German folk music

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 May 17 - 09:12 PM

I found downloadable PDF copies of the Deutscher Liederhort, volumes 1 and 3, at Google Books. Can anybody help me find the second volume?
Thanks.
-Joe-
Belay that request, mateys. I found the second volume at archive.org. Both Google Books and archive.org have shortcomings with multiple-volume publications. They each had several copies of volumes 1 and 3, so I had to open several before I finally found volume 2.

I said up above that I was looking for a downloadable copy of Der Zupfgeigenhansl. I see I have a copy on my computer, but now I don't know where I got it from - and I don't see downloadable copies on either archive.com or Google Books. Go figure.

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: Reinhard
Date: 06 Aug 13 - 03:34 AM

See also the Historisch-kritisches Liederlexikon by the Deutsches Volksliedarchiv.

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Aug 13 - 01:40 AM

There's a great collection of German folksong lyrics at http://www.volksliederarchiv.de/.

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: Jack Campin
Date: 03 Apr 12 - 06:17 PM

The Deitsch site is horrible to use.

It won't let you play anything without opening a new tab or window for the MySpace player, and the new window is equally likely to play nothing or to hide another popped-up window you got when clicking because nothing happened, and you get two players doing the song at once.

I'm not fighting with something like that. Somebody let us know when they get rid of their dependence on MySpace and just have links to generic audio files?

SoundCloud is a lot less hassle for casual users.

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 03 Apr 12 - 05:24 PM

Yes, they are on YouTube. Very nice.

General info - anybody interested in German or Deutsche folkmusic should know about "the ingeb site" - a wonderful resource.

http://ingeb.org/home.html

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 03 Apr 12 - 01:34 PM

I've tried two or three times, Joe, but nothing plays on the Deitsch pages. Maybe they're on YouTube...

If you are looking for an enjoyable group, I suggest the Swiss family, Oesch's die Dritten. Look for the Kuku Jodl.

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: CET
Date: 02 Apr 12 - 06:59 PM

Thanks for the link, Joe. Deitsch are great.

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Apr 12 - 05:36 PM

Somebody asked me about "Deitsch," and I figured it would be a good excuse to refresh this thread and encourage people to take a listen to them.

MySpace music samples.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Mar 12 - 06:02 PM

Hi, Reinhard-

Gee, I should have listened to you back in 2006 - I just found your comment last night. Any other German singers you'd recommend?

People, please take a listen to Deitsch, even if you don't speak German. They're just delightful.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: Reinhard
Date: 17 Mar 12 - 12:34 PM

Glad you like Deitsch, Joe, they are wonderful. I already recommended them in 2006 in the thread Der Lindenschmied.

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: GUEST,Don Wise
Date: 17 Mar 12 - 09:29 AM

@ Max Johnson.....What's that-"Die Moorsoldaten" a version of "The Peat-Bog Soldiers"? It's the ORIGINAL!!!

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Mar 12 - 04:34 AM

I just came across an album titled Deitsch: Live in Rudolstadt 2009. Oh, this is wonderful music! I wish Spotify had more music from them.
Their Website is http://www.deitsch.de/. they have music you can listen to on MySpace.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: GUEST,ingrid sinclair
Date: 12 Nov 11 - 03:20 AM

Does anyone know the correct lyrics to a children's song my father used to sing. The same verse was repeated over and over again, each time the vowel sound changed.

The lines went something like:

Mit dem Fidel Bogen und der Bass Geiger
Dann kann Mann macht Musiek an
Mit dem Fidel Bogen und der Bass Geiger
Dann kann Mann allein.


Would love to hear if anyone else knows this.

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: Leadfingers
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 12:44 PM

200

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: GUEST,Margaret
Date: 06 Oct 11 - 05:24 PM

Add to the books list "Die historischen Volkslieder der Deutschen", by Rochus von Liliencron. 5 vols, mid-19th c. and thus clearly Nazifrei.

