And yet, the first guest event at the Bauhaus Weimar in 1919 was dedicated to music, and many more musical performances followed. When the school opened its doors to audiences for the first time in 1923 and publicly presented its working methods and products, music played a preeminent role again. The exhibition was preceded by the so-called Bauhaus Week – a five-day event comprised of lectures, plays and, above all, concerts. The composers Igor Stravinsky, Paul Hindemith and Ferrucio Busoni and conductor Hermann Scherchen were all invited to witness the performance of their works which opened the exhibition.

The Bauhaus-Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung has been studying the relationship between the Bauhaus and music in an interdisciplinary research project entitled bauhaus music since 2021. The team of art historians and musicologists systematically reconstructed musical life at the historic Bauhaus sites of Weimar, Dessau and Berlin. The project identified over 160 musicians with whom the Bauhaus maintained close contact – evidence of the vibrant exchange that existed between the various artistic genres. Consequently, bauhaus music is closing an important gap in musical and Bauhaus research, and at the same time, reveals exciting new angles from which the legacy of the Bauhaus can be artistically explored today.

In 2023, the bauhaus music weekend for the first time presented initial findings of the research project and as a festival will continue to showcase aspects of musical life at the historic Bauhaus over the next two years.