Dear All, Peter Branscombe's entry in The New Grove which opens as follows seems to be quite clear about the meaning of the word:
'Gassenhauer (from Ger. Gasse: alley and hauen: to hew or beat, to walk). A German street song or urban folksong. The term Gassenhauer occurs in a musical context as early as 1517 (Aventin: Gassenhawer that are played on the lute) and in a title in 1535 (Christian Egenolff's Gassenhawerlin). Hans Sachs mentioned the Gassenhauer along with other types of song (psalms, songs of love and war etc.) in the preface to a conspectus of his poems in 1567 (Summa all meiner Gedicht vom MDXIII. Jar an bis in 1567 Jar), implying that by that date it was a recognized category....' So the German gassenhauer seems to occupy very much the same territory as the Italian dance-song genre. Although it would be a leap of faith to say that it's exactly the same thing as a calata, there does seem to be a strong correspondence of ideas. I'm glad that Peter spotted that as it's helped me to get a better idea of what the calata form is about. Best wishes, Denys From: Orphenica [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 01 March 2010 13:38 To: Peter Nightingale Cc: Denys Stephens; 'Christopher Stetson'; [email protected] Subject: Re: [LUTE] Re: Dalza question. Interesting theory. Gassenhauer [1] ursprünglich: Nachtbummler, also Personen, die nachts das Pflaster (be)treten (hauen in der alten Bedeutung treten, betreten) [2] abgeleitet, Musik: das von Nachtbummlern gesungene einfache, eingängige Lied (Volkslied, Lied des Volkes), also das Lied, das auf allen Gassen gesungen wird translates to Night stroller, (1) someone who "hits" (german "hauen") the alley by night (think of "hit the road jack") (2) derived, music: song sang by night strollers, folksong sang in all alleys by ordinary people Great analogy. we Peter Nightingale schrieb: Gassenhauer in German? On Sun, 28 Feb 2010, Denys Stephens wrote: Dear Chris, In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, (London: Macmillan, 1980), vol. 3, p. 612, in his entry under Calata Daniel Heartz notes that the Italian word "calle" meaning a path or small street and that the qualifying words included in titles (e.g. "de strambotti" and "dito terzetti" hint at associations with strophic texts. All of this suggests strong connections with the 'dance song' genre that often appears in early 16c Venetian sources. Concerning 'non-Spagnola' pieces,The calata found in the Thibault Ms,which is roughly contemporary with Dalza, doesn't have any other description attached to it. Best wishes, Denys -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Christopher Stetson Sent: 28 February 2010 16:42 To: [email protected] Subject: [LUTE] Dalza question. Hi, all, Does anybody know, more or less exactly, what a Calata is? Were there non-Spagnola Calatas? I've never really thought about it, but I'm probably playing one in public next Sunday, and would like to seem knowledgeable. Thanks, Chris. PS, I've already thought of most of the Pina Calata jokes. -- C. -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html the next auto-quote is: Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science. (Charles Darwin) /\/\ Peter Nightingale Telephone (401) 874-5882 Department of Physics, East Hall Fax (401) 874-2380 University of Rhode Island Kingston, RI 02881