Also there are probably copies still available of the Volksliederbuch für Männerchor, 2 vols, publ. C.F.Peters Leipzig, 1906, and the corresponding ...für Gemischten Chor, 2 vols, same publ., 1915. They were re-printed by the Nazis, but as far as I can tell (mine are the reprints) the reprints are facsimiles that weren't interfered with.

Did someone already post this site and I missed it? If not: http://www.liederlexikon.de/lieder/index_html/

I lived and worked in Germany thru most of the '60s, and our local pub was taken over once a month by the local Gesangverein, to the great enjoyment of everyone who managed to squeeze in to listen. Their repertoire was all the old songs, including the most beloved chestnuts ("Anke van Tharaw", "Ach, wie ists möglich denn", "Freut Euch des Lebens", etc.) The first non-oompah songs I ever heard, I heard there.

Thirty years ago, working in Texas, I accidentally discovered that the Texas State Fair has a Deutsches Tag (many German ex-pats in Texas), so naturally that's when I went. Every year, they'd a group of Bundeswehr soldiers who'd come over from some training base in west-Texas. And they'd sing the old songs all day in chorus! It was *very* nice.

(I also had the amusing experience, one year, of realising that the two "good ol' boy" farmers sitting nearby who spoke eye-wateringly awful German were in fact native speakers who only needed a dozen bottles of beer each to regain their native fluency)

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: bubblyrat
Date: 30 Sep 11 - 10:17 AM

Yes, but I meant EVER , not just whilst playing !!

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 30 Sep 11 - 10:03 AM

"but never laughed or smiled "

That's probably natural. The concentration required to keep together and avoid mistakes probably keeps the face still.

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: bubblyrat
Date: 30 Sep 11 - 04:52 AM

Whilst living in Bielefeld , I used to go to a bar just around the corner ,supposedly once owned by Hamish Imlach (who was very popular in Germany ) ; there were often German musicians in there playing Irish music ,and they all seemed to be extremely proficient , but never laughed or smiled !!
Also, regarding the Nazis and wartime music ; I went to the Uni in Bielefeld to see a film about young men listening to banned music , ie Glenn Miller etc ; I think it was called "Swing Heil" or something ---it was most enjoyable , anyway !

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 29 Sep 11 - 07:58 AM

about Stuart's post:
this song was originally a song about a soldier's return where his family is wondering whether he is their lad.
the same song was also sung by students where the mother is asking about his coloured cap, his father about his mustache, and his sister about his scarred gashes.
I don't know which one is older, but who cares? I sing both as a former soldier and student.

Sing and enjoy
Wilfried

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 28 Sep 11 - 08:11 PM

But it is a Northern song, and therefore probably quite unknown in Bavaria. I can't remember now, but it may actually have started out as a song in Low German.

You obviously missed Liederjan's addition. Can't remember what kind of facial hair it referred to but it ended with

Bin Folklorist, fideri fidera, sauf jeden Mist, fideri fidera ...

Adding to songs is fun! I've just found out that some friends have made a song about our hometown of Kiel using a popular Woody Guthrie song and some of its ideas.

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: michaelr
Date: 25 Sep 11 - 12:02 AM

That's not Plattdeutsch, that's plain Hochdeutsch. Even the thickest Bayer should have little trouble understanding it.

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: GUEST,Stuart Reed
Date: 24 Sep 11 - 04:31 PM

On a recent German tour we played a few gigs in Bayern. Our repertoire is British and Irish but we thought we'd throw in a German song, just so the locals could laugh at our pronunciation. So when we played in Traunstein we felt we couldn't pass up the opportunity to mention the Pope, who grew up there.

So we added a verse to a Liederjan song, Ach was wird denn meine Mutter sagen which we'd heard from some German friends visiting Brighton back in the 70s.

We assumed it was a well known singalong number but were surprised that no one in the audience (of several hundred) had heard it before. At first we thought that the initial silence was because the papal reference in that politically conservative area but were afterwards told that it was a Plattdeutsch song, relatively unknown in the south.
Thankfully, they began to join in after a couple of verses and laughed heartily at our feeble joke at the Holy Father's expense.

