Music

 

Music is VERY important at a beerfest. It goes a long way to actually making the beerfest.

Traditionally the kind of music that you find at a beerfest is a Polka/Oompah type of sound. As you came on to this website you should have heard some Oktoberfest Polka automatically. Your browser may have popped up and asked you to allow it and if you did not hear it when THIS page loaded then your browser is preventing it for some reason.

 

Back to the music, you do get a bit yodelling mixed in with the Polka but basically the music is pretty lively and keeps you doing something called "Schunkeln". Schunkeln is swaying back and forth together in time with the music! As the Beerfest progresses you will find that you are doing this more and more and don't worry it comes naturally.

 

There is also a lot of singing along with familiar songs. The most popular of these familiar songs is "Ein Prosit" which is played every now and then and when everyone hears the short burst of Ein Prosit they sing it out loud in unison. Don't worry if this song is not familiar to you because within an hour it will be ! The words are as follows.

 

Ein Prosit, ein Prosit
der Gemütlichkeit
Ein Prosit, ein Prosit
der Gemütlichkeit.

 

Translated it is as follows. (italics is English translation)

 

Ein Prosit, ein Prosit der Gemutlichkeit,
A toast, a toast to Gemutlichkeit,
Ein Prosit, ein Prosit der Gemutlichkeit!
A toast, a toast to Gemutlichkeit!

 

Incidentally, Gemütlichkeit is a German abstract noun whose closest English equivalent is cosiness. However, rather than basically just describing a place as not too large, well-heated and nicely furnished (a cosy room, a cosy flat), Gemütlichkeit connotes, much more than cosiness, the notion of belonging, social acceptance, cheerfulness, the absence of anything hectic and the spending of quality time in a place as described above. (That's our Beertent)

 

Another very popular song comes straight out of one the "tents" at Oktoberfest and in particular is called the Hofbrauhaus. The the song that you heard when this page loaded is called "Im Munchen steht ein Hofbrauhaus". If you got this far down and you read slowly you can refresh the page HERE and the music will reload. The words follow below.

 

The words to most of the song are not really that important but when whoever is performing the song sings the chorus words "Im Munchen steht ein Hofbrauhaus, Eins, zwei, g'suffa!, everyone sings out very loud , Eins, zwei, g'suffa! along with the song. The emphasis is very much on the words Eins, zwei, g'suffa!". This goes on throughout the song and means "In Munich Stands the Hofbrauhaus,One, two, drink!

 

The Hofbrau tent is pretty popular and you have probably seen pictures of the beermugs with the familiar HB logo in blue and gold as seen in the picture on the right. The Beer Hofbrau used to be sold here in SA.

 

The chorus basically goes like this (italics is English translation)

 

In Munchen steht ein Hofbrauhaus
In Munich Stands A Royal Drinking House,
Eins, zwei, g'suffa!
One, two, drink!
Da lauft so manches Fasschen aus,
There, so many barrels run dry,
Eins, zwei, g'suffa!
One, two, drink!
Da hat schon mancher brave Mann,
There, many a brave man has shown,
Eins, zwei, g'suffa!
One, two, drink!
Gezeigh, was er so verlragen kann!
What he can guzzle down!
Schon fruh am Morgen fing er an,
Early in the morning, lie begins,
Und spat am Aben^i kam er heraus.
And late at night, he leaves.
So schon ist's im Hofbrauhaus'
That's how nice it is in the Hofbrauhaus!

 

 

In recent times pop songs are also played. Examples of these are Robbie Williams Angels, Bryan Adams Summer of 69 and Smokey's living nextdoor to Alice. These are the kind of songs that pretty much everyone knows the words to.

 

You're going to be with us for quite a few hours so you will more than likely hear all kinds of music - from Pop to Oompah to Country & Western & Rock.

 

There will also be the usual classics from days gone by where you will find yourself saying "Gee, I haven't heard that in ages".