Opus112 will provide musical accompaniment for the grand opening with a twelve-piece wind ensemble, promises orchestra director Hugo Looveld. The musicians will then perform with a full lineup at the large evening reception at City Hall. Three weeks prior to that, a concert on the “Blaulichtmeile” in Hannover, the host city of INTERSCHUTZ, is already on the schedule.

“Opus112 plays everything,” says Hugo Looveld, describing the musical range of the orchestra he founded more than 20 years ago. This spans from classical music to musicals and film scores to rock and pop. He is particularly committed to constantly breaking new ground in symphonic wind music. “Music should be fun” is his motto, and by that he means both the musicians and the audience. “Why do you have to be serious when it comes to wind music?”

Thorsten Zywietz also takes great pleasure in the many activities related to fire department music. As the national bandmaster of the German Fire Department Association (DFV), he is, so to speak, Germany’s top fire department musician and is proud of the nearly 32,000 active musicians listed in the DFV Fire Department Yearbook. According to the yearbook, most of them—around 7,200—are based in Lower Saxony, followed closely by North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse. This includes traditional wind bands as well as bagpipe bands, fanfare bands, and marching bands—but also symphonic orchestras with a classical lineup. Thorsten Zywietz, himself the director of a marching band, confirms the diversity of the musical performances, ranging from Handel to Coldplay.

DFV Vice President Dr. Frank Kämmer is responsible for music on the executive board of the German Fire Service Association and serves as the bandmaster of the Braunschweig Fire Department. “Music and the fire service have always gone hand in hand, not just at INTERSCHUTZ,” he says. “Initially, the signals produced with whistles or horns were of great importance for operations. At the same time, music has been a part of cultural life in fire departments from the very beginning and is also an important factor in attracting new recruits.”

Federal Chief of Staff Zywietz explains that music plays a significant role in the fire department’s day-to-day operations: “The history of the siren is closely linked to technological development, musical acoustics, and ultimately the question of how to reliably warn road users.” The Federal Chief of Staff notes that, after wind instruments, bells once dominated as the primary acoustic warning signal. “They were loud, piercing, and easily recognizable amid street noise,” he says. However, as the soundscape changed with the advent of motorization, new warning devices became necessary. “The decisive step was taken by the German Signal Instrument Factory Max B. Martin in Markneukirchen,” says Zywietz. “It developed an electrically powered horn capable of producing two tones—and thus the characteristic alternating sound we know today. The current name ‘Martinshorn’ also derives from the company’s name.”

At first, there was no standard rhythm. It wasn’t until 1960 that a standard (DIN FEN 610) was established, defining four notes of equal length. “The sequence of notes A and D—which corresponds to a perfect fourth in music—was not chosen at random,” explains Thorsten Zywietz. “It’s particularly easy to play on brass instruments without valves. That’s why it had long been established in signaling.”

Modern vehicles have long used electronic signal generators that synthetically reproduce the classic sound. Yet the sound characteristics remain standard-compliant: the siren still sounds exactly as it did in the past—you can hear this for yourself from June 1 to 6 at the exhibition grounds in Hanover and also during everyday fire department operations throughout Germany!

Although the sirens of fire trucks sound different around the world, fire department music is universal, as will be evident at INTERSCHUTZ. At the Haix booth, for example, bagpipers from the Washington, D.C., Fire Department—“the DCFD Pipes and Drums”—will perform every day. The band already drew enthusiastic crowds at INTERSCHUTZ 2022.

Purchase Ticket