Tower music
Tower music is a musical performance from the top of a tower. It can also designate the music composed for or played in such a performance.
In the early European Middle Ages, musical instruments on towers were used to warn of danger and mark the passage of time. At first this was done by a tower watchman, later by
The tower used would often be a church tower, but the tower or balcony of a civic building might also be used.[4]
The instruments had to be audible to someone not on the tower. This eliminated the quieter (basse) instruments, leaving the louder
were used.Music was written specifically to be played from towers, but other works could also be used.
History
Many English cities in the 1500s had town
These civic wind bands of town pipers had been a feature of larger German towns and cities since well before the beginning of the sixteenth century, similar to the employment of
One of the most popular forms of outdoors public music-making in the 17th century in Germany and central Europe was tower music (German: Turmmusik), organised by the town piper (Stadtpfeifer) or tower master (Turmmeister). He and his band of musicians, also called Stadtpfeifer (the German plural is the same as the singular) played music for loud and penetrating wind or brass instruments from church towers and town hall balconies.[6][8][a]
Generations of the
In
Although the revival of music in churches was a particularly
In Austria, trombones were typically played from church towers (German Turmblasen, lit 'tower blowing') or in cemeteries on
Tower music reached a peak in around 1750, and thereafter declined towards the end of the 18th century. From around 1800 official civic concerts began to replace those given by the nobility, and what has been termed "Saint Culture" ('St.-Kultur') suffered a split, leading on one side to the growth of professional
Modern tower music is common in German-speaking areas.
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A c. 1425 picture showing a "Turner" (Türmer, in modern German) named Peter.
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The Neukirche (New Church), Leipzig in 1749
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Tower music on Easter morning, 1890 illustration
Musical pieces
Pieces named "tower music"
- Turmmusiken und Suiten by Johann Pezel (1639–1694), tower music portion scored for two cornets and three trombones (scan of public-domain publication, public-domain scores, and related works)
- Tower Music, composition by Václav Nelhýbel
- Tower Music (Richard Drakeford)
Pieces written as tower music
- "Drei Equale für vier Posaunen" ("Three Aequales for four Trombones"), by Ludwig van Beethoven
See also
- Aequale, a form of music played from a tower on All Souls' Dayand its eve
- Alta cappella outdoor musical group
- Carillon, musical bells often played from a tower
- Hejnał Mariacki, a traditional tower music of Kraków
- Three Equals for four trombones, WoO 30#Town pipers
Explanatory notes
- ^ "Und so, wie Gottfried Reiche im Turmblasen „ein Freuden und Friedens-Zeichen“ sieht, da „wo solche Musik muss eingestellet werden, gewiss ein Land-Trauern, Krieg oder sonst ein Unglück zu beweinen ist“, so könnte die Turmmusik als ein solches „Freuden- und Friedens-Zeichen“ auch das geistig-kulturelle Leben unserer Stadt wesentlich bereichern.[18]
- ^ A review of the book shows how useful the book was in gathering together and explaining the many rules concerning music at church services. "There appears an explanatory guide of musical worship, according to the existing church music-order for all functions occurring on Sundays, festivals, vespers, litanies, masses, funerals, processions etc. while chants, songs for the congregation, motets, introiten, versicles, graduals, offertories, responses etc. It explains the ritual-texts from the measurement book and Breviarium, and is found at a very cheap price. In all countries where Roman Catholic worship prevails, through its essential usefulness of numerous sales, where the lack of such a reliable signpost has been felt for a long time: until the present moment when—wonderfully enough—under the supervision of some well-informed experts—the simple expedient of this book has been devised.[21]
Citations
- ^ Posaunenchor Tübingen (Tuebingen Trombone Choir)
- ^ Die Turmmusik, Duden dictionary entry, Bibliographisches Institut GmbH
- ISBN 3-7001-3067-8.
- ^ Wolfgang Schnabel: Die evangelische Posaunenchorarbeit. Herkunft und Auftrag. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1993, S. 174 f. (online auf Google Bücher)
- ^ Timeline of trombone history, Will Kimball
- ^ a b Collins 2002, p. 28.
- ^ Collins 2002, p. 27.
- ^ Hofer, Achim (1992). Blasmusikforschung (in German). Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1992, p. 101.
- ^ Pokorny, Franz (1797–1850), Theaterdirektor. 1815–1950, Bd. 8 (Lfg. 37). Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon (ÖBL) online. 1980. p. 161.
- ^ The Cult of the Virgin Mary in Early Modern Germany by Bridget Heal p. 222
- ^ Rheinische Hebammengeschichte im Kontext ed. Daniel Schäfer, pp. 20, 21, 25, 34.
- ^ Collins 2002, p. 289.
- ^ Suppan 2006, pp. 2002 ff.
- ^ a b Collins 2002, p. 29.
- ^ Herbert 2006, pp. 98–99.
- ^ Petzel, Johann (1670). Hora decima musicorum Lipsiensium. Leipzig: G. H. Frommann. IMSLP. Retrieved 26 September 2017.
- ^ Collins 2000, p. 59.
- ^ "Turmmusik vom Nikolaikirchturm". Kulturbund der DDR, Gesellschaft für Heimatgeschichte, Kreisvorstand Altenburg. 1983. Retrieved 26 September 2017.
- ^ a b c Spitzer 2017, p. 228.
- ^ Glöggl 1828.
- ^ Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung. No. 6, 13 February 1828 (in German). Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, p. 111.
- ^ Henke & Winkler 2002, pp. 225–6.
- ^ B&H Revisionsbericht 1888, p. vi.
- ^ Bassano n.d.
- ^ Suppan 2006.
Sources
- Bassano, Peter (n.d.) [2001?]. "God's Trombones". Translations by Howard Weiner and Matthias Feile. British Trombone Society. Retrieved 21 October 2013.[dead link]
- Drei Equale für vier Posaunen: Revisionsbericht. Supplement, Nr.310 (in German). Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel. 1888.
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ignored (help) - Collins, Timothy A. (April 2000). "'Of the Differences between Trumpeters and City Tower Musicians.' The Relationship of Stadtpfeifer and Kammeradschaft Trumpeters". The Galpin Society Journal. 53. Galpin Society: 51–59. JSTOR 842316. (subscription needed)
- Collins, Timothy A. (2002). "'Hora Decima': the musical theology of the 'Stadtpfeifer'" (PDF). CrossAccent. 10 (3). Association of Lutheran Church Musicians. Retrieved 25 September 2017.
- Glöggl, Franz Xaver (1828). Kirchenmusik-Ordnung: Erklärendes Handbuch des musikalischen Gottesdienstes, fur Kapellmeister, Regenschori, Sänger und Tonkünstler. ('Church Music Regulations - An explanatory handbook for musical church services, music directors, choir directors, singers and composers'). (in German). Vienna: J. B. Wallishauser.
- Herbert, Trevor (2006). The Trombone. London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300100957.
- Henke, Rudolf Maria; Winkler, Gerhard (2002). Geschichte des Buchandels in Linz (PDF) (in German). Archiv der Stadt Linz.
- Spitzer, Michael (2017). Beethoven. Routledge. ISBN 9781351574297.
- Suppan, Wolfgang (2006). Stadtpfeifer. Volume 5, Online edition (in German). Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. )
External links
- Media related to Tower music at Wikimedia Commons