music Archives - Page 9 of 13 - understand-culture

Thirty Years for the Ode

Friedrich Schiller wrote his poem An die Freude, Ode to Joy, in the summer of 1785. Ludwig van Beethoven wanted to set it to music while he still lived in Bonn. A letter from 1793 says he planned to.

It took him a good 30 years to complete it, in the last movement of his Ninth Symphony. The symphony was first performed in Vienna on 7 May 1824. By then it held more than six years of work and many changes. Since 1985 the instrumental version of Beethoven’s ode has been the official anthem of the European Union.

“Success” Is the Middle Grade

German amateur bands, from village brass bands to fire brigade bands, perform before juries in Wertungsspiele, rated performances. The 2026 rules of the Saxon firefighters’ association are typical. Each piece is scored on ten criteria, from intonation to overall impression, up to 100 points.

The band then receives a rating from fixed bands. Hervorragender Erfolg, outstanding success, needs 91 points or more. Plain Erfolg, success, covers 61 to 70 points. Below 60 points the band is recorded only as teilgenommen, took part.

Eight Services a Week

An orchestra musician’s working week in Germany is counted in Dienste, services. The collective agreement for orchestra musicians, as quoted by the Federal Labor Court in 2003, sets the limit. On average over eight calendar weeks, or 16 in concert orchestras, a musician has to play at most eight services a week.

If most performances in that period are of works rated difficult by their score, the limit is seven. A 2008 position paper from the German Stage Association described a regular week as eight services of two and a half or three hours.

Practice Is Done at Home

On 19 December 1991 the Federal Labor Court decided a case about musicians of the Deutsche Oper Berlin. The dispute was about pay for a short strike. In its reasoning the court described the duty of an orchestra musician.

To perform his services properly, he needs individuelle Vorbereitung durch häusliches Proben und Üben, individual preparation by rehearsing and practicing at home, in order to meet the orchestra’s quality standard. The collective agreement did not say this anywhere. According to the court, the parties to the agreement took it for granted, selbstverständlich.

Booed Staging, Cheered Singers

In July 2016 large parts of the audience at the Bayreuth Festival loudly booed Frank Castorf’s staging of Wagner’s Siegfried. On the same evening they cheered the singers frenetically. The conductor, Marek Janowski, received a Jubelsturm, a storm of cheers.

Chamber Singer, Chamber Musician

In Germany, members of opera ensembles can receive honorary titles: Kammersänger, chamber singer, and Kammermusiker, chamber musician. In Saxony an administrative regulation of 22 June 1998 sets the conditions for the Saxon State Opera in Dresden and the Landesbühnen Sachsen. A singer needs leading artistic achievements and continuous, regular and successful work in the productions.

An orchestra musician needs outstanding artistic achievements and at least five years of unbroken membership of the ensemble in Dresden, or eight at the Landesbühnen. To keep the titles from losing their value, at most three a year may be awarded at the Dresden State Opera, and one at the Landesbühnen.

The Solo Trumpeter and the Posthorn

A German symphony orchestra employed a musician as 1. und Solo-Trompeter, first and solo trumpet. The employer also wanted him to play the piccolo trumpet, the cornet, the flugelhorn, the natural trumpet and the posthorn, against an extra allowance under the orchestras’ collective agreement. The question went to the Federal Labor Court.

On 18 January 2012 the court ruled against the trumpeter. His title describes his function in the orchestra, but it does not fix the instruments he plays. Der Kläger kann nicht frei entscheiden, ob er mit diesen Instrumenten mitwirkt. The plaintiff cannot decide freely whether he plays these instruments.

The Total Work of Art

Gesamtkunstwerk, the total work of art. The German word describes a work that uses all or many art forms together. The philosopher K. F. E. Trahndorff used it in 1827.

Richard Wagner made the idea famous. In two essays of 1849, Die Kunst und die Revolution and Das Kunstwerk der Zukunft, he described an art that unites all the arts through the theater. English uses the German word.

A Season of Dates

The Bavarian State Opera in Munich sells subscriptions for its season. The dates of the subscription performances are printed on the subscription card, although the opera reserves the right to change them. Under the terms for 2025/26, a subscriber can cancel during the running season only aus außerordentlichen Gründen, for extraordinary reasons. For the next season, subscribers are offered a renewal with the same seats.

An Application for an Application Form

In 1977 the singer-songwriter Reinhard Mey released the single Einen Antrag auf Erteilung eines Antragsformulars, an application for the issue of an application form. In the song, a man who needs a form is sent from one office to the next.

He meets a stand-in who knows nothing, a doorman, an office closed for a party and an official on leave. A form of the word zuständig, responsible, appears in the song. In the end he learns that the form is no longer in use.