| "Schnitzelbank" | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Nursery rhyme | |
| Published | By 1900 in U.S. |
| Songwriter(s) | Unknown |
The "Schnitzelbank" is a simple song, popular primarily with German Americans.
| "Schnitzelbank" | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Nursery rhyme | |
| Published | By 1900 in U.S. |
| Songwriter(s) | Unknown |
The "Schnitzelbank" is a simple song, popular primarily with German Americans.
Schnitzelbank literally means "scrap bench" or "chip bench" (from Schnitzel "scraps / clips / cuttings (from carving)" or the colloquial verb schnitzeln "to make scraps" or "to carve" and Bank "bench"); like the Bank, it is feminine and takes the article "die". It is a woodworking tool used in Germany prior to the industrial revolution. It was in regular use in colonial New England, and in the Appalachian region until early in the 20th century; it is still in use by specialist artisans today. In American English, it is known as a shaving horse. It uses the mechanical advantage of a foot-operated lever to securely clamp the object to be carved. The shaving horse is used in combination with the drawknife or spokeshave to cut down green or seasoned wood, to accomplish jobs such as handling an ax; creating wooden rakes, hay forks, walking sticks, etc. The shaving horse was used by various trades, from farmer to basketmaker and wheelwright.
A Schnitzelbank is also a short rhyming verse or song with humorous content, often but not always sung with instrumental accompaniment. Each verse in a Schnitzelbank introduces a topic and ends with a comedic twist. This meaning of the word is mainly used in Switzerland and southwestern Germany; it is masculine and takes the article "der". It is a main element of the Fasnacht celebrations in the city of Basel, where it is also written Schnitzelbangg. Schnitzelbänke (pl.) are also sung at weddings and other festivities by the Schnitzelbänkler, a single person or small group. Often the Schnitzelbänkler will display posters called Helgen during some verses that depict the topic but do not give away the joke. [1]
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A German-language ditty for children "The Schnitzelbank Song" is popular among German Americans with an interest in learning or teaching German to their offspring. It is often sung by adults for entertainment and nostalgia. Versions were published in the United States at least as early as 1900. [2]
The responsive lyrical structure of the verse and refrain are referenced in Moritz Reymond's 1877 book Das neue Laienbrevier des Haeckelismus, which uses German folk and student songs to burlesque ideas regarding organic evolution. [3] Some of the lyrical ideas and phrases are also included (albeit in a different form) in Volume 9 of Karl Simrock's 13-volume 1856 collection of German stories and poems titled Die deutschen Volksbücher. Within this volume, the lyrics are included in a book titled Das deutsche Kinderbuch (The German Children's Book), which may have originally been published in 1848. The text includes many ideas common to the modern song, including "kurz und lang" ("short and long"), "hin und her" ("back and forth"), "krumm und grad" ("bent and straight"), and the "ei du schöne Schnitzelbank" refrain. [4]
Groucho Marx was performing it in Vaudeville by 1910. [5]
In the 1932 film Downstairs , set on a baronial estate in Austria, nefarious chauffeur Karl (John Gilbert) sings the song with butler Albert ( Paul Lukas ) and Albert's beautiful new young wife, Anna (Virginia Bruce), at dinner, trying to ingratiate himself with them.
The Big Bad Wolf sings a version of the song to his offspring in the 1936 Walt Disney Silly Symphony cartoon Three Little Wolves .
Cary Grant, Joan Bennett, and Gene Lockhart sing a version of the song in the film Wedding Present (1936). Later, Joan Bennett's character uses the tune to the song to mock Cary Grant's character for his hypocritical behavior after being promoted.
William Frawley performs an English version of this song in the 1942 World War II propaganda musical The Yankee Doodler. [6]
Another version is included in Billy Wilder's 1953 film Stalag 17 . American POWs sing it during a volleyball game to distract guards from spotting a contraband radio antenna hidden in the net.
In 1957, Bill Haley & His Comets recorded a rock and roll version called "Rockin' Rollin' Schnitzelbank" for their album Rockin' Around the World .
Bing Crosby included the song in a medley on his album 101 Gang Songs (1961).
In 1994, Steven Spielberg's cartoon show Animaniacs featured a segment using a version of the song, with heavily modified lyrics. In the sketch, Yakko, Wakko, and Dot travel to Germany to learn the song (referred to as the "International Friendship Song" in the show) from Professor Otto von Schnitzelpusskrankengescheitmeyer, a one-shot character voiced by Jim Cummings.
Comedian Mel Blanc recorded a novelty Christmas song in the 1950s, "Yah Das Ist Ein Christmas Tree", which borrows the tune and concept. This was itself parodied by singer/comedian Joel Kopischke in 2005 as "Stupid Christmas Song".
Die schöne Müllerin, is a song cycle by Franz Schubert from 1823 based on 20 poems by Wilhelm Müller. It is the first of Schubert's two seminal cycles , and a pinnacle of Lied repertoire.
"Jingle Bells" is one of the most commonly sung Christmas songs in the world. It was written in 1850 by James Lord Pierpont at Simpson Tavern in Medford, Massachusetts. It was published under the title "The One Horse Open Sleigh" in September 1857. It has been claimed that it was originally written to be sung by a Sunday school choir for Thanksgiving, or as a drinking song. Although it has no original connection to Christmas, it became associated with winter and Christmas music in the 1860s and 1870s, and it was featured in a variety of parlor song and college anthologies in the 1880s. It was first recorded in 1889 on an Edison cylinder; this recording, believed to be the first Christmas record, is lost, but an 1898 recording - also from Edison Records - survives.
