Secular Folk Song

The multifarious forms of musical expression of the uncultured levels of Tyrolean society were long disregarded or even rejected by the educated population. It was not until around 1800, when Johann Gottfried Herder had defined the term folk song (Volkslied), published his own folk song collections (1774, 1778/79), and thus awakened interest in the Volkslied, that an awareness and appreciation of popular musical culture also arose in the Tyrol. As a result, the music came to be written down here too to ensure its preservation.
Only a few scattered references to folk music are therefore available from earlier times.[1] In 1610 Hippolyt Guarinoni reported on the music particular to the simple folk. He is partly disapproving, in keeping with his cultivated status as a doctor and an architect. His account mentions, for instance, that “female and male farmhands in the fields[...] working all summer long in the greatest heat or threshing in the barn or chopping wood in the forest or plowing are always singing and laughing as they do so” or that the cowherds in the towns and villages “blow the big curved cow’s horn.” In the Schwaz region a shepherd boy sang “one of his little shepherd’s songs with a pretty, high voice” by the Inn River, such that even his cows “forgot about the pasture and drink” because they “listened to him with an odd diligence and to my[Guarinoni’s] greatest wonder.” Boys in the streets used to sing indecent songs in those days, such as “[...] Da zog er ihr das Hembdle ab, o Jungfraw wolt ihrs thun [...]”(Then he took off her camisole, Oh miss, will you do it…). Screaming babies were calmed down again“with the simple-minded song, and often scandalous bawling and crooning of old women.” A “murderous and vicious abomination” is what Guarinoni thought of the “dancing pregnant women” in the land.[2]
The Ambraser Liederbuch, (Frankfurt am Main: SigmundFeyerabend 1582) named after the place where it was found, contains the texts (only) of secular songs, mostly love songs, as well as historical ones, not the least of which is “Innsbruck ich muß dich lassen” (Innsbruck, I must forsake thee; Nr. 188), to be sung partly in its “own way,” partly “in the tone” of the commonly known songs of the day.[3] Social polyphonic songs (Gesellschaftslied) and folk songs are also intermingled in the texts in the Jaufener Liederbuch, a manuscript miscellany dating from the first third of the 17th century that once belonged to the von Mornburg zu Jauffen family (the family seat is Castell Giovo near Lavis).[4]
Individuals occasionally assembled song collections for everyday use. On the other hand, the lawyer Johann Nepomuk Georg Strolz (1780-1835, born at Thurneck Castle near Straß in the Zillertal) first collected “Schnodahaggen, Unterinnthalische Volksliedchen,”with special emphasis on the Zillertal, out of ethnographic interest. He had them published in the second volume of Sammler für Geschichte und Statistik von Tirol (p. 69ff) in 1807.[5]
Josef von Sonnleithner (1766-1835), founding member of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna, initiated a collection of folk music in Austria in 1819. An order was issued via von Saurau, the Minister of the Interior in Vienna, to the imperial governor of the Tyrol, Ferdinand Count Bissingen, to have folk music in the Tyrol collected and written down. Thanks especially to the help of clerics and school teachers in the Tyrol, almost a hundred sacred and secular songs and dances each, from the southern and eastern Tyrolean Pustertal, the Bozen and Meran regions, and the Upper Inn Valley, could be handed in to Vienna. The Trentino submitted only a little, however, because the judges responsible for collecting there did not try hard enough. They found the folk music “insipid in meaning,” “boring in melody,” and, finally, “unworthy of having a place in any popular collection whatsoever.”[6]
In 1836 Bishop Bernhard Galura of Brixen, an outstanding connoisseur and promoter of music, initiated a systematic collection of all “hymns and melodies well liked by the people” in his bishopric. The counselor of the consistory Josef Alois Ladurner (1769-1851) of Brixen, also a talented pianist and composer and the brother of the pianist and pedagogue who was a great success in Paris, Ignaz Anton Ladurner (1766-1839), had to examine the song material sent in from the deaneries. However, the original plan of 1836 with the intention of compiling a Brixen hymnbook could not be realized until 1903 by the church musician Wunibald Briem from the Vorarlberg.[7]
Besides practicing his profession, Franz Friedrich Kohl (1851-1924), a curator at the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna, wrote down folk songs in his homeland Tyrol – he was from St Valentin auf der Haide in the Vinschgau – and published the results of his collecting activity in a book: Echte Tiroler Lieder (Genuine Tyrolean Songs; Vienna 1899). After three supplements in 1900, 1903 and 1907, the first volume of the second edition of Echte Tiroler Lieder was published in 1913 with the addition of polyphonic settings by the Upper Austrian composer Josef Reiter (1862-1939), thus making way for the cultivation of folk song. The second volume followed in 1915. Before that, Kohl had published Heitere Volksgesänge aus Tirol (Merry Folk Songs from the Tyrol; Vienna 1908) and Die Tiroler Bauernhochzeit (Tyrolean Peasant Wedding; Vienna 1908), which also included dances.[8]