Here, in case it's of interest, is the text:


Ach was wird denn meine Mutter sagen
Wenn ich einst kehr zurück
Wenn ich dann einen Spitzbart trage
Mein Sohn, was bist jetzt du?
Ich bin Polier, fideri, fidera
Sauf nur noch Bier, fideri fidera
Ich bin Polier, sauf nur noch Bier

Ach was wird denn meine Mutter sagen
Wenn ich einst kehr zurück
Wenn ich dann einen Schnauztbart trage
Mein Sohn, was bist jetzt du?
Bin Architekt, fideri, fidera
Trink nur noch Sekt, fideri fidera
Bin Architekt, sauf nur noch Sekt

Ach was wird denn meine Mutter sagen
Wenn ich einst kehr zurück
Wenn ich dann einen Vollbart trage
Mein Sohn, was bist jetzt du?
Ich bin ein Lump, fideri, fidera
Sauf nur auf Pump, fideri fidera
Ich bin ein Lump, sauf nur auf Pump

Ach was wird meine Mutter sagen,
Wenn ich einst kehr zurück,
Und wenn ich einen Spitzbart trage.
Mein Sohn, was bist jetzt du?
Bin Ingenieur, fideri, fidera,
Trink zur Likör, fideri, fidera,
Bin Ingenieur, trink nur Likör

Ach was wird meine Mutter sagen,
Wenn ich nach Traunstein zuruckkehre
Und wenn ich keinen Schnurrbart habe.
Mein Sohn, was bist jetzt du?
Ich bin jetzt Pabst, fideri fidera
Trink nur noch Schnapps fideri fidera
Ich bin der Pabst, trink nur noch Schnapps

Subject: RE: Political groups abusing trad. music
From: Don Firth
Date: 24 Sep 11 - 03:31 PM

I can't recall now who the religious leader was supposed to have been, Martin Luther, John Wesley, or whoever—actually, it's been attributed to about half a dozen different ones—but when criticized for writing new hymn words to old popular tunes, he responded, "Well, why should the Devil have all the best tunes?"

In the meantime, I'm quite sure that when people get upset by outfits like the Nazi Party (or a few others I can think of) co-opting folk songs, pop songs, and the works of classical composers and putting their own words to them, the Devil says something like, "Why should Beethoven have all the best tunes?"

The gate swings both ways.

In the late 1970s, I worked as an announcer in a classical music station. Great job! I would read a bit of news and the weather report at the top of the hour, do a few commercials, and spend the rest of my time playing recordings of music that I like, with a cup of coffee in my hand and my feet propped up beside the console. AND the PAID me quite well for this. Along with the cachet that goes with being an "on the air" personality with a prestigious classical music radio station.

One afternoon, I got a phone call from a very angry listener. With a German accent. He said he was a German Jew. and had barely escaped with his life during Hitler's round-up of Jews. He was outraged that I—and the station—was paying "Nazi music!" I was a bit befuddled, then I looked at the playlist, and shortly before his call, I had played "Siegfried's Rhine Jouney" from Siegfried, part of the "Ring if the Nibelungs" set of four operas by Richard Wagner.

I could see no connection. It was certainly not "Nazi music." Wagner, personally, was said to have been a nasty little twerp and he was anti-Semitic, but the music was based on Germanic-Norse mythology and had absolutely nothing to do with glorification of the Third Reich or anti-Semitism.

The connection, it seems, was the Wagner, the fact that he was German and with his Heroes and Warrior Maidens and Norse Gods and such, was one of Hitler's favorite composers.

I managed to calm the man down a bit and tried to point out to him that just because a vicious tyrant like the music of a particular composer did not necessarily mean that the composer was equally vicious, or would endorse the tyrant's ideas. And that to assume this was, in itself, an example of prejudice. We parted in a friendly manner and he agreed that would think about the matter. And that he would continue to listen to the station.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Political groups abusing trad. music
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 24 Sep 11 - 02:03 PM

It's an old tradition, dating back at least to when Henry Ford co-opted traditional dance and song to support his narrow view of "Ameriacnism, through the 40s, when the Communists adopted it as "People's MusiC" and so on.

