Tyrolean Brass Music

This tradition is still lovingly maintained. Every village in South Tyrol and Tyrol that takes pride in itself has its own brass band, and making music together is a very essential part of the social structure. The bands play at all festive occasions, church fairs, market days, and parades. They fulfill many important tasks that go far beyond the music. In their typical costumes, they create a sense of community and identity.

The brass bands also represent the village outwardly. Through mutual invitations to concerts and music festivals, the bands often play outside their own local boundaries and even abroad. This makes the South Tyrolean and Tyrolean brass bands ambassadors of Tyrolean lifestyle and culture.

The origin of the brass bands is mostly in the parish music. From the 18th century, civilian, "secular" amateur bands, often called "Turkish music," emerged and organized themselves as associations. They remained closely connected to the church, playing at processions, masses, and high masses. In rare cases, the founding of the brass bands is also related to the rifle companies.

Around 1870, the connection of the brass bands to the church was significantly restricted by the reform movement of Cecilianism. The bands were only allowed to play at processions, and not during the church service. They were therefore forced to look for new tasks and performance opportunities, and found them at open-air concerts, festivals, parades, and dance events. The repertoire of the bands was mainly composed of marches, waltzes, and polkas - the entertainment music of the time - as well as opera and operetta arrangements and potpourris, but original compositions also emerged.

Today, the range is much wider. In addition to the classical Bohemian and Moravian repertoire, jazz, pop, Latin, hits, and musicals have also become popular. Enthusiastically, new things are constantly being tried to enrich the programs.

The Tyrolean Brass Band Association alone has 303 bands. Over 15,650 members are actively involved in these bands. In the South Tyrolean Brass Band Association, there are currently 211 brass bands with around 9,350 musicians organized. The associations aim to continue to maintain and promote brass music at a high level, and they take care of a solid education and further training of the musicians. In addition, the associations organize a series of events such as regional and district music festivals, concerts, and competitions.

The fact that the music tradition is very much alive is already evident from the fact that more than a quarter of the members are younger than 20 years old, with another quarter between 20 and 30. The future of brass music is therefore secure.