Kohl’s comprehensive collection had been preceded by only a very few folk song collections: Leo von Seckendorff (1775-1809) published a “Tiroler Sennenlied” (Tyrolean Alpine Pasture Song) and a “Tiroler Wildschützenlied” (Tyrolean Poacher’s Song) in his collection Stimmen der Völker (Voices of the Nations) in 1808. Captain Franz Wolf (1779-1846) wrote down folk songs in Kufstein. The actor Paul Schonner (1777-1850), who came from Oberau, collected fifteen Tyroler Alpengesänge für eine Singstimme mit Begleitung des Pianoforte oder der Guitarreand had them published in Vienna by Anton Diabelli in 1830. This book contains not only songs included later in Kohl’s collection but also songs in the repertoires of Nationalsänger (national or popular singers). Number nine in this book, (“Tyrolerlied”: “Gott grüss dich Herr Kronprinz”) had been sung at the peasant theater of Wilten in 1823 in the presence of the Crown Prince Ferdinand. Two of Kohl’s contemporaries, the Innsbruck writer Rudolf Heinrich Greinz (1866-1942) and his uncle Josef August Kapferer (†1891), published Tiroler Schnaderhüpfeln (a lively, teasing, funny, impromptu song) in 1889 and Tiroler Volkslieder in 1893, both in Leipzig, though without melodies. The folklorist Ludwig Hörmann von Hörbach (1837-1924) also included folksongs in his detailed reports on the life of the people in the Tyrol. Leopold Pirkl (1867-1913) of Schwaz was very industrious at collecting in the environs of his home town.[9]
The Munich librarian August Hartmann (1846-1917) and the school inspector Hyancinth Abele (1823-1916) published folksy Christmas carols Volksthümliche Weihnachtslieder as the first volume of Volkslieder: In Bayern, Tirol und Land Salzburg gesammelt in Leipzig in 1884. What is so creditable about this collection, which also meets scholarly standards, is that the editors themselves traveled all over the countryside for seven years, had people sing to them, rooted out old song manuscripts, and transcribed the melodies and texts they found with the greatest care. The Tyrolean section is represented by melodies from the Lower Inn Valley complete with variants.[10]
In 1904 the imperial government in Vienna appointed an imperial commission (Reichsausschuss) for the collection of folk songs in the crown lands. Hence a working committee on the Tyrol and Vorarlberg headed by the Innsbruck University professor of German literature Josef Eduard Wackernell (1850-1920) was formed in the fall of 1905 to work on collecting folk material. Thus over 25,000 songs, Schnaderhüpfel, Jodler (yodels), dances, rhymes, and plays of the common people were collected until 1918 and deposited in the Tiroler Volksliedarchiv in Innsbruck.[11] A working committee for the Ladin folksong (Arbeitsausschuß für das ladinische Volkslied) set up in Innsbruck in 1906 started documenting the musical material in the valleys of the Dolomites.[12]
“A Tyrolean cannot live without songs, dancing and the hunt,” declares a travel guide for the Tyrol dating from 1840, and the “true” folk songs “about anything whatsoever” mean “a lot to the people.”[13] Up until the last decades of the 20th century, the people, particularly in the Lower Inn Valley and in the Zillertal, did have an extraordinarily vast repertoire of songs at their command. Religious songs for church and at home had been handed down partly to the present day.[14] Most of the Tyrolean folk songs were sung in connection with local customs, especially at Christmas time. Songs for door-to-door caroling while asking for gifts, songs about Mary and Joseph seeking accommodation, Marian songs, shepherds’ songs, lullabies and Epiphany songs (Klöpfel-, Herbergs-, Marien-, Hirten-, Krippen- and Dreikönigslieder) made the Christmas story movingly vivid.[15] A broad cross-section of these resources from the North, East and South Tyrol was reintroduced and revived at the “Tiroler Weihnachtssingen” concerts held at the Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum in Innsbruck from 1988 to 1993.[16]
Weddings and funerals in the Tyrol were accompanied by special songs. Children had song material of their own, such as for “Gregori-Singen” in the Vinschgau. Craftsmen’s and tradesmen’s songs became common property in the course of time. Among the songs not intended for special occasions were narrative songs as well as ballads and love songs. Songs referring to certain classes (Ständelieder) described the life of the peasants, farmers, hunters and poachers, mountain folk, wagoners and riflemen (Schützen) at home in the Tyrol. Teasing and joking songs and
Schnaderhüpfel testified to the fun-loving nature of the Tyroleans. More recent songs extol the life on mountain meadows and the world of the mountains. Yodels were used to send news and to regulate working procedures rhythmically. The yodel at mass (“Mettenjodler”), later the devotional yodel (“Andachtsjodler”), sounded in Sterzing during midnight service on Christmas Eve.[17]

