| Share page | Visit Us On FB |
|
|
||
|
The German composers followed the lead of Luther In the employment of the folk-song in the highest branches of compo�sition. Bach, for example, in his "St. Matthew Passion Music," made repeated use of the melody of a popular love song by Hassler. Its original title was "Mein G'muth ist mer verwirret" ("My Spirit is Distracted"), but no one feels any sense of unfitness or irrever�ence, when, after being enriched with noble counterpoint, it becomes "Oh, Sacred Head Now Wounded."
Beethoven did not enter so deeply into the spirit of the folk-song as other German composers; possibly his deafness prevented his intimate acquaintance with much of the unwritten song of Austria; yet, in his "Seventh Symphony," in the trio of the scherzo, we find an old folk-theme used and we shall see, a little later, that even foreign folk-songs were studied by him.
The actual creation of a folk-song can rarely be ascribed to a composer; there is a difficult simplicity in such a work that is often beyond the skill of the classicist. It is, therefore, exceptional when we find Weber, Mozart, and Mendelssohn producing songs which must be classed among the folk-music of Germany. In the case of Weber, it was the fervor of a great poet, a veritable Tyrtaeus, that lit the flame. It was the young Koerner, who died on the battlefield at twenty-two, who in the shadow of a premonition of his early death wrote the poem called the "Sword Song," picturing the wedding of the warrier and his weapon. On this theme Weber produced one of the most fiery folk-songs in existence. Mozart achieved the simple directness of the people's music in some parts of his "Magic Flute," and Mendelssohn caught up the spirit of the folk-song not only of Germany but of Scotland.
Germany's folk-music extends in many directions: it is senti�mental, as in "The Lorlei,"it is military, as in the "Sword Song," it is bacchanalian, as in "Wohlauf noch getrunken," but probably its wildest expression is reached in the student songs, whicli have been the delight of the universities for years and even centuries. Even these have not been denied entrance into the classical field, for Brahms has built his "Academic Overture" upon three of them, "Wir hat ten gebauet ein stattliches Haus," "Der Landesvater," and "Was kommt dort von der Hoh," the latter one of the most jovial songs of the entire repertory.
It would be unjust to leave the topic of German folk-song without paying tribute to Friedrich Silcher (who died as recently as i860), a man who brought forth more successful folk-songs than any othe* recognized composer.
JCIV |
||
|
|
||