"De Brevitate Vitae", more commonly known as "Gaudeamus igitur" or just "Gaudeamus", is a popular academic commercium song in many European countries, mainly sung or performed at university graduation ceremonies. Despite its use as a formal graduation hymn, it is a jocular, light-hearted composition that pokes fun at university life. The song is thought to originate in a Latin manuscript from 1287. It is in the tradition of carpe diem with its exhortations to enjoy life. It was known as a beer-drinking song in many early universities and is the official song of many schools, colleges, universities, institutions, student societies and is the official anthem of the International University Sports Federation.
"Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" is an English Christmas carol that first appeared in 1739 in the collection Hymns and Sacred Poems. The carol, based on Luke 2:14, tells of an angelic chorus singing praises to God. As it is known in the modern era, it features lyrical contributions from Charles Wesley and George Whitefield, two of the founding ministers of Methodism, with music adapted from "Vaterland, in deinen Gauen" of Felix Mendelssohn's cantata Festgesang.
"O Tannenbaum", known in English as "O Christmas Tree", is a German Christmas song. Based on a traditional folk song that was unrelated to the holiday, it became associated with the traditional Christmas tree.
"Ich bin ein Musikante" is a German cumulative folksong, first published in 1838. It has been loosely translated into many languages, including two English translations: "I Am a Fine Musician" (1949) popularised by The Dick Van Dyke Show, and "The Music Man" (1951), which has become a well known song in England.
"O mein Papa" is a nostalgic German song, originally as related by a young woman remembering her beloved, once-famous clown father. It was written by Swiss composer Paul Burkhard in 1939 for the musical Der schwarze Hecht, reproduced in 1950 as Das Feuerwerk to a libretto by Erik Charell, Jürg Amstein, and Robert Gilbert. In 1954 that musical was turned into the film Fireworks with Lilli Palmer.
"Polly Wolly Doodle" is a traditional American children's song. It was sung by Dan Emmett's Virginia Minstrels, who premiered at New York's Bowery Amphitheatre in February 1843, and is often credited to Emmett (1815–1904).
Johann Sebastian Bach's Magnificat, BWV 243, is a musical setting of the biblical canticle Magnificat. It is scored for five vocal parts, and a Baroque orchestra including trumpets and timpani. It is the first major liturgical composition on a Latin text by Bach.
The Sängerkrieg, also known as the Wartburgkrieg, was a contest among minstrels (Minnesänger) at the Wartburg, a castle in Thuringia, Germany, in 1207.
Liebesgeschichte der schönen Magelone und des Grafen Peter von Provence is an eighteen-section German narrative in alternating prose and verse, with prose and one poem per section, by Ludwig Tieck.
"Backe, backe Kuchen" is a German-language children's rhyme. It originated in Saxony and Thuringia with several textual versions from 1840.
"Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her" is a hymn text relating to the Nativity of Jesus, written by Martin Luther in 1534. The hymn is most often sung to the melody, Zahn No. 346, which first appeared in a 1539 songbook and was probably also composed by Luther. This classic Christmas carol remains popular and has inspired many choral and organ works by other composers.
The Magnificat in E-flat major, BWV 243a, also BWV 243.1, by Johann Sebastian Bach is a musical setting of the Latin text of the Magnificat, Mary's canticle from the Gospel of Luke. It was composed in 1723 and is in twelve movements, scored for five vocal parts and a Baroque orchestra of trumpets, timpani, oboes, strings and basso continuo including bassoon. Bach revised the work some ten years later, transposing it from E-flat major to D major, and creating the version mostly performed today, BWV 243.
Abendlied, Op. 69/3, is a sacred motet by Josef Rheinberger for a six-part mixed choir (SSATTB). It has been regarded as his best-known sacred composition. He wrote the first version in 1855 at the age of 15.
"This joyful Eastertide" is an 1894 Easter carol. The words are by George Ratcliffe Woodward, the tune is from the Netherlands (1624), and the 1894 harmonisation is by Charles Wood.
"Sei uns willkommen, Herre Christ" is the earliest surviving Christmas hymn in the German language. It originated as a leise and its melody is first recorded as a fragment in the Liuthar Gospels at Aachen Cathedral Treasury, probably dating to the 14th century. The earliest complete surviving version is in a manuscript from Erfurt dating to 1394. August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben saw the hymn as originating in the 11th century and in 1861 reconstructed a translation from the Erfurt version back into Old High German.
"Ermuntre dich, mein schwacher Geist" is a German Christmas carol with lyrics by Johann Rist and a melody by Johann Schop, first published in 1641. Historically it was contained in Protestant hymnals, but the current one, Evangelisches Gesangbuch, uses only three of its stanzas, the ninth, the second and the twelfth, titled "Brich an, du schönes Morgenlicht". This stanza was used by Johann Sebastian Bach as a chorale in Part II of his 1734 Christmas Oratorio.
"Das Wandern ist des Müllers Lust" is the first line of a poem by Wilhelm Müller, written in 1821 with the title "Wanderschaft" as part of a collection, Die schöne Müllerin. While wandern is defined as "hiking" today, it referred to the required journeyman years of craftsmen when written, in this case of a miller.
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