Fussnoten

[1] Walter SENN, “Volkslieder in Tirol bis zum 17. Jahrhundert,” Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft 3 (1955), p. 181ff;
Walter SENN, “Musik in Tirol: Älteste Nachrichten - Heldenlieder - Minnesänger - Spielleute,” Erläuterungen zur Kulturkarte von Tirol: Historische Stätten und Kulturdenkmale, ed. Ernest Troger, Vienna [1967], p. 28f;
Karl HORAK, “Volkslied und Volksmusik,” Die tirolische Nation 1790-1820, exh. cat. Landesausstellung im Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck 1984, p. 145.
 
[2] Hippolyt GUARINONI, Die Grewel der Verwüstung Menschlichen Geschlechts, Ingolstadt 1610, p. 170, 517, 192f, 188, 1251;
Anton DÖRRER, “Guarinoni als Volksschriftsteller,” Hippolytus Guarinonius (1571-1654) (Schlern-Schriften 126), Innsbruck 1954, p. 143, 146.
 
[3] Joseph BERGMANN, “Einleitung,” Das Ambraser Liederbuch vom Jahre 1582, ed. Joseph Bergmann  (Bibliothek des Literarischen Vereins in Stuttgart 12), Stuttgart 1845, repr. Hildesheim 1962, p. VIIIff;
Walter SENN, “Volkslieder in Tirol bis zum 17. Jahrhundert,” Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft 3 (1955) p. 189;
 
[4] Max Freiherr von WALDBERG, “Das Jaufner Liederbuch,” Neue Heidelberger Jahrbücher 3 (1893) p. 261ff;
Walter SENN, “Volkslieder in Tirol bis zum 17. Jahrhundert,” Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft 3 (1955), p. 188f.
 
[5] Anton DÖRRER, “Johann Strolz (1780-1835), zum 150-Jahr-Gedenken seiner Mundart- und Volksliedarbeiten,” Jahrbuch des österreichischen Volksliedwerkes 6 (1957) p. 17, 21ff;
Walter DEUTSCH, “Schnodahüpfl und ländliche Walzer: Zur überlieferten Musik aus dem Zillertal im 19. Jahrhundert,” Tiroler Heimatblätter 52 (1977) p. 95;
Walter DEUTSCH, “‘Juhe, ich bin ein Biedermann ...’ Bemerkungen zu den Aufzeichnungen aus Tirol in der Sonnleithner-Sammlung 1819,” Das Fenster 19 (winter 1976/77) p. 1934;
Norbert WALLNER, “Volksgesang in Tirol,” Das Fenster 19 (winter 1976/77) p. 1941;
Karl HORAK, “Tirol als Volkslied- und Volksmusiklandschaft,” Jahrbuch des österreichischen Volksliedwerkes 16 (1967) p. 12;
Karl HORAK, “Volkslied und Volksmusik,” Die tirolische Nation 1790-1820, exh. cat. Landesausstellung im Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck 1984, p. 145f;
Leopold SCHMIDT, Volksgesang und Volkslied: Proben und Probleme, Berlin 1970, p. 27;
Franz EIBNER, “Die Sing- und Musizierpraxis nach dem Zeugnis von Johann Strolz und Franz Friedrich Kohl,” Beiträge zur Volksmusik in Tirol, ed. Walter Deutsch and Manfred Schneider, Innsbruck 1978, p. 23;
Karl HORAK, Instrumentale Volksmusik aus Tirol (Volksmusik in Tirol: Quellen, Dokumente und Studien 2), Innsbruck 1985, p. 33ff, 289;
Karl Magnus KLIER, “Zu der Volksliedsammlung von Ziska-Schottky 1819 in Bezug auf Tirol,” Das deutsche Volkslied 41 (1939) p. 73ff.
 
