AG song

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The AG Song - Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Liedermacherinnen und Liedermacher was a non-commercial association of songwriters mainly from the Federal Republic of Germany and West Berlin , which was founded on April 15, 1974 and was active until 1994 .

founding

After two founding meetings at Waldeck Castle (9/10 September and 17/18 November 1973) and an organizational preliminary meeting (2/3 March 1974), the first songwriters' meeting took place from April 13 to 15, 1974 AG Song instead. It is not regarded as part of the Working Group Burg Waldeck conducted festivals , but as a forum for the exchange of artists among themselves. Waldeck Castle in the Hunsrück has been considered the “cradle of songwriters” since the series of events entitled Chanson and Folklore International .

structure

From a legal point of view, AG Song was an unregistered association that temporarily represented around 1,400 songwriters. Of these, over a hundred appeared several times at the national federal meetings. A coordination committee, which was determined at the meetings by secret and written ballot, took the lead.

The business, especially the negotiations with cultural offices, initiatives and youth centers to organize and finance the meetings, was usually done by the Frankfurt journalist Stephan Rögner . Otherwise, active members in the respective cities (such as the psychologist Stephan Prager in Bonn in 1976 or Oliver Bolten and Ralf Huwendiek in Aachen in 1980 ) took the initiative and organized national meetings.

History and members

In addition to Rögner, the first coordination committee consisted of eight people, including Diether Dehm , Holger Münzer and Tom Kannmacher . The committee elected at the working meeting in Essen on February 26, 1977, which also included Bernhard Lassahn and Karl Adamek , consisted of six people. At the meeting on February 27, 1977 regional representatives for Bavaria , Berlin, Hesse and southern Germany were designated, Bernhard Lassahn as speaker and Gudrun Schäfer as interest representative for street music . The election of June 10, 1982 resulted in a twelve-member committee, including Anni Becker , Uschi Flacke , Nikolaus Gatter and Janko Jezovšek . At the same time, it was decided to levy a voluntary annual contribution of DM 30.

In addition to the nationwide activities of the Song AG, there were also autonomous associations of songwriters at the local level who defined themselves as part of the Song AG. For example, Peter Kühn and Jo Mateiko founded a group of songwriters in Viernheim , the music publisher Bernhard Tuchel in Hamburg an AG Song HH , the Swabian SPD politician Werner Grunert an AG Song Böblingen e. V.

Other active artists and authors who belonged to the working group in the 1970s and 1980s are, for example, Frank Baier , Michael Bauer , Thommie Bayer , Konrad Becker , Peter Bursch , Johannes Christ , Martin Degenhardt , Thomas Felder , Günter Gall , Helga Goetze , Gisbert Haefs , Reinhard Hippen , Eckard Holler , Burkhard Ihme , Fasia Jansen , Daniel Kempin , Jan Koneffke , Inge Latz , Holger Paetz , Kalle Pohl , Reno Rebscher , Bernd Regenauer , Margaretha Rosar , Thomas Rothschild , Trautlind Klara Schärr , Ralph Schicha , Tom Schroeder , Rolf Schwendter , Horst-Steffen Sommer , Dieter Süverkrüp , Friedrich Vahle , Eva Vargas , Lothar von Versen and Thomas Vogel ; in the 1990s Reinhold Andert , Stefan Körbel and Jens-Paul Wollenberg .

activities

The main concern of AG Song was the professionalization of the songwriters with further training offers, the possibility of a so-called “insider introduction” (among colleagues with subsequent criticism) and short appearances in front of an audience. Well-known colleagues were won over as lecturers for workshops and also served as the draft horses for the concert performances. At a nationwide working meeting in Bonn in January 1976, Christof Stählin , Walter Moßmann , Dietrich Kittner , Roland Zoss , Hanns Dieter Hüsch and Hein & Oss Kröher performed alongside lesser-known songwriters in the Kulturforum Bonn-Center.

The working group itself could not act as an organizer at its meetings. Rather, it was about promoting and collecting young talent, enabling the exchange of views, creating a card index of songwriters and musicians as well as an archive and empirically researching the effectiveness of songs. The (non-rewarded) performances, which took place as concert evenings, on street stages, in old people's homes, youth prisons and schools, followed by discussions with the audience, nevertheless played an important role in society.

