Jenaer Liederhandschrift

Last updated
Jenaer Liederhandschrift Jenaer liederhandschrift.jpg
Jenaer Liederhandschrift

The Jenaer Liederhandschrift (German, the "Jena song manuscript") is a 14th-century manuscript containing lyrics and melodies to songs in Middle High German. The majority of the lyrics belong to the genre of Spruchdichtung and, with 91 melodies, the manuscript is the single most important source for the music of this genre.

Contents

It is currently held in the Thuringian University and State Library  [ de ], Jena, with the shelf-mark Ms. El. f. 101. In Minnesang scholarship it is referred to as Manuscript J. A further fragment, consisting of a single sheet, is in the Study Library  [ de ] in Dillingen, Bavaria (XV Fragm. 19). [1]

Description

The manuscript comprises 133 (of an original 154) folios [2] and contains collections of lyrics by 31 named poets, along with an anonymous religious song (a Leich), and the text of the Wartburgkrieg ("The song-contest at the Wartburg"). [1]

The quality of the manuscript is exceptional:

The unusual size of the manuscript, 56 by 41 cm, the outstanding quality of the parchment, the careful, almost monumental execution of the penmanship in both text and music suggest an aristocratic patron who wished to own a song collection with melodies in a luxurious edition. [3]

Of the melodies, Bernoulli notes, "On the whole we cannot imagine a more clearly written example of a document using square notation." [4]

For these reasons, it seems likely that the manuscript was commissioned for display (or possibly as a gift) rather than for use in musical performance. [5]

History

The manuscript was compiled in about 1330 in Central Germany, possibly Thuringia for an unknown high-status patron, though it has been suggested it was for Frederick the Serious, Landgrave of Thuringia and Margrave of Meissen, or Rudolf I, Duke of Saxe-Wittenberg. [2] [6] By 1540 it was located in Wittenberg, where it was bound, and in 1549 was transferred as part of the Wittenberg Bibliotheca Electoralis ("Elector's library") to the Collegium Jenense in Jena, which later became the University of Jena. [6]

The Dillingen fragment is a single sheet, half of a folio that was removed from J (between the current folios 132 and 133) sometime before the latter was bound in 1541. It was used as a binding for a collection of religious tracts and was first discovered in 1917. [7]

The Poets

The manuscript contains songs by the following poets, who are mostly of Central German origin. [1] Numbers in parentheses indicate the number of melodies for each poet. [2]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Handschriftencensus.
  2. 1 2 3 Fallows.
  3. Holz 1901, p. I, quoting K. Müller. Original text: "aus der ungewöhnlichen grösse der handschrift, 56 zu 41 cm, aus der vortrefflichen beschaffenheit des pergaments, aus der sorgfältigen fast monumentalen ausführung der schrift in text und musiknoten lässt sich auf einen vornehmen auftraggeber schliessen, der eine liedersammlung mit melodien in prachtausgabe besitzen wollte."
  4. Bernoulli & Saran 1901, p. 153. Original text: "Im ganzen genommen können wir uns kein klarer geschriebenes dokument vorstellen, das die formen der nota quadrata ... benützt."
  5. Suerbaum 2017, p. 400.
  6. 1 2 ThULB 2017b.
  7. Haustein.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walther von der Vogelweide</span> German minstrel singer (c. 1170 – c. 1230)

Walther von der Vogelweide was a Minnesänger who composed and performed love-songs and political songs ("Sprüche") in Middle High German. Walther has been described as the greatest German lyrical poet before Goethe; his hundred or so love-songs are widely regarded as the pinnacle of Minnesang, the medieval German love lyric, and his innovations breathed new life into the tradition of courtly love. He was also the first political poet to write in German, with a considerable body of encomium, satire, invective, and moralising.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heldenbuch</span>

Heldenbücher is the conventional title under which a group of German manuscripts and prints of the 15th and 16th centuries has come down to us. Each Heldenbuch contains a collection of primarily epic poetry, typically including material from the Theodoric cycle, and the cycle of Hugdietrich, Wolfdietrich and Ortnit. The Heldenbuch texts are thus based on medieval German literature, but adapted to the tastes of the Renaissance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heinrich Frauenlob</span>

Heinrich Frauenlob, sometimes known as Henry of Meissen, was a Middle High German poet, a representative of both the Sangspruchdichtung and Minnesang genres. He was one of the most celebrated poets of the late medieval period, venerated and imitated well into the 15th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heinrich von Morungen</span> German Minnesinger from the 13th century

Heinrich von Morungen was a Minnesinger, whose 35 surviving Middle High German songs are dated on both literary and biographical grounds to around the period 1190–1200. Alongside Walter von der Vogelweide and Reinmar he is regarded as one of the most important Minnesänger: he was "the most colourful, passionate, tender and musical of the Minnesänger" and his work "marks a new and brilliantly effective stage in the development of the German lyric."

