German Music dates back to historical era of 16 th century and comprise of different style periods. German music includes Neue Deutsche Welle, Volksmusik, Krautrock, Hamburger Schule, German hip hop, Schlager and multiple varieties of folk music.
Classical German Music period extends from the 16 th century to the present day. Some of the best classical musicians like Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Handel, Brahms or Mahler belonged to the German Music of this era. Beginning at the dawn of 15th century, German classical music was revolutionized by Oswald von Wolkenstein. This period also witnessed the introduction of Operas and Chorale.
The Baroque Period was the time when tonality was used as a modern technique in German Music. Some Baroque composers of Germany are Heinrich Schütz, Michael Praetorius, Johann Schein, and Samuel Scheidt.
Classical era of German Music began from the middle of the 18th century. It first came into the cities of Vienna, Dresden, Berlin and Mannheim that become the center for orchestral music. Later, Vienna's Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart became famous for blending the German and Italian traditions into his own innovative style.
The Romantic era had two major German composers viz., Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert. Beethoven. They were the students of Haydn's in Vienna, practiced harmonizing and rhythm composing with piano, violin, symphonies, chamber music, string quartets, etc. some of the musicians who came up later in this genre of German Music are Robert Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn, Anton Bruckner, Max Bruch, Albert Lortzing, Johannes Brahms and Gustav Mahler.
Other forms of German Music in include the following which eventually popped up in the later years and modern times:
- Folk music
- Oom-pah
- Bavaria
- Swabia
- Northern Germany's Sorbs
- Danish-Germans
- Early Pop Music
- Cabaret
- Post-War Pop Music
- Schlager and Volksmusik
- Liedermacher
- New German Pop music consisting of Hip hop, Punk, Rock, Metal, Neue Deutsche Härte, Goth, Electronic music and Techno
- Special type: Klezmer and Latin Pop
Some of the significant contributors in German Music are Blumfeld, Die Sterne, Tocotronic, etc. Deutsch Music has also been influenced by band culture Sportfreunde Stiller, Juli and Silbermond.
The largest German summer festival of classical music is the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival.
