Overview: Let's Meet Germany

Western Europe and the Nordic Countries: Germany (Wacken Open Air)

This week we're going to Germany...hurrah! So, Germany had what one could only most generously describe as "a complicated 20th century," but this season we've chosen to focus more on the genres of music from each of our Western European countries than on each nation's history. Let's celebrate the many positive elements of German society by learning about its music...which, as we'll see, is complicated enough.    

In the wake of World War II many German musicians looked for inspiration outside of their devastated land. While East Germany fell behind the Soviet "Iron Curtain," making the performing of "American" music there into a subversive, often dangerous, act, West Germans embraced genres and artists from the Allied nations, especially from the U.S. and Great Britain. A tension developed in the German music world between "German" and "non-German" music, with some artists singing in English (like German metal hitmakers Scorpions, whose career spanned four decades), some in German, some performing in German while in Germany but in English while abroad. Even though Germans have embraced and in many cases advanced genres like punk, metal and techno, German artists are well aware that these popular German genres originated in the English-speaking world. 

This week in class:

-- We sing "We Are Happy," a hello song from Uganda, to open every All Around This World class. This week we sing hello in German: guten tag!   

-- We actually start clas this week with a special treat -- dancing the foot-slapping German "Schuhplattler" to celebrate Okboerfest.

-- "Tra La La” is a German “landler,” a happy dance song in ¾ time. (1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3 . . . ) (More.)  

-- “O My Beloved Donkey” is the sad saga of a farmer and the dearly departed donkey he will forever love.  (More.)  

--  “Chi Mi Na Morbheanna” is a misty song from Scotland, a love song to the homeland we love. (More.

A LITTLE MORE: 

A little more? BAH! Let's learn a LOT more!    

For your YouTube pleasure, enjoy this relatively chronological tour through German music. It's intense.

-- Early German Church music: Hildegard von Bingen

-- Minnesingers: Walther von er Vogeweide

-- Chorale: Martin Luther | Dietrich Buxtehude

-- BAROQUE ERA: Heinrich Schütz | Johann Sebastian Bach | Georg Friedrich Händel

-- CLASSICAL ERA: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Ludwig van Beethoven

-- ROMANTIC ERA: Robert Schumann | Johannes Brahms | Feli....x Mendelssohn |  Richard Wagner | Gustav Mahler | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge_nJptSnOs

-- Expressionism: Arnold Schoenberg

-- Bavarian folk: Jungen Riederinger Musikanten | Bally Prell

-- Cabaret: Marlene Dietrich | Bertold Brecht

-- Schlager ("easy listening"): Heino

-- Liedermacher (Singer/songerwriter): Konstantin Wecker | Hannes Wader

-- Kruatrock: Kraftwerk | Can

-- Neu Deutsche Welle (German New Wave): Nena | Falco

-- Ostrock: The Pudhys | Karat

-- German Punk: Die Toten Hosen | Die Ärzte

-- Teutonic Thrash Metal: Destruction

-- Hamburger Schule: Blumfeld

-- Goth: Lacrimosa | Lacrimas Profunderere

-- Neue Deutche Härte: ("New German Hardness"): Ooomph!| | Rammstein

-- Mittelater Metal (Medieval Metal): Subway to Sally

-- Electronica and Techno: Sven Väth | Tangerine Dream | KMFDM | Einstürzende Neubauten

-- German hip hop(ish):  Die Fantastischen Vier

-- New German Rock & Pop: BAP | Wir sind Helden

-- German World Fusion: Dissidenten| | Ade Bantu | Di Grine Kuzine    

Enjoy!

Jay

Complete and Continue