The Großer Zapfenstreich, the grand tattoo, is the Bundeswehr’s ceremony to honor, among others, a departing chancellor or federal president. It was first performed in its present musical form in Berlin on 12 May 1838. The ceremony follows a fixed order: the march-in with the report, a serenade, the tattoo itself with the prayer and the national anthem, and the march-out. The music of the tattoo is fixed. The person being honored may choose the three pieces of the serenade. In 2021, Angela Merkel’s choices included Nina Hagen’s Du hast den Farbfilm vergessen.
music
One Formula for Seven Operas
Between 1977 and 2003, Karlheinz Stockhausen composed LICHT, light, a cycle of seven operas named after the days of the week. Together they last about 29 hours. The whole cycle is built on a single superformula of three melodies, one for each of the central characters, Michael, Eva and Luzifer. The formula defines the tonal centers and the durations of whole scenes. Each opera is composed from an elaborated form of its own day’s part of the formula.
Twenty-Six Years for the Ring
Richard Wagner began work on what became Der Ring des Nibelungen in 1848. He completed it in November 1874, twenty-six years later. The cycle had its premiere in 1876 in Bayreuth.
A Performance of 639 Years
In the Burchardi Church in Halberstadt, an organ is playing John Cage’s piece ORGAN²/ASLSP, as slow as possible. The performance began on 5 September 2001 with a pause. The first pipes sounded about two years later. The performance is planned to end in 2640, after 639 years. The length counts back to 1361, when Nicolaus Faber completed an organ for Halberstadt Cathedral. The years from 1361 to 2000 are 639. The sound changes on dates fixed in advance. The most recent change came on 5 August 2026, and the next is scheduled for 5 October 2027. The foundation that runs the project has no institutional funding and relies on donations.
A Song Against Plans
Die Dreigroschenoper, The Threepenny Opera, by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, opened on 31 August 1928 at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin. One of its songs is the Lied von der Unzulänglichkeit menschlichen Strebens, the song of the inadequacy of human striving. It is also listed under the title Ballade von der Unzulänglichkeit menschlichen Planens, the ballad of the inadequacy of human planning.
Weekend and Sunshine
On 22 August 1930, the Comedian Harmonists recorded Wochenend und Sonnenschein, Weekend and Sunshine, in Berlin. The tune was the American song Happy Days Are Here Again. The German text by Charles Amberg was a new song, not a translation. It became one of the group’s biggest hits and is still very well known. Max Raabe and his Palast Orchester recorded it again in 2002.
Every Week at the Same Time
The German Choir Association alone has 13,000 choirs with about 700,000 members. At the German Choir Festival in Nuremberg in May 2025, Johannes Hasselhorn, a professor of music education at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, described a change. People are reluctant to commit to coming jede Woche zu einer bestimmten Zeit zur Chorprobe, to choir rehearsal every week at a set time. Traditional club choirs and church choirs struggle with falling membership. New formats such as pub choirs draw large crowds.
Bach at the Coffeehouse
Zimmermann’s coffeehouse stood in the Katharinenstraße in Leipzig, near the market square. From 1729 Johann Sebastian Bach led the Collegium Musicum there, an ensemble that Georg Philipp Telemann had founded as a law student in 1702. Its concerts took place every week, all year round, and twice a week during Leipzig’s three trade fairs. The building was destroyed in the air raids on Leipzig in December 1943.
The Curtain at the Audition
Musicians who apply for a post in a German orchestra play an audition, the Probespiel. In the 1970s a curtain was introduced. Die Leistung im Probespiel wurde durch Einführung des Vorhangs – zumindest in der ersten Runde – anonymisiert. With the curtain, the playing in the audition became anonymous, at least in the first round. In 1971, women made up just under six percent of the musicians in German orchestras. A survey in 2020 of all 129 publicly funded orchestras in Germany found 39.6 percent women.
No Seat After the Curtain Rises
The terms of use of the Bavarian State Theaters are published as an official regulation. One sentence deals with latecomers. Mit Beginn der Veranstaltung erlischt aus Sicherheitsgründen und mit Rücksicht auf die mitwirkenden Künstlerinnen und Künstler sowie die anderen Besucherinnen und Besucher der Anspruch auf den gebuchten Platz. When the performance begins, the claim to the booked seat expires, for safety reasons and out of consideration for the performers and the other members of the audience. A latecomer is let into the hall only if there is a suitable break.