Tear off (music)

Tear off at a flag parade: When the battleship Bismarck was put into service in 1940, the flag has just reached the top of the flagstick (background above), the head of the music corps (background in the center of the picture) begins to tear off the accompanying naval presentation march with the conductor's hand.

In musicians' jargon , tearing off is understood - especially in marching music - to be the abrupt end of the game on the sign of the musical director, without taking the musical design of a work into account.

General

Tearing off becomes necessary when a piece of music is performed not for its own sake but as background music for a certain (ceremonial) process or process. This applies in particular to the field of military marching music , but also - derived from military use - plays a role in civilian musical forms of performance. Due to the intended purpose, v. a. Presentation marches often demolished.

The concept of tearing off probably arose from the particularly energetic horizontal movement of the conductor with the baton to emphasize the “unscheduled” end of a piece.

The skillful mastery of tearing off is one of the most difficult exercises in music bands and requires a high level of discipline and attention from the musicians.

 execution

The demolition is announced in the Bundeswehr by a sweeping sideways arm movement of the conductor. The conductor holds his arm outstretched for four beats and then "stabs" towards the first beat of the next measure, with which the music ends ("Abriss auf Fünf"). If a drum major is present, he gives appropriate signals for the marching band.

During the four beats before the actual break-off, the bass drum beats syncopated, which draws the musician's attention to the imminent end of the game and facilitates the desired simultaneous ending on the last, fifth beat (or first beat of the next measure).

Examples

• Military:
  • Presentation marches are demolished as soon as you have finished pacing a front .
  • If a presentation march sounds at a flag parade , it will be torn down as soon as the flag cloth is raised or taken down.
  • If a formation marching to the sound of a game reaches its designated parade location, the march being played is broken off.

• Civil:
  • In marching competitions of music bands, stopping as precisely as possible at a predetermined point and tearing it off is part of the usual tasks.
  • During the carnival season , the Mainz Narhalla March in particular is one of the obligatory performance pieces for hand-made speakers. When reaching the Bütt or leaving the stage after the performance, the accompanying music is torn off - according to the claim that parodies the military.

Web link

• Video of a reception with military honors at the Federal Chancellery ; The march of Prussia Gloria is demolished here at 0:47 and the naval presentation march at 1:45 ( see the military examples above ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Implementation guidelines in marching music on bvbw-online.de, accessed on November 14, 2018, (PDF).