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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 ensembles of instrumentalists employed by the city. The music became more choral, and came to by played on specific days of the week, and to mark specific dates (feast days such as Christmas and Easter, for instance). The practice largely died out in the late 19th century, but was revived in the early twentieth, and continues to this day. Modern tower music is often played by volunteers. The tower used would often be a church tower, but the tower or balcony of a civic building might also be used. The instruments had to be audible to someone not on the tower. This eliminated the quieter (''basse'') instruments, leaving the louder (''haut'') instruments. Apart from bells,
natural trumpets A natural trumpet is a valveless brass instrument that is able to play the notes of the harmonic series. History :''See: Clarion'' The natural trumpet was used as a military instrument to facilitate communication (e.g. break camp, retreat, etc ...
,
slide trumpet The slide trumpet is an early type of trumpet fitted with a movable section of telescopic tubing, similar to the slide of a trombone. Eventually, the slide trumpet evolved into the sackbut, which evolved into the modern-day trombone. The key dif ...
s,
trombones The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the air column inside the instrument to ...
, shawms,
bagpipes Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, N ...
, and
drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...
s were used. Music was written specifically to be played from towers, but other works could also be used.
Alta capella An alta cappella or alta musica (Italian), haute musique (French) or just alta was a kind of town wind band found throughout continental Europe from the thirteenth to the eighteenth centuries, which typically consisted of shawms and slide trumpet ...
musicians playing the tower music would generally also perform in processions and ground-level outdoor events, and in some cases would also perform (on different instruments) indoors.


