gyri gyri gaga - Naxos Music Library

with musicians together in cheerful company,
and with each voice allocated its own popular
song. Although compositions of this type were
already known in earlier centuries, the idea was
first used in a song collection printed in 1544.
At this date, the publisher Wolfgang Schmeltzl
was a schoolmaster in the Viennese Schottenstift,
but had the collection entitled Guter, seltzamer,
und künstreicher Gesang (Good, curious and
artistic Songs) printed in Nuremberg. In this can
be found our recorded Quodlibet by Mathias
Greiter (c. 1494-1550), which assembles four
melodies in four voices: „Ach Elslein“, but also
„Es taget vor dem Walde“ (Day breaks before the
wood) and „Greiner, Zanker“ (Whiner, Squabbler)
were popular songs at the time. Greiter makes
use of this demanding compositional technique
adopting a trick, for although the bass leads
with the text „Greiner, Zanker“, this is a freely
composed part, which does not follow the melody
associated with the text. Besides the Quodlibet as
we understand it today Schmeltzl indicated with
this concept pieces which are known today as
catalogue songs. An example is the satirical song
Von Narren (of fools), which lists in an almost
endless sequence every conceivable variation
of a fool in a malicious declamation. The song
collection also gives, with Das erst Fewr bewaren
(Hietz Feur!) (The first fire protection - Watch the
fire!) by Leonhardt Päminger (1495-1567), an
important living glimpse into the urban sound
picture of early modern times, with the call of the
nightwatchman embodied in a song. The triadic
nature of the melody reminds us of the sound of
a signal horn, which the nightwatchman carries to
support his cry and to raise the alarm in case of
fire in the town.
A particularly large repertoire of songs was printed
for the doctor and composer Georg Forster. He
himself had received a musical education in the
Heidelberg court chapel, and he had settled down
in Nuremberg after studies in various German
towns. From 1539 to 1556 he published altogether
five books of songs, which were repeatedly
reprinted, each time with a specific arrangement
as to the contents. In the second book, which
appeared in Nuremberg in 1540, and was entitled
Der andre Theil, kurtzweiliger guter frischer
teutscher Liedlein, zu singen vast lustig (Another
part of entertaining good new German Ditties, to
be sung very cheerfully), there are collected all the
drinking and feasting songs to do with the Feast of
Saint Martin (11 th November), for which a goose
is traditionally served. At the same time, there is a
series of satirical songs with erotic allusions, like
Es hett ein Biederman ein Weib (An honest man
had a wife) by Senfl, and the anonymous Tritt
auf den Riegel von der Tür (Tread open the bolt),
which both tell about unfaithful wives. A popular
description of an amorous adventure by partners
of different status is the „grasen“, which is used
in Isaac‘s Es wollt ein Mägdlein grasen gan (A
maiden wanted to go to the grass). In the same
book can also be found Ist keiner hie, der spricht
zu mir? (Is there no one here who will speak to
me?), in which onomatopoeic syllables and the
repetition of short sections depict the sweaty and
happy atmosphere of the inn, and Der Pfarrer
von St. Veit (The Vicar of St Veit), in which he is
accused of a liaison with his beautiful cook. But
also a harmless dance-like folk song such as Drei
Laub auf einer Linden (Three leaves on a lime-tree)
by Johann Leonhard of Langenau (1515-1534)
could delight the purchaser of this songbook.
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