Chinesischer Turm e.V.The sound of the English Garden
Brass music from the tower
There is no second place in Munich where the music comes from above. The gallery on the first floor of the Chinese Tower was designed as a stage in 1790, and it works to this day without a single loudspeaker.
Music
When the band plays
- Season
- summer half of the year, weather permitting
- Regularly
- on Sundays and public holidays
- Additionally
- in fine weather also on Wednesdays and Fridays
- Bands
- the Kapelle Rossbachtaler and the Thoma Blasmusik take turns
- Admission
- none. There is neither a ticket nor a programme.
- End
- music stops by 10 pm at the latest, as the beer garden decree prescribes
If you want to be sure, come on a Sunday afternoon in good weather. Nothing can be promised: in rain there is no music, because instruments and sheet music stand in the open.
Why it works without amplification
The band sits about five metres above the ground, on a circular gallery, under a roof. Three things come together:
The height. Sound spreads from an elevated source without being swallowed by the first row of tables. On the ground the band would reach nobody beyond twenty metres.
The roof. The structure above the musicians throws the sound down and outwards. It is a passive reflector.
The instruments. Brass instruments are built for exactly this task. They come from military and open-air music and need no electricity to carry across a large area.
The price is an understanding: the music carries only as long as the beer garden is not louder than it. That it works is also a question of consideration.
What is played
The repertoire of a Bavarian brass band in a beer garden is not a concert programme but a stock, drawn on according to mood and time of day: marches as the frame, polka and Boarischer to tap along to, waltzes in the later afternoon, Ländler and Zwiefacher as the folk-music core.
A typical line-up has flugelhorns and trumpets for the melody, tenor horns and trombones for the middle voices, tuba for the bass, and percussion. Clarinets provide the top. The group is small enough to fit on the gallery and loud enough for seven thousand people.
Since when
The gallery was planned as a music stage from the start; the tower was built 1789 to 1790 as a folly with a function. Music in the beer garden at the tower is thus older than the Oktoberfest. Today's practice stands in that line without turning it into a museum: these are working bands, not performers in costume.
What the association has to do with it
The Chinesischer Turm e.V. does not organise the music; the beer garden operation does. The association documents it and keeps the context present: why this gallery is there and what it can do. More about the living traditions at this place is on the traditions page.
Frequently asked questions
When does the brass band play at the Chinese Tower?
In the summer half of the year on Sundays and public holidays, in fine weather also on Wednesdays and Fridays. In rain the music is cancelled.
Does the brass music at the Chinese Tower cost admission?
No. There is no admission, no ticket and no programme.
Why does the band need no loudspeakers?
Because it sits about five metres up on a roofed gallery. The height spreads the sound, the roof throws it downwards, and brass instruments are built for open-air music.
Which bands play at the Chinese Tower?
The Kapelle Rossbachtaler and the Thoma Blasmusik, taking turns.
How long has there been music at the Chinese Tower?
The gallery on the first floor was intended as a music stage when the tower was built in 1789 and 1790.