Lieder und Chan(songs) aus aller Welt

Subject: Lieder und Chan(songs) aus aller Welt
From: Doug Olsen
Date: 14 Sep 99 - 04:47 PM

Has anyone else out there encountered this 3-volume mimeographed velo-bound set of songbooks? Apparently produced in the 1970's by a trio of Germans. Absolutely great as a resource for hundreds of English, Irish, American, German, French, Italian songs, some well-known but not always easy to find in print, others way obscure. Words and music. Wish I could thank the creators.

Subject: RE: Lieder und Chan(songs) aus aller Welt
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 14 Sep 99 - 06:53 PM

Never heard of it, I'm afraid, but there is a set of fairly cheap books still available that also came out in the Seventies. It seems to cover the same sort of ground: the 'Liederbuch' series. There must be seven or eight volumes now, all entitled 'Lieder-something'.
Also, there is 'Das kleine dicke Liederbuch' compiled by Heide Buhmann & Hanspeter Haeseler, great value, but putting the emphasis on German songs.
If these are any use to you, let me know and I'll find out where to get them via mail order.

Subject: RE: Lieder und Chan(songs) aus aller Welt
From: Joe Offer
Date: 14 Sep 99 - 07:44 PM

Uilleand had several of the books from the "Liederbuch" series in Washington, I found myself guilty of the sin of covetousness. I tracked down the publisher in Germany and found there are about eight books in the series - Liederkorb, Liederballon, Liederzirkus, Liederkisse, and others. The publisher wouldn't sell them to me direct, and the retailer I found had outrageous shipping prices, charging the same for each of these pamphlet-size books as they would for hardcover books. It would have cost me over a hundred bucks for a set, so I gave it up and decided to save up for a plane ticket to Germany. They're great little books, though.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: German Folk Song books
From: Joe Offer
Date: 14 Sep 99 - 08:07 PM

I found the list: Liederkiste, Liederkorb, Liederbuch, Liederbaum, Liedersonne, Liederstrauss, Liederstern, Liederwolke, and Liedercircus. Publisher is Bund-Verlag. These pamphlet-size books are available at Amazon.de, but the cost is a killer, DM 12,90 plus shipping (DM 35,- plus DM 5,- per book). They're not available as a packaged set. Any ideas how I can get the books sent to me in the U.S. for a more reasonable price?
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lieder und Chan(songs) aus aller Welt
From: GeorgeH
Date: 15 Sep 99 - 08:41 AM

Joe: Seems to me the amazon.de basic shipping charge is about what you'd expect to pay for shipping from Germany to the US, so I doubt whether you'll get much cheaper. And Amazon.de's prices for the books themselves are (from what we've seen) what you'd have to pay in a shop in Germany, or (often) cheaper. Probably your only hope is to find someone travelling over from Germany to the US. Or you could email amazon and say "look, these only come to the weight of one book, how about forgetting the DM5 per book bit"?

Good luck!

G.

Subject: RE: Lieder und Chan(songs) aus aller Welt
From: johntm
Date: 15 Sep 99 - 11:35 AM

The Ring of Words An Anthology of Song Texts ed by Philip MIller published by Norton is a neat book with 300+ songs in German, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Norwegian and Swedish. My edition cost $3.95 and is several years old

Subject: RE: Lieder und Chan(songs) aus aller Welt
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 15 Sep 99 - 05:10 PM

Joe, If you're interested I could inquire what it costs to send them privately - DM 12,90 + postage. (I'm not taking bulk orders, though - at the time the Mystic Museum re-published Stan Hugill's shanty collection I ordered 24 copies. The worst part was getting the money back from the people who had ordered them! :-)) Susanne

Subject: RE: Lieder und Chan(songs) aus aller Welt
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Sep 99 - 06:27 PM

I may take you up on that, Suzanne. Let me try a few other options first. I see that Amazon.de has free shipping, even of U.S. books, to German-speaking countries. Hey, I speak German, so why not to me? Maybe I can order them and have them shipped to my sweetie's sister in Berlin; and then get them mailed to me.
Thanks for the offer, though.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lieder und Chan(songs) aus aller Welt
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 17 Sep 99 - 06:00 PM

Slightly roundabout way, isn't it? They'll have seen half the world by the time you get them! :-)

Subject: RE: Lieder und Chan(songs) aus aller Welt
From: Uilleand
Date: 17 Sep 99 - 06:30 PM

In the mean time you're welcome to look at mine and some other German Liederbuecher I have when you come to the getaway.

Subject: RE: Lieder und Chan(songs) aus aller Welt
From: Joe Offer
Date: 18 Sep 99 - 05:13 AM

Hi, Uilleand - I'll be looking forward to seeing your books at the Getaway. Actually, I think I'll forego the hassle of ordering the Liederkorb, etc books from Germany. I've found some really interesting collections of German folk songs at used book stores in my travels in the U.S. One is this one:

Ungerer, Tomi. DAS GROßE LIEDERBUCH: 204 DEUTSCHE VOLKSUND KINDERLIEDER. Edited by Anne Diekmann, with 155 color illus. by Tomi Ungerer. In German. 234pp., 4to, cloth, d.w. (Zurich, 1975). * Beautifully inscribed on the flyleaf in highly decorative lettering with a sketch of a bird: "For...from Tomi Ungerer.". $250.00 OUR REFERENCE: R18095

...but I got it for twelve bucks. the illustrations are wonderful. the book is meant mostly for kids, but I like it just fine
But the one I think is a real find is Das große Hausbuch der Volkslieder, edited by Walter Hansen (1978). This collection has some 400 German folk songs, and the illustrations are terrific (none listed in www.Bookfinder.com just now, though). The book certainly covers every German folk song I know. I've been looking for a good German songbook for a long time, and I think these two are real treasures.