[6] Walter DEUTSCH, “‘Juhe, ich bin ein Biedermann ...’. Bemerkungen zu den Aufzeichnungen aus Tirol in der Sonnleithner-Sammlung 1819,” Das Fenster 19 (winter 1976/77) p. 1934ff;
Walter DEUTSCH and Gerlinde HOFER, Die Volksmusiksammlung der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien, part 1 (Schriften zur Volksmusik 2), Vienna 1969, p. 67ff; -
cf. Monika OEBELSBERGER, Die Musik in der Lehrerbildung Tirols von der Maria-Theresianischen Schulreform bis zum Reichsvolksschulgesetz (1774-1869) (Innsbrucker Hochschulschriften A/2, Anif/Salzburg 1999, p. 105ff. -
Norbert WALLNER, “Volksgesang in Tirol,” Das Fenster 19 (winter 1976/77) p. 1941;
Karl HORAK, “Tirol als Volkslied- und Volksmusiklandschaft,” Jahrbuch des österreichischen Volksliedwerkes 16 (1967) p. 12;
Karl HORAK, Instrumentale Volksmusik aus Tirol (Volksmusik in Tirol: Quellen, Dokumente und Studien 2), Innsbruck 1985, p. 35ff, 290f;
Anton DÖRRER, “Johann Strolz (1780-1835), zum 150-Jahr-Gedenken seiner Mundart- und Volksliedarbeiten,” Jahrbuch des österreichischen Volksliedwerkes 6 (1957) p. 17;
Antonio CARLINI, “Associazioni e attività musicale,” Ottocento musicale nel Trentino, ed. Antonio Carlini, Danilo Curti and Clemente Lunelli, Trento 1985, p. 87. -
Cf. Marcello SORCE KELLER, “I cori e la musica di tradizione orale nel Trentino,” Musica e società nella storia trentina, ed. Rosanna Dalmonte, Trento 1994, p. 515.
 
[7] Hildegard HERRMANN-SCHNEIDER, “Zur Musikaliensammlung im Domkapitelarchiv Brixen,” Der Schlern 75 (2001) p. 952.
 
[8] Richard WOLFRAM, “Franz Friedrich Kohl: Sein Leben und seine Bedeutung für das Volkslied in Tirol,” Beiträge zur Volksmusik in Tirol, ed. Walter Deutsch and Manfred Schneider, Innsbruck 1978, p. 11ff;
Alois BAURSCHAFTER, “Von der Musikalität im Burggrafenamt,” Meraner Jahrbuch 7 (1948) p. 50f;
Karl HORAK, “Tirol als Volkslied- und Volksmusiklandschaft,” Jahrbuch des österreichischen Volksliedwerkes 16 (1967) p. 12f;
Leopold SCHMIDT, Volksgesang und Volkslied: Proben und Probleme, Berlin 1970, p. 30f;
Rudolf SINWEL, “Die Hauptförderer des Tiroler Volksgesangs,” Tiroler Heimatblätter 6 (1928) p. 304;
For a reprint of Kohl’s song collection in 3 vols., see Franz Friedrich KOHL, Echte Tiroler Lieder, ed. Thomas Nußbaumer, Innsbruck, Vienna 1999.
 
