Burke, you're quite right - the term Volkslied was introduced by the Romantic poets of the mid-nineteenth century, and many were written by them. Heine's 'Lorelei', mentioned above, is a case in point.

However, apart from the Nazis using many of these songs for their own ends, I think there are other factors contributing to the neglect of German Volkslieder. One of these I take to be the fact that many of these songs are very simple and predictable musically, maybe also predictable in content, and tend to get boring after a while. (The same goes for most German folk danbce tunes.) Like Wolfgang, I used to sing a lot as a child, but with the songs available to us it was often a case of 'familiarity breeds contempt'.

Much later I found out there are other songs, livelier ones, less decorous ones, and less politically correct ones. The problem was, the 'official' Volksmusik scene wasn't interested. The vast number of choirs went on singing their choral settings of 'Aennchen von Tharau' and Goethe's 'Rose on the Heath' (without realising, of course, that this was actually about rape!). Interest developed in the then GDR, where Wolfgang Steinitz put together his massive 'Volkslieder of a democratic nature from the last six centuries'. This book made its way to the West during the West German folk music revival of the late Sixties and early Seventies. This revival had started with bands playing American and later on Irish material, before they found out about - or maybe had matured enough to accept - the vast repertoire of German material. Many did check the archives and found new songs, or they wrote new ones themselves based on older songs. Some of these groups are still going. However, to make clear the distinction to other strands of German Volksmusik, they called their music Folkmusik.

Volksmusik encompasses the choral movement already mentioned, the Bavarian yodel- and brass band music which is probably the best-known aspect of German Volksmusic abroad, and other anodyne strands. Its worst strand, in my opinion, is Volkstümliche Musik, the total commercialisation of Volksmusik. Wolfgang has already mentioned TV programmes like Volkstümliche Hitparade, and there is more of this stuff, often regionalised, on several stations. Hugely popular programmes, but the music is in no sense of the word traditional, but mass-produced 'folk-pop' with an eye (both eyes, actually) on the market and performed by minor or minuscule musical talents enhanced by playback, whose major requirement seems to be the ability to present a squeaky-clean image. This is what German Folkmusiker are trying to distance themselves from.

It's not as though there was no German folk scene although it is still true that many German bands are more interested in Irish, Scottish, country music or blues. As to McGrath's suggestion of mixing the German tradition with those of migrant workers' communities, this is already being done (although I must confess I can't talk about this with any authority as it isn't really my interest). Also, there is a growing interest in klezmer music and Yiddish songs. The German organisation for song, folk and world music, PROFOLK, has so far put together five (I think) samplers with very good examples of the German folk music scene in all its aspects. Unfortunately, their website is in German only and not very helpful to our current topic, but you might try and contact them via eMail and ask for copies of their samplers if there are any left. They are limited edition and strictly for promotional purposes, i.e. they get sent out to foreign radio stations, not normally to individuals. If you're really dying to get a peek you could always ask me, of course - nicely!

One last aspect - it is a fact that German groups don't usually get invited to UK festivals. This may be due to a certain wariness on the part of other Europeans where the Germans are concerned; it may also be due to the fact that they don't perceive our music as particularly attractive. Then, of course, the PR machine for German folk may be at fault. This is pure speculation.

Sorry for rambling on, especially as Wolfgang has said a lot already. I WAS going to think about my contribution first but in the end couldn't resist ... Anybody who has any further questions - there's always a PM.