Say, I was wondering about the title of the thread - is "Chan" a legitimate German word, or is is supposed to be "Chansons"?
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lieder und Chan(songs) aus aller Welt
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 18 Sep 99 - 03:19 PM

Joe, congratulations! However, another one that can match your find any day is Das sind unsere Lieder by Hein & Oss Kröher. The Kröher twins, who turned 150 recently, are Germany's grandfathers of folk music, and certainly know a thing or two about song choice, besides being of a very definite political persuasion without being partisan. The idiosyncratic illustrations in the book were done by Gertrude Degenhardt who also used to design marvellous album sleeves for FolkFreak. The book used to be available from the Büchergilde Gutenberg, Germany's left-wing bookclub but can, I suspect, only be found second hand nowadays. It's a treasure!
Re your question: We don't have a word Chan in German, so it is indeed trying to bridge the gap between songs and Chansons.

Subject: RE: Lieder und Chan(songs) aus aller Welt
From: Joe Offer
Date: 18 Sep 99 - 03:52 PM

Oh, gee. Susanne, do you think Das Sind Unsere Lieder (click) is worth $45? It sure is tempting, but I try to be a bit conservative about what I pay for books. While the two books I have are wonderful, they don't have any notes to explain the stories behind the songs. What about Das Sind Unsere Lieder?
I think I'll offer them thirty bucks and see if they'll go for it. I haven't had muck look dickering with bookstores, but I guess it's worth a try.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lieder und Chan(songs) aus aller Welt
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 19 Sep 99 - 07:51 PM

Joe, I'm not sure whether you'd consider it worth $45. I paid 48 marks for it new. It is large format, 430 pages, it does have some notes on the songs at the back, and it is - like the Ungerer book - not simply a songbook but a work of art.

Subject: RE: Lieder und Chan(songs) aus aller Welt
From: Uilleand
Date: 20 Sep 99 - 03:45 PM

I have a wonderful book with historic explanations next to each song. They are grouped by historic time period. I think it's just called Volksliederbuch, but I have to check it. It's a large hard cover book. Got it for my birthday from my aunt a few years ago. It must still be in print. Don't know about the price. You can check it out when you get here. The Liederbuch series includes songs from all over the world and modern pop music as well. There great, if you also like 'Schlager'. There are 12 or 13 out now. I think I have the first 8 of those, and the summary song index for all of them. I also have a whole slew of others, some dating back to elementary school.

Subject: RE: Lieder und Chan(songs) aus aller Welt
From: Wolfgang
Date: 24 Sep 99 - 05:19 AM

my additions:

Liederbuch series (13 now and growing by about one volume per year): the newer ones are getting worse, for the good songs are already in the old volumes. For the knowledgeable I only have to add that Vol. 12 includes "Guildo hat Euch lieb" from the European Song contest. There's a lot of garbage in which there's quite a bit of gold to look for. All the tunes are given including chords.

E. Klusen, Deutsche Lieder, Insel Verlag. A great collection at a reasonable price for a hardcover book from the oldest German song surviving to quite new ones. Tunes and notes added. Strong recommendation.

Das kleine dicke Liederbuch: I second Susanne's recommendation. Tunes, but no notes, fairly cheap. A very good alternative to the (somewhat) better book just above, if you want to spend less.

"Der große Steinitz", Wolfgang Steinitz, Deutsche Volkslieder demokratischen Charakters aus sechs Jahrhunderten. The nearest we have to the CHILD collection both in style (often many many versions to one song) and ample annotations. Very strong recommendation for the scholar. It has been printed in the GDR, so you have to expect two drawbacks: First, it might be out of print since about ten years; second, it only has political songs in it which were PC in the GDR.

Des Knaben Wunderhorn. A collection of old to very old songs (no tunes) only recommended for the scholar.

The Kröher book is good too, though a bit expensive.

Everything Ungerer has illustrated will by definition be too expensive except you get it as cheap as Joe did.

Zupfgeigenhansel, Es wollt ein Bauer früh aufstehn; a good collection of songs (some notes; tunes added) for a reasonable price with a slight bias for political songs.

Der Zupfgeigenhansel (mind you: Zupfgeigenhansel here is the title, in the book above it was the author). A reprint (often cheap, depending on the reprint) of an old collection. Gives a good impression what was sung in Germany in the Bündische Jugend, before the Nazis took over. Too conservative from my point of view, but very< interesting from of historical point of view.

There are many more books but these are the best choices of the ones I know.
Both Uilleand's Volksliederbuch and Joe's Das große Hausbuch der Volkslieder sound very good to me, but I don't know them.

Wolfgang

(Joe, you can have any help you want, just drop me note; I have a surplus copy of I think Zupfgeigenhansel, or Des Kanben Wunderhorn, are you interested?)