Subject: RE: Political groups abusing trad. music
From: GUEST,999
Date: 24 Sep 11 - 01:22 PM

"Under the Nazi regime, all music produced had to fit within certain standards defined as "good" German music. Suppression of specific artists and their works was common, yet musicians were permitted limited artistic freedom. The Nazis attempted to create a balance between censorship and creativity in music to appease the German people.

This blend of art and politics led to a three-prong policy regarding musicians and artists:

Loyal Nazi members who were talented musicians were guaranteed a job. Loyal Nazi members who were not talented musicians were not guaranteed a job.
Any non-Jewish person who demonstrated a "genius" for music and was a member of the Reichsmusikkammer (Reich Music Chamber) was permitted employment. This exception in policy permitted musicians like conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler and composer Richard Strauss to continue working.
According to Hitler and Goebbels (Hitler's second in command), the three master composers that represented good German music were Ludwig van Beethoven, Richard Wagner, and Anton Bruckner. All three composers lived prior to the 20th century."

from the www.

It isn't about 'folk', but it it is about music.
"I think this deserves its own thread, but was thinking about this as applies to German music."

The quote is from open mike at the end of her writing.

---

Threads recombined. --mudelf

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: open mike
Date: 24 Sep 11 - 12:55 PM

Does anyone have experience or information about the Nazis co-opting German traditional music as part of their campaign ? I would also like any information on recent similar uses of folk music to promote political causes (not necessarily with the approval of the musicians)
I have heard that this is happening in Sweden, and I have heard of Irish bands that were hired to play at a Celtic festival only to find out it was a front for Nazi/White power group. this apparently has been happening in England as there is a resistance to this in the form of the Folk Against Fascism. I think this deserves its own thread, but was thinking about this as applies to German music.

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: Max Johnson
Date: 24 Sep 11 - 10:53 AM

It was 1976. I have a copy of their first album, which had just been released. One of the songs that we sang together was 'Die Moorsoldaten', a version of 'The Peat Bog Soldiers'.

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: Max Johnson
Date: 24 Sep 11 - 10:43 AM

Thanks so much for that post, Susanne. Yes, it was Leiderjan. Wow, they're still going? Respect! I think that festival was 1974 or 75. The two groups sang together all afternoon at the open-air Katzencafe in Bremen - we'd only gone in for a coffee after playing there the previous day, but the landlord kept bringing us free beer to keep us singing.

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: Joe Offer
Date: 23 Sep 11 - 10:43 PM

Thank you very much, Grishka. The 1920 edition that Grishka linked to, was published by Friedrich Hofmeister in Leipzig. My edition, 1948 or later, was published in Mainz by R. Schott's Söhne. I was surprised that the 1920 edition had a modern typeface - I expected it to be Fraktur. The books are identical to the beginning of the "Soldatenlieder" chapter on page 158. There are a few soldiers' songs missing, but not many. The newer book has 227 pages, and the 1920 edition has 238.

Can anybody give us information about Hans Breuer and the Wandervögel movement? Youth in the fatherless land tells quite a lot, but I'd like to know more. Oh - Music, power, and politics is also very interesting.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 23 Sep 11 - 08:18 PM

Max Johnson, it's Liederjan you are thinking of. The personnel may have changed a bit - Joerg is the only remaining founder member - but they're still going strong and one of the very few German folk groups making (sort of) a living from music.

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 23 Sep 11 - 03:56 PM

Here is the 1920 edition of Zupfgeigenhansl for complete free download.

Sing the songs that you like and find acceptable; sing them to please yourselves and your listeners. Historical justice is a different matter.

BTW, Michael, "Dudelsack" is a derivation of Turkish "Duduk" and its Balkanese variants; no irony involved. Never be rude to a bagpiper (to quote the Pythons).

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: Joe Offer
Date: 23 Sep 11 - 03:38 PM

Still looking for an online copy of an early edition of Der Zupfgeigenhansl. I have two more recent copies myself, but the original edition should be online and I'd like to compare.
Anybody know where this might be available?