History

Many English cities in the 1500s had town
waits WAITS is a heavily modified variant of Digital Equipment Corporation's Monitor operating system (later renamed to, and better known as, " TOPS-10") for the PDP-6 and PDP-10 mainframe computers, used at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Labor ...
, as did rich individuals and institutions. In 1571, London ordered its waits to play "upon their instruments upon the turret at the Royal Exchange every Sunday and holiday toward the evening", (with winter break, between September and late March, excepted). These may have been London's first regularly scheduled public concerts. London's waits also played from its walls.Timeline of trombone history
Will Kimball
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 waits with their
sackbuts A sackbut is an early form of the trombone used during the Renaissance music, Renaissance and Baroque music, Baroque eras. A sackbut has the characteristic telescopic slide of a trombone, used to vary the length of the tube to change Pitch (m ...
and
shawm The shawm () is a Bore (wind instruments)#Conical bore, conical bore, double-reed woodwind instrument made in Europe from the 13th or possibly 12th century to the present day. It achieved its peak of popularity during the medieval and Renaissanc ...
s in England.
Martin Luther Martin Luther ( ; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, Theology, theologian, author, hymnwriter, professor, and former Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. Luther was the seminal figure of the Reformation, Pr ...
, one of the chief figures of the
Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...
, encouraged music-making in the service of God, and by around 1570 town councils were employing musicians specifically to take part in church services to supplement the organ playing. 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. Generations of the
Bach family The Bach family is a family of notable composers of the baroque and classical periods of music, the best-known of whom was Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750). A family genealogy was drawn up by Johann Sebastian Bach himself in 1735 when he was ...
in
Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital (political), capital and largest city of the Central Germany (cultural area), Central German state of Thuringia, with a population of around 216,000. It lies in the wide valley of the Gera (river), River Gera, in the so ...
filled the office of Stadtpfeifer or ''Ratsmusiker'' (German: 'town council musician'). By 1600 Halle,
Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...
,
Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
,
Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...
,
Stettin Szczecin ( , , ; ; ; or ) is the capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the German border, it is a major seaport, the largest city of northwestern Poland, and se ...
,
Nordhausen Nordhausen may refer to: *Nordhausen (district), a district in Thuringia, Germany ** Nordhausen, Thuringia, a city in the district ** Nordhausen station, the railway station in the city *Nordhouse, a commune in Alsace (German: Nordhausen) * Narost, ...
and even
Eisenach Eisenach () is a Town#Germany, town in Thuringia, Germany with 42,000 inhabitants, west of Erfurt, southeast of Kassel and northeast of Frankfurt. It is the main urban centre of western Thuringia, and bordering northeastern Hesse, Hessian re ...
( J. S. Bach's birthplace) with only 6,000 inhabitants, all had ''Stadpfeifers'', whose job it was to sound the hours (''Stundenblasen'') in the days before
striking clock A striking clock is a clock that sounds the hours audibly on a bell, gong, or other audible device. In 12-hour striking, used most commonly in striking clocks today, the clock strikes once at 1:00 am, twice at 2:00 am, continuing in this way up t ...
s were common in towers and churches. They started around 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning to start the working day, sounded (German: ''blasen'', lit. 'blew') the mid-morning break around 10 o'clock (Latin: ''decima hora'') and the afternoon break around three or four o'clock in the afternoon. Finally, at around 9 or 10 o'clock, there was an ''Abendsegen'', or evening blessing. Well known pieces by and for ''Stadtpfeifer'' include
Johann Schein Johann Hermann Schein (20 January 1586 – 19 November 1630) was a German composer of the early Baroque era. He was Thomaskantor in Leipzig from 1615 to 1630. He was one of the first to import the early Italian stylistic innovations into German ...
's ''Banchetto musicale'' (1617) and
Samuel Scheidt Samuel Scheidt (baptized 3 November 1587 – 24 March 1654) was a German composer, organist and teacher of the early Baroque era. Life and career Scheidt was born in Halle, and after early studies there, he went to Amsterdam to study with ...
's ''Ludi Musici'' (1621). In
Nuremberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...
and
Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...
and there was a particular penchant for antiphonal tower music: three verses of a hymn would be echoed back and forth three times between the bands stationed in the towers of the Neukirche, St. Thomas Church and
St. Nicholas Church, Leipzig The St. Nicholas Church () is one of the major churches of central Leipzig, Germany (in Leipzig's district Mitte). Construction started in Romanesque style in 1165, but in the 16th century, the church was turned into a Gothic hall church. Baro ...
. The Leipzig Stadtpfeifer and tower master ('Turmmeister') of the St. Nicholas Church from 1669 was Johann Pezel (or Petzold, etc.) whose ''Hora decima musicorum Lipsiensium'' ('Leipzig 10 o'clock music') was published the following year,Petzel, Johann (1670)
''Hora decima musicorum Lipsiensium''
Leipzig: G. H. Frommann. IMSLP. Retrieved 26 September 2017.
as well as ''Fünff-stimmigte blasende Music'' (1685) with five-part intradas and dance pieces for brass instruments. Another Leipzig Stadtpfeifer and virtuoso trumpet player Gottfried Reiche (1667–1734) described tower music in his preface to ''Vier und zwanzig Neue Quatricinia'' (1696) for cornett and three trombones, as "a sign of joy and peace", an embodiment of the spiritual-cultural life of the city "certainly whenever the whole country is in mourning, or in war, or when other misfortune is to be lamented." Although the revival of music in churches was a particularly
Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...
initiative, Catholic areas like Vienna and
Salzburg Salzburg is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020 its population was 156,852. The city lies on the Salzach, Salzach River, near the border with Germany and at the foot of the Austrian Alps, Alps moun ...
were just as keen to promote tower music. Among the most popular of tunes were the ''Heilig-Leider'', paraphrases in German of the
Sanctus The ''Sanctus'' (, "Holy") is a hymn in Christian liturgy. It may also be called the ''epinikios hymnos'' (, "Hymn of Victory") when referring to the Greek rendition and parts of it are sometimes called "Benedictus". ''Tersanctus'' (Latin: "Thr ...
from the Latin
Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...
, which came into fashion after the enlightened reforms of the Holy Roman Emperor
Joseph I Joseph I or Josef I may refer to: *Joseph I of Constantinople, Ecumenical Patriarch in 1266–1275 and 1282–1283 *Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor (1678–1711) * Joseph I (Chaldean Patriarch) (reigned 1681–1696) *Joseph I of Portugal (1750–1777) ...
promoted the use of the
vernacular Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...
in church services. According to one Stadtpfeifer named Hornbock, quoted in
Johann Kuhnau Johann Kuhnau (; 6 April 16605 June 1722) was a German polymath, known primarily as a composer today. He was also active as a novelist, translator, lawyer, and music theorist, and was able to combine these activities with his duties in his offici ...
's ''Quack-Salber'': "We know from experience that when our city pipers in the festive season play a religious song with nothing but trombones from the tower, then we are greatly moved, and imagine that we hear the angels singing.". In Austria, trombones were typically played from church towers (German ''Turmblasen'', lit 'tower blowing') or in cemeteries on
All Souls' Day All Souls' Day, also called The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, is a day of prayer and remembrance for the faithful departed, observed by Christians on 2 November. In Western Christianity, including Roman Catholicism and certain p ...
and the previous day (
Hallowe'en Halloween, or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve), is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day. It is at the begi ...
in England). Their use is mentioned in a handbook explaining the multitude of church music regulations, ''Kirchenmusik-Ordnung'' (1828), by the Linz Stadtpfeifer Franz Glöggl. Glöggl commissioned the Three Equals from Beethoven in 1812. They were both pupils of
Johann Albrechtsberger Johann Georg Albrechtsberger (3 February 1736 – 7 March 1809) was an Austrian composer, organist, and music theorist, widely regarded as one of the leading figures in counterpoint and composition theory during the Classical period. He was a prol ...
(d. 1807), who wrote one of the first trombone concertos. 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
symphony orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...
s, and on the other to amateur ''Stadtkapellen'' conducted by professional or semi-professional town music directors. Modern tower music is common in German-speaking areas. File:Mendel I 006 r.jpg, A c. 1425 picture showing a "Turner" (Türmer, in modern German) named Peter. File:Matthäikirche Leipzig 1749 Foto H.-P.Haack.JPG, The Neukirche (New Church), Leipzig in 1749 File:Die Gartenlaube (1890) b 169.jpg, Tower music on
Easter Easter, also called Pascha ( Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , ''paskha''; Greek: πάσχα, ''páskha'') or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in t ...
morning, 1890 illustration


