The most popular form of community bands here in Switzerland is called Guggenmusik. There are literally hundreds of guggenmusik ensembles in Switzerland. As a musician, I find the music very difficult to listen to as it is very loud, very out of tune, and very crass. Imagine a really loud and out of tune pep band that has been told to blast all of their music as loud as they can. However, as a music educator, I see that it fulfills a very important purpose in giving musicians no longer in school a place to continue performing.
What is Guggenmusik?
Guggenmusik translates as Happy music and certainly seems to bring the best out of both those who perform it and those who are entertained by it. The bands are generally about 40 strong and combine large percussion sections of bass drums and trolley mounted kit drums with even larger brass sections of trumpets, trombones, euphoniums and sousaphones. The music they play is mostly popular music (chart hits etc) but the performance is as much about visual impact as it is about the sound. The first thing that catches the eye is the colorful costumes influenced by the traditions of Carnival, often with masks and a political or topical theme. Originally associated with Winter Carnivals, as Guggenmusik has evolved it has taken on it’s own life and has become a focal point of Carnivals with bands taking centre stage and performing well polished ‘concerts’ for their audiences. Guggenmusik bands of today give concerts that are not far removed from rock concerts with all the passion, enthusiasm, and spectacle that goes with them, not to mention their own fans that follow them around.
Where did it start?
For centuries there has been a tradition of groups of drummers parading through the streets of Swiss towns and cities in the week before Shrove Tuesday to frighten away the Spirits of Winter (a festival known as Fasnacht). In 1948, in Basle, the first Guggenmusik was formed combining brass instruments with the drums. The early masked and exotically dressed Guggenmusik bands, barely heard over the heavy pounding of the drummers, played basic, discordant tunes. The following year Lucerne heard it’s first Guggenmusik and since then it has grown to the point that there are now around 100 bands playing in Lucerne’s Fasnacht alone (and they are all from Lucerne or the surrounding area!), it has spread right across Switzerland and has found a second home in Germany. There are now few European countries without a Guggenmusik.
