Kein Frewd ohn dich
Alemannic love songs of the 16th century
In the early 16th century, students and music lovers in European university towns exchanged manuscripts containing music for their own use, as they considered musical practice essential to cultural education, leisure and social life. The international musical repertoire contained in these manuscripts bears witness to an important cross-border transmission: they include Franco-Flemish and Italian songs, as well as numerous Tenorlieder, the German polyphonic songs that were very popular in humanist circles in the Upper Rhine. This music has its origins in the monophonic traditions of Minnesang: an existing melody is surrounded by three contrapuntal voices. The texts, generally anonymous, often speak of human feelings, in widely varying tones: there are refined poems such as "Kein Frewd ohn dich", which speaks of nostalgia and fidelity, the tender "Ach frowlin zart", but also crude language in "Es gieng guot tröscher über land". In most cases, the lyrical "I" and the subject of his love remain anonymous. There are a few exceptions, such as "Ach Elslein, liebes Elslein mein, wie gern wär ich bei dir!". Although we don't know who is behind this dedication, the catchy melody was rearranged by many composers during the Renaissance.
The two main sources from which we draw the music for this program are preserved in German-speaking Switzerland. The first is a chansonnier by the jurist and musician Bonifacius Amerbach (1495-1562), which contains many songs by composers living in Alsace or at the court of Duke Ulrich of Württemberg. Among them are ten songs by the Alsatian Paul Wüst, head of the Latin school in Kaysersberg. Mathias Greiter and Wolfgang Dachstein (organists from Strasbourg), Sixt Dietrich (living in Breisach, Freiburg and Strasbourg) and Ludwig Senfl, a composer from Basel, are also represented. The texts are in Alemannic dialects, and the manuscript is said to have been copied in the Upper Rhine and bound in Basel around 1518. Bonifacius was a great art collector: the family cabinet contained paintings attributed to Lucas Cranach, Urs Graf, Hans Baldung, Albrecht Dürer and Hans Holbein, who painted the portrait of young Amerbach in 1519.
The second source is the chansonnier by Johannes Heer of Glarus (1493-1553), an important testimony to 16th-century bourgeois musical culture in France and Switzerland. This erudite clergyman began copying his musical collection while studying in Paris in 1510. Now kept at St. Gall Abbey, this book would have circulated between Heer and his friends, and the music is surrounded by small texts (maxims, proverbs and Bible passages) notated by different hands.
The two main sources from which we draw the music for this program are preserved in German-speaking Switzerland. The first is a chansonnier by the jurist and musician Bonifacius Amerbach (1495-1562), which contains many songs by composers living in Alsace or at the court of Duke Ulrich of Württemberg. Among them are ten songs by the Alsatian Paul Wüst, head of the Latin school in Kaysersberg. Mathias Greiter and Wolfgang Dachstein (organists from Strasbourg), Sixt Dietrich (living in Breisach, Freiburg and Strasbourg) and Ludwig Senfl, a composer from Basel, are also represented. The texts are in Alemannic dialects, and the manuscript is said to have been copied in the Upper Rhine and bound in Basel around 1518. Bonifacius was a great art collector: the family cabinet contained paintings attributed to Lucas Cranach, Urs Graf, Hans Baldung, Albrecht Dürer and Hans Holbein, who painted the portrait of young Amerbach in 1519.
The second source is the chansonnier by Johannes Heer of Glarus (1493-1553), an important testimony to 16th-century bourgeois musical culture in France and Switzerland. This erudite clergyman began copying his musical collection while studying in Paris in 1510. Now kept at St. Gall Abbey, this book would have circulated between Heer and his friends, and the music is surrounded by small texts (maxims, proverbs and Bible passages) notated by different hands.