Solothurn song

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Solothurn song is a home song of the city of Solothurn and is considered the unofficial city anthem. The Swiss German text was written in the 1910s by Carl Robert Enzmann on a melody by Thomas Haynes Bayly .

Origin and Distribution

The priest Carl Robert Enzmann (1888–1931) , who came from Schüpfheim in the canton of Lucerne , worked from 1913 to 1922 as the cathedral chaplain at the St. Ursus Cathedral in Solothurn. He wrote the lyrics for the Solothurn Carnival in the 1910s . Enzmann himself stated in a later reminiscence that the Solothurn song was composed “in 1915 or 1916”, other authors date it to 1914.

According to Enzmann, the Solothurn town music "Konkordia" held a "public carnival performance" under the title Long, long ago . She got the motto from a popular, originally English song ("Long, Long Ago") by the composer Thomas Haynes Bayly , the melody of which was often heard during Carnival. Enzmann felt stimulated by this to write a new text for the melody. In his memorial text he describes how he sat with the cathedral music director in the parsonage while the song could be heard from the nearby hotel "Krone" and the verses "rhymed"; "The old English Biedermeier must forgive us for some rhythmic changes in the melody". Enzmann later added another stanza to the song. A piano accompaniment comes from the composer Casimir Meister .

The song quickly became known in the Solothurn clubs. Enzmann initially did not have it printed, but gave it to his students to copy: “That was a psychological trick. In this way they learned the text by heart. What you can easily read and cut out of the newspaper will stay in your wallet, but it won't get into your head, it won't stick ”. In this way, according to Enzmann, the song got into families and was soon sung at the events of the Solothurn brotherhoods . Over time, it was also heard on the radio, interpreted by Alois Bamert, Walter Loosli and - especially during the Second World War - by the soldier singer Hanns In der Gand .

content

The song has eight stanzas. Apart from the first and the last, they are shaped by satire and irony according to their carnival origin and target the city of Solothurn and the peculiarities of its residents. The topics dealt with include, for example, the noise of the garbage trucks on the cobblestones (“E Any chlyne Ghüderwage makes a murder alarm”) and the pigeons that litter the facade of St. Ursus Cathedral. The basic theme - the people of Solothurn as an «own Völkli», which remains attached to its traditions - is accentuated by the refrain «'s isch immer e so gsi» (High German: «s was always so»). The eighth stanza, added later by Enzmann, in which feelings of homesickness of emigrated Solothurn residents come up ("And schrecklig het ne's Heimweh plogt nom Stedtli lieb und chli"), was characterized by him as "perhaps too lyrical".

The first stanza with a high German translation reads:

It lit es Stedtli beautifully on the blue Aare beach,
It's always so gsi, it's always so gsi.
The Sant Urseturm wyt use over the country,
it's always, it's always e so gsi!
Much love alti Chlöster het's and Gibel, tower and gate,
there is a lot of people in it, full of humor and full of humor,
si Lybspruch isch: Where it goes good, I'm au derby,
It's always, it's always e so gsi!
It is a beautiful town on the blue Aare beach.
It was always like this, it was always like this.
The St. Ursenturm looks far over the country.
It was always like this, it was always like this!
It has many dear old monasteries and gables, towers and gates.
It has its own little people, full of spirit and full of humor,
His motto is: Wherever it's cozy, I'm there too.
It was always like this, it was always like this!

See also

Web links

Wikisource: Solothurner Lied  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Erwin Bruderer: The Solothurn song and its history . In: Lueg nit verby. Solothurn home calendar . 54th year 1979, p. 62 .
  2. ↑ Erwin Bruderer: The Solothurn song and its history . In: Lueg nit verby. Solothurn home calendar . 54th year 1979, p. 62-63 .
  3. ^ A b c d Carl Robert Enzmann: How the Solothurner Liedli came about . In: Solothurner Anzeiger . No. 129 , June 6, 1956.
  4. ↑ Hans Brunner (ed.): Carl Robert Enzmann, Solothurn (=  Solothurn classic ). Knapp, Olten 2011, ISBN 978-3-905848-41-0 , pp. 6-7 .
  5. ↑ a b c d Erwin Bruderer: The Solothurn song and its history . In: Lueg nit verby. Solothurn home calendar . 54th year 1979, p. 65 .