-Joe-

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 21 Sep 11 - 10:06 PM

I just discovered these guys yesterday by coincidence..and listened to a youtube playlist today all day at work they were so good...

I truly believe that we who can and are interested should sing German songs..eliminating those of course that are truly and definitely Nazi songs..as in commissioned by them or sprung up with Nazi sentiments. But to liberate the songs that the Nazis took over and people won't sing because of that. And I do not equate Nazi with the ordinary soldier or airman either, and presume most people do not. And I think their spirits are calling out to us right now..I just figured this out recently...like my friend told me our Irish ancestors of the potato famine were calling out to us recently...I will always be haunted by photos and films of them being marched off to prison camps (as they did to others of course). This will for a long time be where the world gets sort of stuck on something..good people doing bad things..

But further I know that how we treat an enemy in defeat is very important..and has lessons for today..they must be allowed to keep their language, their songs,and they must be allowed to grieve for their dead, which I doubt they have been able to do sufficiently.

So, we sing their songs if we can and the world gets a little bit better. mg

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: michaelr
Date: 21 Sep 11 - 09:46 PM

"Zupfgeige" translates as "plucked fiddle", and was a colloquial term for the guitar. Compare "Dudelsack" for bagpipes.

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: Joe Offer
Date: 21 Sep 11 - 08:08 PM

Thanks for the correction, Wilfried. I corrected my post above. The accident of my misspelling led me to the YouTube videos of the singing group Zupfgeigenhansel, and I found a lot of good music through that mistake.

I also found my misplaced copies of Der Zupfgeigenhansl (approx 1948) and Der Neue Zupfgeigenhansl (1983).

I'm guessing the date of the earlier book, Edition Schott 3586. The book is undated, but the preface says, "more than forty years have passed since Hans Breuer and his Wandervögeln (wandering birds) published the first edition of Zupfgeigenhansl. This edition is essentially the same as the first edition, but with modern typeface instead of Fraktur. The preface says that soldier songs were omitted from this edition because of the demands of the times.

The 1983 Der Neue Zupfgeigenhansl is a nice mix of German, English-language, and other folk songs. It starts with Hannes Wader's "Heute Hier, Morgen Dort." It includes Dylan's "It Ain't Me, Babe," and also "Kum Ba Yah."

Since the first edition was published in 1908 (dated 1908, but published in time for Christmas of 1908), I would htink the original book is in the public domain. Is there an online copy of an early edition of the book?

-Joe-

By the way, what does "Zupfgeigenhansl" mean? - something like "little Hans who plays the violin?

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 21 Sep 11 - 01:02 PM

And here is the final link to the original link to the original Zupfgeigenhansl, a repro oft the prewar ed. by a modern publisher.

Warning: Searching the German amazon.de you'll only find the duo, not the songbook.


Sing and enjoy
W.

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 21 Sep 11 - 12:48 PM

Addition: The link to Zupfgeigenhansl leads to the "new" Zupfgeigenhansl, a modernized edition with a lot of older songs omitted and others more modern added.
The old and original edition can be obtained in the Zentralverzeichnis antiquarischer Buecher[Central Catalogue of Antiquarian Books]; hundreds available.

W.

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 21 Sep 11 - 07:22 AM

Objection, Joe! Methinks I have mentioned it some years ago, but I do it again:

Zupfgeigenhansl is the name of the songbook of the preWWI German youth movement.
Zupfgeigenhansel is the name adopted by a duo of the German folk scene.

Sing and enjoy
Wilfried

Mind the wee e!

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: Max Johnson
Date: 21 Sep 11 - 07:07 AM

I've also just remembered that at the Saddletree Folk Club in Ripon, Yorkshire, Les Pope used to sing 'Fahren gengen England' and everyone joined in with great enthusiasm.

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: Max Johnson
Date: 21 Sep 11 - 07:03 AM

I remember a group in the '70s, I think called 'Leiderjung' or something similar. They were very popular in West Germany, sold a lot of albums and did a lot of TV. Threadbare Consort met up with them several times to swap songs and sample a couple of the local beers when we were both at the Bremen Music Festival. The two songs that they taught us which I remember were a version of 'Sailing Home (vos uber meer)', and 'Hannes, was ein hat'.

