Germany: May 2006 Report
Musical Life in the Federal Republic of Germany
Germany is still a country of music, as it always was. With more than 80 professional music theatres and 135 publicly financed symphony and chamber orchestras, as well as a network of well over 1,000 music schools, music academies and other training and research institutions, the musical life of the Federal Republic of Germany is still characterised by an unusually rich and varied range of musical bodies. This diversity and density has its origins in a musical tradition that has grown over centuries; it was strengthened and institutionalised in the small German states with their innumerable cultural centres in the 17th and 18th centuries and then further developed and differentiated in the Bourgeois Age as well as the twentieth century. Great composers and interpreters, from the Baroque through Classicism and Romanticism to Contemporary Music, have had a formative influence on the musical history of Germany and have enjoyed a national and international presence that has lost nothing of its fascination up to the present time.
Musical life in Germany — like that of culture and education in general — has acquired its form as part of a decentralised system, which permitted a multifaceted musical culture, marked by a huge range of initiatives and institutions in the 16 federal states. It ranges from Old Music, with its many specialist ensembles and festivals, up to the diverse strands of contemporary and popular music, and includes musical education and training as well as amateur music-making, the media and the music industry. In addition to the capital city, Berlin, with its varied and lively musical scenes, other cities such as Cologne, Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart, Dresden and Leipzig, and many medium-sized and small towns as well, have musical traditions which, in some cases, are centuries old and of more than regional significance.
Public financing provides more than 2.4 billion euros every year for the musical infrastructure in Germany, which represents a share of about 30 per cent of all cultural expenditure. The largest proportion is for public musical theatres and symphony orchestras, for which about 1.6 billion euros from public funds represent some 80% of their total budgets. But the tense economic situation in Germany has left noticeable traces behind it: many institutions have already fallen victim to savings measures or have to operate their business accepting budget reductions, some of them massive. The number of publicly financed symphony and chamber orchestras alone has gone down from 168 in 1992 to 135 at present. Positions for professional musicians have been reduced in the same period by almost 16%.
Only a few major aspects can be presented in the following overview:
Amateur music-making has a great tradition in Germany and to the present day it is still an important feature of our musical culture. More than 7 million people take part in their free time in a full range of ensembles, from choirs, symphony, woodwind, guitar and accordion orchestras to rock, pop, jazz and folk groups. More than 80,000 ensembles are organised in the lay musician's associations, and the number of rock and pop groups is estimated at more than 50,000. The proportion of children and young people among active instrumentalists and singers averages more than 60%.
At schools for general education there are usually 1-2 hours of compulsory or semi-compulsory music lessons per week from Class 1 to Class 10; in the upper classes of grammar or high schools (Classes 11-12 or 13) music may be chosen as a basic or specialist course, and this choice is made by about a quarter of all students in the upper level. In addition to this, at many schools there are orchestras, choirs, bands and other groups and also musical work-groups as voluntary activities, where students make music or concern themselves with music in other ways. Currently about 350 general schools offer even more focal points in the field of musical education in a variety of forms.
In addition to schools for general education, music lessons are also provided, with an emphasis on instrumental training, by publicly and privately funded music schools, private music teachers, adult education centres and amateur orchestras. At the 940 publicly funded music schools alone, about 900,000 children, young people and adults have taken up opportunities in the form of instrumental and vocal training, early musical education, and basic training or ensemble subjects. In addition, it is estimated that another 360,000 pupils attend private music schools or lessons from private music teachers, and another 100,000 music enthusiasts, mostly adults, continue their education at adult education centres.
Professional musical training takes place in Germany at many colleges of music, music academies, conservatories and church-music schools, universities and a number of specialist training institutions. At present 26,000 students are enrolled in courses for musical professions at colleges and universities, one third studying to be music teachers, one third musical artists and a further third with other goals (in particular musicology). About 4,000 students complete their studies at a college or university every year, including 1,800 instrumental or orchestral musicians and 800 music teachers for general schools.
The German Theatre and Orchestra scene has always been remarkable for its density and variety, and it still is. At present there are 128 publicly financed symphony orchestras, including 82 theatre orchestras, mainly serving the production of operas, operettas and musicals at municipal, state and federal theatres; 32 concert orchestras, mainly or exclusively active in concert halls, and 14 radio orchestras and radio symphony orchestras. There are also 7 publicly-funded chamber orchestras and a large number of professional and semi-professional ensembles, including about 80 chamber orchestras, 160 specialist ensembles for Old Music and 180 for Contemporary Music, who also play a significant role in shaping musical life. The number of publicly-financed musical theatres is 80 at present; they are rounded up by many private musical theatres and musical stages, often with special focal points in their repertoire. All together this group forms the basis for high-quality musical productions and ambitious programme policies in Germany.
Music festivals play a significant role in Germany's musical life. In fact, since the 1980s there has been a wave of festivals being established in Germany, which has led to a festival landscape of previously unknown density and diversity. In 1993/94 the German Music Information Centre registered the existence of 136 regular, recurring festivals, but now there are already more than 400, of which about a third are in the field of Contemporary Music and another third in the field of rock, pop and jazz.
Due to Germany's federal structure, public broadcasting (radio and television) is organised into institutions at the level of Lands (federal states). As a result, it adds to the development of cultural and musical life in all parts of the country. There are twelve broadcasting stations, including the nationwide broadcasters Deutsche Welle and Deutschlandradio, and they broadcast 1,000 hours of music every day. Due to its commitment to a wide range of styles, such as Contemporary Music, Old Music, jazz or the more demanding kinds of popular music, public radio has had a decided influence on the development of musical culture. In addition to public broadcasting there are plenty of private broadcasters. Private broadcasters fill their programmes almost entirely with popular music, while about a quarter of the music on public radio is classical music. As far as ratings go, the radio programmes of the public institutions, with 52%, are ahead of the private institutions with their 43%.
The music industry covers a wide range of various individual branches and freelance groups. About 20,000 businesses, including concert and artist agents, music publishers, instrument makers, sound equipment manufacturers, sound studios and the manufacturers of phonotechnical appliances, as well as a broadly diversified network of music retailers, achieved a turnover of 15 billion euros in 2002 (the latest figures). At this time more than 80,000 staff were employed in this industry (not including self-employed and marginally employed workers). However, in recent years turnover has gone down in almost every branch of the economy, and sound-equipment manufacturers have been especially badly affected.
The wide-ranging financial support for musical culture from public funds has a long tradition and still persists in the present. The quality and variety of today's musical life would be impossible without grants from the central government, the state governments and the local authorities. Of roughly 2.4 billion euros of music-related expenditure in the narrowest meaning of the term, in 2001 (the most recent figures) 57% came from local communities and 41% from the federal states or Lands. The funding from the central government was merely 1.3% (excluding funds supporting music abroad and higher ranking tasks) due to Germany's federal structure. At the central level, in addition to direct financial support, legal regulations in tax and social policies (such as social insurance for artists), and also in youth, legal, economic and foreign policies influence certain areas that are significant for the development of musical life. At the Land level basic conditions are particularly created for schools, universities, youth music, amateur music and library services.
Detailed information on the individual areas of musical life can be found on the website of the German Music Information Centre (Deutsches Musikinformationszentrum) at www.miz.org (at present the English version is only of restricted use).
Margot Wallscheid
Stephan Schulmeistrat
German Music Information Centre / German Music Council
