Battle of Waterloo at all but
a much earlier conflict instrumental (no pun intended) in driving the
French out of Spain, but nearly forty years does have a tendency to
dim one's memory or at least distort the events.  I'll try to respond
to all of the contributors individually and thank them for their help.

Actually, it was not particularly an interest in "mechanical" music
that peaked my interest but simply getting somewhat fixated on a memory
of the composition heard so long ago and now just sort of popped into
my head and for a day or two drove me nuts trying to remember what it
was.  However, it was definitely "jolly good fun" playing detective and
finally getting a resolution.

Now, I'm almost overwhelmed as to which version of the recording
for which I should start searching.  As I recall, -- and my memory
is getting about as good as Clinton's about Lewinski -- I had the RCA
version (performers unknown) but I can't be sure.  My record player
didn't inhale.

What impressed me about it was the novelty of the composition and how
it played on my (then) recently self-constructed Heathkit stereo system,
what with the muskets and cannons firing from left to right and vice
versa.  Early days of stereo!!!  I even had a test record of which a
part was the sound of a large pipe or acetylene cylinder being rolled
back and forth on a concrete floor so you could almost envision it in
your mind.  I was so easily amused then.

Anyway, I ramble on too much.  Thanks for all your help.

Regards
Gerald A. (Jerry) Hall