<i>Palästinalied</i> 13th century crusade song

The Palästinalied is a crusade song written in the early 13th century by Walther von der Vogelweide, the most celebrated lyric poet of Middle High German literature. It is one of the few songs by Walther for which a melody has survived.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vitslav III, Prince of Rügen</span> Prince of Rügen

Vitslav III (1265/8–1325), variously called Vislav, Vizlav, Wislaw, Wizlaw and Witslaw in English sources, was the last Slavic ruler of the Danish Principality of Rugia. He is often identified with the author of the Minnesinger Vitslav of the Jenaer Liederhandschrift.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spruchdichtung</span> Middle High German sung verse

Spruchdichtung or Sangspruchdichtung is the German term for a genre of Middle High German sung verse. An individual work in this genre is called a Spruch, literally a "saying", and may consist of one or more strophes.

<i>Virginal</i> (poem)

Virginal, also known as Dietrichs erste Ausfahrt, or Dietrich und seine Gesellen is an anonymous Middle High German poem about the legendary hero Dietrich von Bern, the counterpart of the historical Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great in Germanic heroic legend. It is one of the so-called fantastical (aventiurehaft) Dietrich poems, so called because it more closely resembles a courtly romance than a heroic epic. The poem was composed by 1300 at the latest, and may have been composed as early as the second quarter of the thirteenth century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernst Hilmar</span> Austrian librarian, editor, and musicologist (1938–2016)

Ernst Hilmar was an Austrian librarian, editor, and musicologist.

<i>Erec</i> (poem) Arthurian romance by Hartmann von Aue

Erec is a Middle High German poem written in rhyming couplets by Hartmann von Aue. It is thought to be the earliest of Hartmann's narrative works and dates from around 1185. An adaptation of Chrétien de Troyes' Erec et Enide, it is the first Arthurian Romance in German.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weingarten Manuscript</span>

The Weingarten Manuscript is a 14th-century illuminated manuscript containing a collection of Minnesang lyrics. It is currently in the Württembergische Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart, with the shelf-mark HB XIII 1. In Minnesang scholarship it is referred to as Manuscript B.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kleine Heidelberger Liederhandschrift</span>

The Kleine Heidelberger Liederhandschift is a collection of Middle High German Minnesang texts. In Minnesang scholarship it is referred to as MS. A. It is held by the Heidelberg University Library with the signature Cod.Pal.germ. 357.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ambraser Heldenbuch</span>

The Ambraser Heldenbuch is a 16th-century manuscript written in Early New High German, now held in the Austrian National Library. It contains a collection of 25 Middle High German courtly and heroic narratives along with some shorter works, all dating from the 12th and 13th centuries. For many of the texts it is the sole surviving source, which makes the manuscript highly significant for the history of German literature. The manuscript also attests to an enduring taste for the poetry of the MHG classical period among the upper classes.

Basilius Monner was a German jurist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ludwig Elster</span>

Ludwig Elster was a Prussian economist and university lecturer. He also worked, between 1897 and 1916, as a senior officer in the Prussian Ministry for Religion, Education and Medical affairs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zwätzen</span>

Zwätzen is a district of the city of Jena in Thuringia, Germany. As a settlement Zwätzen was first mentioned in 1182 and was under the rule of Louis the Pious at that time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heinrich Bone</span> German educator and hymnwriter

Heinrich Bone was a German educator and hymnwriter. He wrote a reader for German studies which was used for higher education in Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and Austria, until it was banned during the Kulturkampf. He published a hymnal, Cantate!, which was used by several Catholic dioceses and became a model for common hymnals. Some of his own hymns, including paraphrases of Latin hymns, are part of recent hymnals, both Catholic and Protestant, such as "Komm, Schöpfer Geist, kehr bei uns ein" as a paraphrase of the 9th-century hymn for Pentecost, Veni Creator Spiritus.

<i>Album amicorum</i>

The album amicorum was an early form of the poetry book, the autograph book and the modern friendship book. It emerged during the Reformation period, during which it was popular to collect autographs from noted reformers. In the 1700s, the trend of the friendship book was still mainly limited to the Protestant people, as opposed to the Catholics. These books were particularly popular with university students into the early decades of the 19th century. Noteworthy are the pre-printed pages of a friendship book from 1770 onwards, published as a loose-leaf collection by the bookbinder and pressman Johannes Carl Wiederhold (1743-1826) from Göttingen.

Carlferdinand Zech was a German musicologist, composer and choir conductor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University and State Library Darmstadt</span> German academic library (2004-)

The University and State Library Darmstadt supplies literature and information for members of the Technische Universität Darmstadt and the population of Darmstadt and southern Hesse. Purposes of the institution include education, research and teaching. As of 2021, the library has a stock of 4,756,277 publications with an annual circulation of 354,200; ULB has 220,000 visitors and employs a staff of 103.66 FTE. The ULB offers at three locations learning rooms and spaces for over 1000 people. As of 2023, the City Centre library opened 24 hours per day. Director is Thomas Stäcker. ULB Darmstadt is member of the Hessisches BibliotheksInformationssystem (hebis).

References