Kevin McDermott
Mon, 07 Apr 2008 11:35:14 -0700
Dear Martina,So interesting to hear your thoughts on this; and sadly gratifying as well, as they match my thoughts--but I'm an outsider. By blood, I'm Irish American, but have always been interested in German culture, and the 19th century. From a very early age I knew Erk's Deutsche Liederschatz and such-like collections. Now (as we've been discussing) whether what's in those collections is ACTUALLY folk music or not, there's no doubt that for the folks of the 19 and early 20 century, it was considered and beloved as such and formed a unifying pan-Germanic hook on which to hang a new nation, just like Frank was saying. But, whatever they are/were, they're beautiful music.
Imagine my surprise when I began to sing in Germany and quickly discovered NOBODY of my generation (I'm 54) knew those songs. And for exactly the reason you've stated: they were one of the babies thrown out with the bathwater of Nazism. The totalitarian idea of the way to run a country isn't called that for nothing....because nothing escapes being pressed into the service of the state (unless it's been destroyed because it won't).
The irony is, the only person who could/would sing those songs with me was back home, here in the US: the wife of a well-known figure in early music. She'd bring her old BDM songbook and we'd sing, sing sing. As you say: some of the memories arent' funny.
Kevin On Apr 7, 2008, at 1:50 PM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On Apr 7, 2008, at 1:43 AM, Frank Nordberg wrote:Your folk music is a means to define where you come from and where you belong in this world. And since we don't all belong in the same place (fortunately) it may not be the same as somebody else's folk music.Dear Frank, you invited me to add to discussion "another point of view". So I'll try to do this as cautious as possible.Being German I had my own task of defining "Folk Music". Before I started doing research on the German Waldzither, I wouldn't have dreamt of music as a political item. But then I had to dig out the root of literally every song my father had scetched down in handwritten notes without texts (they knew them by heart anyway) to make sure I was not quoting Nazi-stuff in my documentation.The result was to understand, that there is no "German Folk music" nowadays, no songs that are popular over more than one generation. The "Wandervogel"- movement had started to recollect songs from all sources at the end of the 19th century, their fashion of singing spread to all levels of society, from academic "bourgoise" youngsters in the beginning to working-class people and others. The christian groups walked and sang in the same "spirit" as the communists, scouts and so on. The songs found or invented to fit the longing for romantic topics became common knowledge to the "generation 1st World War" as well as to the "generation 2nd World War". In the song books was published nearly everything from 16.th century to Schubert, Mozart, popular Kitsch, joking silly songs and soldier stuff. But as Hitler got power, he used the music to fit his scheme of "Hitlerjugend", adapted the camps, the songs, nature games, everything to serve his purposes. From 1945 on therefore so many German songs had to be judged by "political involvement".The following young generation did not want to learn any "old songs", sick of everything smelling like "German". And "Rock 'n Roll" WAS cool, for sure. But until now the musical link between generations by knowing the old songs is non-existent. When I sing some of the harmless old songs to the old generation, they simply get back a junk of their youth, they were not allowed to have any more after the War. Sometimes this is extremely moving, because the memories come along with the music (and they are not always funny).I don't know, how this is in other European countries, but we have the tendency, that young people just don't and can't sing any more. They can't identify themself with "Germany". This is still not politically correct.Everyone who can sing a major chord trys for "Superstar" or a singer's career, but without that it is not cool at all to sing. So we have a fashion now for Irish Folk, Didgeridoos, Djembe-Drumming, Jazz and Blues, but the "German Folk" is left to that 1970ies Generation or some bands from former GDR, where people's protests found a (more or less coded) consens and represent "the romantic eastern way" nowadays, as society has got rather tough and unromantic.Some songs are also kept, if the fit the "middleages" fad. The latter is again the longing for finding a "Folks" consens, a "home" feeling.At the last Waldzither-conference there came up critizism, that just a few German pieces were sung at the concert. Irish Folk, Jonny Cash, middleages, and German Folk in the way I just described and Swiss "traditional" 19th ctry stuff. Well, that is sheer reality, nothing to be critizised. A fact. For myself I'm musically very open, curious and eager to learn, so I won't cry for the "good old times" that had never been good in reality. I keep some of the old songs for their own beauty against the common "forgetting everything" but it doesn't make sense to create a mission of reviving the lot.And, yes, there is also a true Bavarian tradition, non-commercial, where everyone is invited to join in the music, perfect or not, without sheet music, open and tolerant (and simple if one can follow four tonalities in bs down and up). There I found my way back to music after a gap of 20 years................Thanks all for listening to that load Martina Rosenberger -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html