4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "A GREAT "THANK YOU" !!! Thank you all. Among your suggestions (they were all helpful!) I like "fauler Zauber" - for the very sound of it (mumbo jumbo, Wischiwaschi, fauler Zauber), and also for its lack of purely verbal connotations. I studied philosophy, so I can imagine how it must sound when we read about "existence": "Existenz ist das Sein desjenigen Seins, welches offen ist für die Offenheit des Seins, in der es steht, indem es sie aussteht." (Heidegger) But I could not think of any musical equivalent. "pseudo-philosophisches" Getue / Gehabe / Gebaren - thank you, Nicole, for your detailed explanations. How about "pseudo-philosophischer Hokus-Pokus" oder "pseudo-philosophischer fauler Zauber"? Thank you all !!! MartinaH P. S. I'd say, that "Tam-tam" (suggested by somebody) is wrong. A "Tam-tam" is the loudest and acoustically most impressive of all orchestral instruments - once hit, everybody understands that "this is the climax". A philosophical tam-tam could therefore be a medieval "our earth is not the center of the universe", or it could be Darwin's theory, nothing less. "