Recommended Books & Music

Music is an important and pervasive facet of German life. German disunity over the centuries actually helped foster German music. The many small principalities and bishoprics that split up the German-speaking world meant that there were many courts to offer opportunities to musicians, both composers and instrumentalists. As a result, the German-speaking nations produced more composers of indisputable greatness than any other.

Today, the musical scene in Germany is as vibrant as ever. Every major city has an opera house and an orchestra, many of them world renowned. New composers are encouraged, and productions are often at the cutting edge.

A History of German Music

Baroque Music -- The greatest composer of the baroque era was Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), who was a supreme master of all musical forms of his time. Bach produced many church cantatas, especially for St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, where he served as cantor. His compositions were technically outstanding, vigorous, and profound. Little of his music was published during his lifetime, but after his death, his influence steadily grew, especially that of his organ works. The musical tradition in his large family was maintained by two of his talented sons, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-88) and Johann Christian Bach (1735-82). The Brandenburg Concertos are highly recommended.

Bach's contemporary, George Frideric Handel (1685-1759), was another great composer. He first rose to prominence as musician of the court of Hannover, a post that he left to become composer at the court of St. James of England. He was a leading composer of operas and instrumental music for the court. Listen to his oratorio, Messiah.

The Classical Period -- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91), although an Austrian, cannot be omitted from any discussion of German music. His operas, with their contemporary themes and lively musical characterizations, paved the way for later composers. Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), another Austrian, also exerted great influence on German music, especially instrumental music. Listen to Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni and Haydn's "Drum Roll" Symphony no. 103.

The 19th Century & Romanticism -- The 19th century was rich in musical genius. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) ushered in romanticism. His works included symphonies, piano concertos, piano sonatas, quartets, and many others. He greatly expanded and developed the orchestra. Tragically, he completely lost his hearing in 1819. However, the chamber music he wrote after this event shows an even greater depth and complexity than his previous compositions. Listen to symphonies no. 5 and no. 9.

Other great composers of the era include Franz Schubert (1797-1828), Felix Mendelssohn (1809-47), Robert Schumann (1810-56), and Johannes Brahms (1833-97). Listen to Schubert's Lieder, Mendelssohn's "Overture" to A Midsummer Night's Dream, Schumann's "Scenes from Childhood," and Brahms's German Requiem.

The giant of the 19th-century opera world was Richard Wagner (1813-83). His theories of musical drama exerted a tremendous influence on everyone who followed him, even his detractors. His influence can best be heard in the music of the later Romantic composer Richard Strauss (1864-1949), whose operas carry Wagner's ideas of character development to greater psychological depth. Listen to Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelungs and Strauss's Salome.

The 20th Century -- Musical experimentation flourished in early-20th-century Germany. Austrian-born Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) developed the 12-tone system of musical structure. Kurt Weill (1900-50) and Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) tried to reach a more popular audience. During the Nazi era, many composers fled Germany. Others, like Hans Pfitzner (1869-1949) and Strauss, remained in an uneasy relationship with the Nazis. Listen to Schoenberg's Five Pieces for Orchestra, Weill's Threepenny Opera, and Hindemith's Mathis der Maler. The music of Pfitzner is still heard in such operas as Palestrina from 1917 and Das Herz from 1931. The compositions of Strauss are among the most frequently played around the globe, especially his operas such as Salome (1905) and Elektra (1909).

More recently, major composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007) and Hans Werner Henze (b. 1926) have brought the traditions of Germany's musical past into the present. Listen to Stockhausen's Gesang der Jünglinge (Song of the Youths). Henze has won cultural awards around the world for such compositions as The English Cat in 1980 and La Cubana in 1973.

Beyond Baroque: the Modern German Music Scene

Modern German music tastes are heavily influenced by the American or British pop worlds, but many German musicians have created their own Teutonic sounds, notably the amusingly named "Krautrock." Kraut, of course, was originally an ethnic slur used by American GIs to refer to Nazi soldiers. One critic defined Krautrock "as a mix of Anglo-American post-psychedelic jamming and moody progressive rock." Its stars were the band Can, often compared to the Velvet Underground, and the band Faust, which became one of the first acts to sign with Richard Branson's Virgin Records.

Crossing international boundaries is the German industrial metal band, Rammstein, which nonetheless performs almost exclusively in German. The group is known for its rock hit, "Du Hast." Rammstein is also controversial -- a liquid-ejecting dildo earned them a night in the Massachusetts jail. Rammstein band members much admire the music of Nina Hagen, who often leads protests concerning issues such as the war in Iraq. She headlined the Drop Dead Festival in New York City in 2005.

Germany reaches its peak of electronic-techno/trance music at Berlin's annual Love Parade, a popular festival that originated in Berlin in 1989 and has now spread about the world. Concerts at the parade are mainly trance, house, techno, and schranz, the latter the name given to hard techno.

New German wave (Neue Deutsche Welle) was a form of punk rock and new wave music that rose in the mid-'70s. Out of this movement came a German band from Berlin, Wir Sind Helden (We Are Heroes), who have achieved great success, including sold-out concerts in London, with non-English lyrics.

Punk music became popular in the 1970s in the wake of the success of British bands like the Sex Pistols, who developed a devoted following in West Germany. After reunification, many punk bands such as Slime rose to rant against politicians who ignore the dangers of neo-Nazis in Germany. The late '70s also saw the rise of goth rock, with strong ties to the English punk rock scene. Since the turn of the millennium, goth rock has declined in popularity but still flourishes in pockets.

German hip-hop entered the main stream only in the early '90s, bringing with it graffiti and break dancing. The controversial and mysterious Berlin rapper Sido released Maske, a debut album in 2004, which was hailed as the first real German hip-hop music. His most recent release is the 2008 album Ich und meine Maske (Me and My Mask).