[9] Richard WOLFRAM, “Franz Friedrich Kohl: Sein Leben und seine Bedeutung für das Volkslied in Tirol,” Beiträge zur Volksmusik in Tirol, ed. Walter Deutsch and Manfred Schneider, Innsbruck 1978, p. 16;
Leo Freiherr von SECKENDORFF, ed., Musenalmanach für das Jahr 1808, Regensburg [1808], p. 56f, 59ff;
Leopold SCHMIDT, Volksgesang und Volkslied: Proben und Probleme, Berlin 1970, p. 27;
Karl HORAK, “Tirol als Volkslied- und Volksmusiklandschaft,” Jahrbuch des österreichischen Volksliedwerkes 16 (1967) p. 12;
Norbert WALLNER, “Volksgesang in Tirol,” Das Fenster 19 (winter 1976/77) p. 1941;
Karl Magnus KLIER, “Von der Alttiroler Volksmusik,” Tiroler Heimatblätter 7 (1929) p. 105ff;
Hannelore STEIXNER-KELLER, Ludwig von Hörmann: Leben und Werk, PhD Innsbruck 1983, p. 65ff.
 
[10] Volksmusik in Bayern: Ausgewählte Quellen und Dokumente aus sechs Jahrhunderten, exh. cat. (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Ausstellungskataloge 32), Munich 1985, p. 125ff.
 
[11] Konrad FISCHNALER, Innsbrucker Chronik 3, Innsbruck 1930, p. 53;
Rudolf SINWEL, “Die Hauptförderer des Tiroler Volksgesangs,” Tiroler Heimatblätter 6 (1928) p. 303;
Karl HORAK, “Tirol als Volkslied- und Volksmusiklandschaft,” Jahrbuch des österreichischen Volksliedwerkes 16 (1967) p. 13;
Karl HORAK, “75 Jahre Tiroler Volksliedarchiv,” Tiroler Volkskultur 33 (1981) p. 44.
 
[12] Helga DORSCH-CRAFFONARA, “Ladinisches Liedgut im Gadertal,” Der Schlern 48 (1974) p. 302;
Helga CRAFFONARA, “Gestern und Heute im Volksgesang der Ladiner,” Beiträge zur musikalischen Volkskultur in Südtirol, ed. Walter Deutsch and Gerlinde Haid (Schriften zur Volksmusik 17), Vienna, etc. 1997, p. 253ff;
Helga DORSCH, “Die Volksliedsammlung von Theodor Gartner [(1843-1925)] - eine Dokumentation aus den Anfängen unseres Jahrhunderts: Volksmusik und Volkspoesie aus dem Gadertal,” Ladinia 22 (1998) p. 262ff.
 
[13] A. A. SCHMIDL, Handbuch für Reisende nach Tirol, Salzburg und Erzherzogthum Oesterreich, Stuttgart 1840, p. 31.
 
[14] Walter SENN, “Musik in Tirol: Älteste Nachrichten - Heldenlieder - Minnesänger - Spielleute,” Erläuterungen zur Kulturkarte von Tirol: Historische Stätten und Kulturdenkmale, ed. Ernest Troger, Vienna [1967], p. 29.
 
[15] Manfred SCHNEIDER, “Musik und Weihnacht in Tirol,” Ein Kind ist uns geboren, ein Sohn ist uns geschenkt: Weihnacht in der Tiroler Kunst, exh. cat. on the occasion of the XII. Weltkrippenkongress in Innsbruck in the Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck [1985], p. 50ff;
Manfred SCHNEIDER, Lieder für die Weihnachtszeit nach Tiroler Quellen (Corpus Musicae Popularis Austriacae 9), Vienna, etc. 1998.
 
[16] Idea, concept and design: Manfred Schneider. Music editions and CD recordings of all “Tiroler Weihnachtssingen” concerts are available (Innsbruck: Institut für Tiroler Musikforschung 1988-)
 
[17] Karl HORAK, “Tirol als Volkslied- und Volksmusiklandschaft,” Jahrbuch des österreichischen Volksliedwerkes 16 (1967) p. 20ff;
Karl HORAK, “Balladen aus Tirol,” Jahrbuch des österreichischen Volksliedwerkes 2 (1953) p. 59ff;
Leopold SCHMIDT, Volksgesang und Volkslied: Proben und Probleme, Berlin 1970, p. 240;
Walter SENN, “Musik in Tirol: Älteste Nachrichten - Heldenlieder - Minnesänger - Spielleute,” Erläuterungen zur Kulturkarte von Tirol: Historische Stätten und Kulturdenkmale, ed. Ernest Troger, Vienna [1967], p. 29;
Manfred SCHNEIDER, Jodler aus Tirol (Volksmusik in Tirol:Quellen, Dokumente und Studien 1), Innsbruck 1982, p. 54, 171.