Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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I
I
;
belonged to the second half of the 18th century,
and was really an operatic composer. It was
indeed the songs in his Singspiele which took so
strong a hold of the public, and a favourite tune
of his, ' Die Jagd,' will serve as a specimen of
his work :
J. A. HlLLBR,
Cominodetto.
I itf fcEli
^t^. ^a=it:
Als Ich aiif melne
Da kam aus dein Geg^;gE^.^^gE^E^-E_^
^Pfe^^^pl^
r
i^ ^F^B H
-I
aprach,acIih8,bter-baT-men,8tehtmeinemVa- terlKil
SONG 603
Dort
eyr'ngns^E^^f^FFifgEE
^^^^^g pgfe p ff
Bchla^ ein Fall dem Aimen daa linke Beln ent-zwel ! i
^^jg^g^^^ggEEJ
I
Another, Ohne ' Lieb und ohne Weib, ' taken
from his Singspiel 'Der Teufel ist los,' and
still sung in Germany with much zest, was one
of the first Kunstlieder to be received into the
ranks of the Volkslieder. J. Andr(5, the author
of the 'Rheinweinlied,' and J. A. P. Schulz,
were contemporaries of Hiller's, and did much
for the volkathiimliches Lied. Schulz was careful
above others of his time to select poetic
words for his music, and so long as he kept to
the simpler forms, he was always successful
many of his songs are still the delight of German
children. Composers were now provided
with a store of fi-esh and natural poems of a
popular type by the poets of the Gottingen
school, to whom later the names of Kiirner,
Brentano, Arnim, and Uhland ' may be added
and the love of poetry and song steadily increased
in the German nation.
Starting from Hiller and Schulz, the volksthiimliches
Lied pursued two different roads.
Its composers in the Hiller school, such as F.
Kauer, Wenzel Muller, and Himmel were shallow
and imperfectly cultivated musicians, whose
sentimental melodies had for a time a certain
superficial and undeserved repute, such as
^ Kfimer's patriotic poems and the publiciitloD of 'DesKnaben
Wimderhom ' acted tifi powetlul incentives to song.
Himmel'a 'An Alexis send' ich dich,' or 'Vater,
ich rufe dich.' The dramatic composers Winter
and Weigl may be reckoned among this school,
in so far as they were song-writers ; and its
tendencies reappeared nearer our own day in
Reissiger and Abt. On the other hand, Schulz's
followers were real musicians ; and if they became
too stilf and formal it was the outcome of a strict
regard to form and symmetry, and of a praiseworthy
contempt for false sentiment. Whenever
they chose the volksthiimliches Lied they
proved their mastery of it ; but most of them
could write at will in more than one style, and
their names must therefore be mentioned in
more than one class of song. The first and best
of Schulz's school was Mendelssohn's favourite
J. F. Reiohardt, but his most valuable services
to the Song were given on other ground, as will
appear later. Next to him came Kjinzen, A.
Weber, and Nageli. Zelter, Klein, L. Berger,
and F. Schneider are entitled by their songs for
male chorus to be counted among the followers
of Schulz. The operatic songs of 0. Kreutzer and
H. Marschner, and the simple melodious songs
by C. Krebs, F. Eiicken, Siloher, Gersbach, and
Gustav Reichardt have proved themselves to be
truly volksthumlich by their firm hold on the
hearts of the people.
In the many collections of so-called Volkslieder,
beginning with the South German Blumenlese
' (1782) and the North German ' Mild-
'
heimisches Liederbuch ' (1799), down to those
which are continually issuing from the musical
press of to-day, there will be found numerous
volksthiimliche Lieder converted into Volkslieder.
Some of these are by celebrated authors
whose fame was won in other fields,^ and some
by men who wrote nothing but volksthiimliche
Lieder. Ofmany songs the authorship is wholly
unknown, and of others it is disputed.' Worthy
2 The BlvmanUte, edited by H. P. Boealer, contains Beethoven's
'
earliest song, SchUdentng eines Miidchens,' composed when he was
eleven. A very good and typical example of the volksthiimliches
Lied mayhere beadded. It is taken fiom his Sketch-book of 1815 and
1816 (cited by Nottebohm in the J/us. WochenbUat, TSov. 1878).
Ex. 10.
Die ZufriedeTbheii.
Beethoven.
pSiH^liyiiii^i
Was frag' ich viel nach Geld und Gut.wenn ich zufrie - den
b#^:E^E^^Eife£^=E
hin f Giebt Gott mlr niir ge sun - dea Blut.so
JE^^^g^ggj-g-g^gg-^g
bin ich fro her Sinn, und slug aus dankbaremGemilth,
meinMorgen- und mein Abendlied.
The words of the song are by J, MUller. It has been set also by
Mozart and Neefe.
3 Bohme, in hiswoTk entitled Vollcsthiimliche Lieder dcr DeuUchen
im IS. und 19. Jo/irAundcrt, has done much to rectift' current errors
2e