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: Joe Offer
Date: 20 Sep 11 - 11:12 PM

Der Zupfgeigenhansel Der Zupfgeigenhansl has been mentioned here many times as perhaps the best-known German folk songbook. If you search for zupfgeigenhansl on YouTube, you will find recordings of many of the songs in the songbook.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 26 May 08 - 03:33 AM

"Anyway, let's open our minds a bit to the possibility that "folk" can contain all sorts of thinking, and it's not all warm and fuzzy --"

How right you are. I always considered anonymous soldiers' songs of all ages to be a group of the great family of folk songs, too.

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: GUEST,Susanne (skw) n the road
Date: 24 May 08 - 11:19 AM

Edmund, I can't think of anything rude or crude in Hannes' albums but I haven't got it with me just now. I owe you several CDs anyway (and now have the means to get to work on them), so I'll be in touch when I get home in early June.

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: robinia
Date: 18 May 08 - 12:32 AM

"far too trigger-happy for a folk song, glorifying war as such"?   I wasn't aware that folk songs weren't allowed to glorify war; quite a few of them (like "Twa recruiting sargeants") certainly glorify soldiering as a way of escaping social responsibility. ("Laddie if ye've got a sweetheart or a bairn, ye'll easy get rid of that ill spun yairn . ..)   And what about "Johnny I hardly knew you" ? Did that song only become a "folk song" as it became an anti-war song? (There was a thread on this a while back.)   Antway, let's open our minds a bit to the possibility that "folk" can contain all sorts of thinking, and it's not all warm and fuzzy --

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: CET
Date: 15 May 08 - 06:21 PM

I've just downloaded a Hannes Wader album, "Und es wechseln die zeiten" from iTunes. It comes with the warning "explicit". There isn't much danger of me being offended, since the dirty bits, if any, will go straight over my head, but I must say I'm a little surprised. The song titles don't exactly suggest unrestrained lust or obscenity. Is Hannes Wader known for singing especially rude words?

Edmund

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: CET
Date: 08 Sep 07 - 04:10 PM

I agree. The setting I heard it in was military, and it did not strike me as being offensive, but I wouldn't sing it elsewhere. In fact, I'm not likely to sing it at all, unless I happen to be marching with a similar group in the future.

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 08 Sep 07 - 02:32 PM

Edmund, I'd never heard of the song till you came up with it, and I very much doubt it would be sung in a non-military setting at all. It is far too trigger-happy for a folk song, glorifying war as such - a 'Nazi-era' song rather than a Nazi song, perhaps (I'm not convinced), but far too recognisably of its time to be sung elsewhere.

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: CET
Date: 07 Sep 07 - 06:33 PM

My ex-Bundeswehr friend used "gruener" to replace "Deutsche". I liked the song myself, and I understand enough German to figure out what it was about as soon as I heard it. For me it was a song about soldiering, which doesn't bother me at all. However, there's isn't much question which is the better song. Even with my limited German, I could appreciate the quality of Paul Rakow's lyrics. I would love to hear the tune.

I'm not sure that the infantry version doesn't qualify as a German folk song. It is certainly in German and has evidently taken its place in the folk process and is being spread in an informal manner from person to person, even if we know when and by whom it was composed. Of course, we may be dealing with different transatlantic concepts of what a folksong is.

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: Leadbelly
Date: 06 Sep 07 - 05:31 AM

Thanks, Stephen. Wish you the very best,

Manfred

Subject: RE: German folk music
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Sep 07 - 02:15 AM

Oh, I don't feel any urge to sing the infantry song. It still seems to me innocent of any Nazi content, and I would describe it as a Nazi-era song rather than a Nazi song. But that doesn't put it on my list of favorites. I like the concentration camp song better. The central image is of course millennia old (Psalm 54:6-8, for example); it still works as well as ever, as we see here.

Stephen