He appreciates the world-class orchestras in the music city of Munich, says Christian Bruhn. But does the music world also appreciate their probably most avid composer? The now 88-year-old has registered more than 2,500 titles with the music rights company Gema, and everyone knows at least a few of them: hits like “Two Little Italians” or “Marmor, Stone and Iron Breaks”, advertising jingles like “Milka, the tenderest temptation ” or film and television tunes from “Heidi” to “Tim Thaler”. For his life’s work, the Munich-based Gema is now honoring the “silent giant” with the “German Music Author Prize” at a gala in Berlin on Thursday, March 30th. By the way, the 88-year-old says in his villa in Solln, one shouldn’t call composers “virtuoso”, because that only describes the musical dexterity, “brilliant” would be more appropriate.
SZ: Your friend Ralf Siegel has realized a lifelong dream with “Zeppelin”. Are you coming up with the big musical now?
Christian Bruhn: I would rather spend my old age in peace. We had a hit with “My friend Wickie”, they are all funny songs, mostly beats, it was a hit.
How about your Heidi musical, your theme song for the animated series is legendary?
It only worked somewhere in Franconia. Heidi is very romantic, it’s always about “home, home, home”, it may be that the directors don’t find it so appealing to children. There are eight or nine “Heidi” musicals, mine is very extensive, but maybe too lavish.
Like other songs, Christian Bruhn composed “Heidi, your world are the mountains” for the German version of the Japanese manga series. He recorded an audio book about it himself.
(Photo: Karl Kramer)
You once said that the Federal Cross of Merit would not be for you after you accompanied a friend to a mass award ceremony. But you just accepted it.
Yes. The Bavarian Prime Minister has now personally written me a letter. I won’t refuse. It was then presented to me by Minister of Art Blume, at least in a fine hall, Bavaria has enough walls for it. And there was also a sip of sparkling wine. Two or three others got it too, but not 50 like back then.
do you wear it
No, I have it in the safe like the other prizes. The Paul Lincke Ring, the Gema Ring of Honor, the Richard Strauss Medal…
Do such awards mean anything to you?
I’m an admirer of Paul Lincke, he did very fine, sophisticated things. Brilliant, albeit very folksy.
In 1970 Christian Bruhn composed “There are always miracles” for Katja Ebstein, who later became his third wife. At the Eurovision Song Contest 1970 he conducted the orchestra himself – the German entry came third.
(Photo: imago stock&people via www.imago/imago images/ADBP-MEDIA)
Now the German Music Authors’ Prize from Gema for your life’s work has been added.
The award has been around for a while and for me it really comes at the end of my life. I have to honestly say that I am very happy because my overall work is appreciated. I didn’t just make hits, but practically everything that had to do with light music. From concert waltzes to chansons and children’s songs to advertising jingles and television.
The prize is intended to promote up-and-coming musicians in the other categories. Does that benefit the honorees?
Well, it’s a tribute to artistic achievement. It has less of an effect on record sales, and arguably none on awareness either. But what do I do with fame? People keep asking me: oh, that’s yours too? And the? Yes, I say, you just don’t look at the record labels. While we as youngsters were familiar with all American standard authors as well as the German Schlager authors.
Isn’t fame still the key to success?
That’s the big difference between Ralf Siegel, with whom I’m very friends, and me: I prefer to be in the quiet little room, and Ralf has to reveal himself to the public.
You once said about yourself: “I’m a first-rate artist of the second order.”
This is a quote from Vicky Baum. Entertainment music is easy art and not difficult, we also admit that. But over the centuries, many intelligent people have made light art because it’s fun.
“Dam dam”: Christian Bruhn together with Drafi Deutscher in 1969 in a Hamburg studio. Her big hit: “Marmor, stone and iron breaks”.
(Photo: Lothar Heidtmann/dpa)
You have worked a lot with lyricists, does it make sense to separate composition and lyricist?
This is crucial for the lyricist to come up with a good line, as in headlines or in advertising. It is also crucial whether the composer is patient enough for something to come. “I’m Fine Mercy Cherie” isn’t very original, but the melody is very good.