Musical pieces


Pieces named "tower music"

* ''Turmmusiken und Suiten'' by Johann Pezel (1639–1694), tower music portion scored for two
cornet The cornet (, ) is a brass instrument similar to the trumpet but distinguished from it by its conical bore, more compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. There is also a soprano cor ...
s and three
trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...
s
scan of public-domain publicationpublic-domain scores
an
related works
* ''Tower Music'', composition by
Václav Nelhýbel Václav Nelhýbel (September 24, 1919 – March 22, 1996) was a Czech-American composer, mainly of works for student performers. Life and career Nelhýbel was born the youngest of five children in , Ostrava, Czechoslovakia. He received h ...
* Tower Music (Richard Drakeford)


Pieces written as tower music

* "
Drei Equale für vier Posaunen Drei (German: "three") may refer to: * ''Drei'' (Glashaus album), a 2005 album by pop band Glashaus * ''Drei'' (Emika album) (stylised form: ''DREI''), a 2015 album by electronic artist Emika * ''Three'' (2010 film), a German film called ''Drei'' ...
" ("Three Aequales for four Trombones"), by
Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...


See also

*
Aequale An equale or aequale (from , equal voices or parts) is a musical idiom. It is a piece for equal voices or instruments. In the 18th century the equale became established as a generic term for short, chordal pieces for trombone choirs, usually qu ...
, a form of music played from a tower on
All Souls' Day All Souls' Day, also called The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, is a day of prayer and remembrance for the faithful departed, observed by Christians on 2 November. In Western Christianity, including Roman Catholicism and certain p ...
and its eve *
Alta cappella An alta cappella or alta musica (Italian), haute musique (French) or just alta was a kind of town wind band found throughout continental Europe from the thirteenth to the eighteenth centuries, which typically consisted of shawms and slide trumpet ...
outdoor musical group *
Carillon A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a musical keyboard, keyboard and consists of at least 23 bells. The bells are Bellfounding, cast in Bell metal, bronze, hung in fixed suspension, and Musical tuning, tu ...
, musical bells often played from a tower *
Hejnał Mariacki St. Mary's Trumpet Call (Polish language, Polish: ''Hejnał mariacki''; Polish pronunciation: , derived from the Hungarian language, Hungarian expression ''Szűz Mária hajnala'' meaning "Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Mary's dawn") is a traditional, ...
, a traditional tower music of Kraków * Three Equals for four trombones, WoO 30#Town pipers


Explanatory notes


Citations


Sources

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External links

* {{commonscatinline Music genres Communication