Culture of Germany - Music

Music

In the field of music, Germany claims some of the most renowned classical composers of the world including Bach, Mozart and Beethoven, who marked the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western classical music. Other composers of the Austro-German tradition who achieved international fame include Brahms, Wagner, Haydn, Schubert, Händel, Schumann, Liszt, Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Johann Strauss II, Bruckner, Mahler, Telemann, Richard Strauss, Schoenberg, Orff, and most recently, Henze, Lachenmann, and Stockhausen.

As of 2006, Germany is the fourth largest music market in the world, has exerted a strong influence on techno and rock music, and pioneered trance music. Artists such as Herbert Grönemeyer, Scorpions, Rammstein, Nena, Xavier Naidoo, Dieter Bohlen, Tokio Hotel and Modern Talking have enjoyed international fame. German musicians and, particularly, the pioneering bands Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk have also contributed to the development of electronic music.

Germany hosts many large rock music festivals annually. The Rock am Ring festival is the largest music festival in Germany, and among the largest in the world. German artists also make up a large percentage of Industrial music acts, which is called Neue Deutsche Härte. Germany hosts some of the largest Goth scenes and festivals in the entire world, with events like Wave-Gotik-Treffen and M'era Luna Festival easily attracting up to 30,000 people.

Since about 1970, Germany has once again had a thriving popular culture, now increasingly being led by its new-old capital Berlin, and a self-confident music and art scene. Germany is also very well known for its many renowned opera houses, such as Semperoper, Komische Oper Berlin and Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz. Richard Wagner has built the Bayreuth Festspielhaus.

One of the most famous composers in the film business is German Hans Zimmer.

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Famous quotes containing the word music:

    As polishing expresses the vein in marble, and grain in wood, so music brings out what of heroic lurks anywhere. The hero is the sole patron of music.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    But the dark changed to red, and torches shone,
    And deafening music shook the leaves; a troop
    Shouldered a litter with a wounded man,
    Or smote upon the string and to the sound
    Sang of the beast that gave the fatal wound.
    William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)