Did you sometimes co-write?
At “I want to be the button on your blouse”…
The hit by Bata Ilic …
The whole chorus is mine. Then Günther Behrle was with me and said: “I have a line. How could this go on?” I suggested: “…then I could be close close close close close to your heart. And if you put your blouse down at night, then I’ll be glad that I’m in your room.”
Is it that fast?
Yes, I’m well versed in literature. I co-wrote a lot. I just never pushed myself onto the label. In “The music comes from Bohemia” the first verse is mine.
And your tunes, can you tell them all apart?
You see, I have thousands and thousands of hits, operetta songs, opera arias and symphony parts in my head. I can name most of them. Of course, some may have been so insignificant that I have forgotten them. There’s a song, “You’re not Santa Claus and I’m not seven anymore”, I’m a bit ashamed of it, a very poor composition.
Did your childhood during the Second World War in Carinthia, surrounded by the local folk music, really shape you, as they say?
Before that I was already learning with Leonhard Deutsch’s piano school, that was a Viennese music professor, it consisted of Austrian folk songs. Then I came to the extremely musical Carinthians, where I sang in three parts with the maids. So yes. But there is a composer’s law anyway: “If a third is available, then use it.” Because she’s sonorous. Perhaps awareness has been raised in Carinthia. But before that I had tried to compose, which also went in thirds and sixths.
Now film music like the “Captain Future” soundtrack, which is also revered in the electro club scene, doesn’t sound like something from the Alps…
This was originally intended for a western, with horns blown: Du li di, da du li da… (sings) Film music is something completely different than hits.
Christian Bruhn also wrote the soundtrack for the Japanese manga series “Captain Future”, which is celebrated in the electro scene. Club icon DJ Hell likes to address the composer as “Herr Professor”.
(Photo: imago images/Mary Evans)
Where do you get your inspiration from, from your love of classical music?
Asking a composer where his ideas come from is… well. You have to understand the content of the original text, such as the James Krüss poems, so that you don’t overcompose the words. With the film music you do the director a service and reinforce the mood: the sadness, the tension, the loveliness. In the case of Captain Future, a vocalise with the soprano, plus the strings, the piano and the disco rhythm, was ideal. A stroke of luck.
Is a musical breadth – from classical to new tones to jazz – a prerequisite for your job?
If, like me, you don’t just make hits. I’m an outsider there. But that’s what kept me awake and alive. I still compose, albeit a lot for the drawer. As far as my music is concerned, I’ve fallen out of time. I wouldn’t tackle Tiktok again.
But you still write for the entertainer Donato Plögert.
Yes, if he sends me a text, I quickly scribble the notes next to the text. I’m currently working on a Viennese waltz, I used to write the score for a large orchestra, now I’m reworking it for synthesizers, but it’s close to reality. A manual test for me.
You have had a say in the work of Gema for a long time, also as Chairman of the Supervisory Board. Was music rights management easier before the internet existed.
Yes, of couse. Before the digital age we had the three pillars: mechanical music, live music and music from broadcasters. Unfortunately, the collecting societies have been cheated in the negotiations in digital music, in contrast to the record companies. The remuneration for the authors, in contrast, is ridiculous, shameful. The umbrella organizations of the combined collecting societies were not strong enough. I remember the Southgerman newspaper was enthusiastic about the “Napster” download portal and that everything was free to download. So I also said: Yes, and now I’ll reprint your newspaper and distribute it for free.
Is there still a chance for the musicians to get better pay?
Well, it’s supposed to get better. But due to the big competition from Apple, Spotify and Co., less and less comes in. So it will stay that way.
Isn’t the exploitation of rights a very sober, even sobering business for an artist like you?
I’ve always been interested in law. If I hadn’t had any musical talent at all, I might have become a lawyer. I am often asked for advice and can do useful work.
What is the current challenge of Gema?
Still the same: the undervaluation of the author’s share in canned audio.