Traditional church music essential to worship in Germany

  • The organ pipes in St. Hedwig's Cathedral, Berlin.

Much more might be said about music in Catholic churches in Berlin, but a few factors stand out.

Berliners have been extraordinarily adaptive to visual culture of modernism, but in terms of musical culture they are equally traditional when it comes to music. The organ remains overwhelmingly the musical instrument of choice, and the singing of traditional hymns is a most important form of worship. Many churches that are modestly decorated have at least one, even sometimes two, organs. The hymnal has not of course been static over the centuries, but the range of styles is relatively constrained. A recent change in the hymnal was greeted with trepidation, lest favorites be lost.

Singing in Berlin churches may not be thunderous, but Berliners hold it to be terribly important, a quality they hold very much in common with their Lutheran neighbors. 

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Organ music and hymns from St. Canisuis Parish, Berlin.
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