The AG Song had a great influence in the early years of the Nuremberg Bardentreffen . The working group was involved in the organization and was able to offer workshops at the first (6th to 8th August 1976) and second festival (5th to 7th August 1977). However, the AG Song did not prevail against the city of Nuremberg by demanding performance fees for the songwriters. The organizers' selective invitation practice also gave rise to an open letter from around 20 participants at the federal meeting in Wiesbaden in 1981 .

Cooperation with institutions made it possible to set priorities. In the spring of 1979, at the meeting in Adelsheim, there were performances by songwriters and workshops with juveniles who had committed criminal offenses were held in the prison there.

The self-image of AG Song, which in documentaries always defined itself as a “circle of friends” (“no association, no concert agency, no permanent festival committee”), was repeatedly problematized. Repeated requests were made - for example in 1977 by Werner Worschech - to address the legal form and institutionalize the circle. Some wanted to register the AG Song as an association, others to incorporate the Socialist Youth of Germany "Die Falken" , the IG Medien or the Kulturpolitische Gesellschaft . However, the majority of the participants were not willing to raise binding fees and to consolidate the work through a fixed legal form because they feared a loss of spontaneity.

The visible successes of the AG Song through the personal contacts at the working meetings during this time included the formation of groups of musicians and songwriters and the mutual support in the search for performance opportunities and in the publication of sound carriers. At the regional level, interdisciplinary associations were formed. The importance attached to the Song group was also documented by the fact that participants from South Africa, South America, Austria and German-speaking Switzerland felt connected to the group.

As the organizer (especially because of the GEMA fees), the organizers sought out the city's youth or cultural offices for the working meetings that they wanted to hold; they would provide conference rooms, stages and overnight accommodation and, if possible, subsidize the printing costs of the documentation. The association work itself remained voluntary and was not rewarded.

The question of whether performances by up-and-coming songwriters (Stephan Rögner: "Everyone should have the opportunity to embarrass themselves at AG Song") was also debated on the same level as those of professional colleagues, whether prominent artists were invited and whether they were crowd pullers the reimbursement of travel expenses should be rewarded.

The last public activity of the AG Song was in May 1994 a federal meeting at Altena Castle in the Sauerland , which was mainly financed by WDR television , which made a film about the AG Song.

Nationwide and supraregional working meetings

  • Waldeck Castle (first working meeting), April 13-15, 1974
  • Offenbach am Main , 14./15. September 1974
  • Frankfurt am Main, 18./19. January 1975
  • Mainz , September 19-21, 1975
  • Bonn, January 30 to February 1, 1976
  • Marburg , June 18-20, 1976
  • Offenbach am Main, July 31 to August 1, 1976
  • Essen , January 25-27, 1977
  • Adelsheim, March 16-18, 1979
  • Frankfurt am Main, October 19-21, 1979
  • Aachen, May 16-18, 1980
  • Wiesbaden, May 28 to 31, 1981
  • Unna , June 9-13, 1982
  • Essen, June 21 to 24, 1984
  • Böblingen, September 19-22, 1985
  • Hattersheim am Main , June 17-19, 1988
  • Altena Castle, May 12-15, 1994

Regional working meetings and sector meetings

  • Emstal , children's songwriter meeting, 28./29. September 1974
  • Kirchheim unter Teck , December 8, 1974
  • Tubingen , March 2, 1975
  • Viernheim , March 25, 1975
  • Frankfurt am Main, founding meeting of the authors, May 8, 1975
  • Heidelberg , May 31, 1975
  • Concert in the KOMM at the Nuremberg Bardentreffen, August 6th to 8th, 1976
  • Trippstadt , September 10-12 , 1976
  • Meeting of the coordination committee in Mainz, May 29, 1977
  • Workshops at the Nuremberg Bardentreffen, August 5-7, 1977
  • Trippstadt / Kaiserslautern, 1st / 2nd October 1977
  • Workshops at the Nuremberg Bardentreffen, August 4-6, 1978
  • Trippstadt / Kaiserslautern, 9./10. September 1978
  • Working meeting in Offenbach am Main, November 14-16, 1981
  • Benefit concert in Offenbach am Main, January 30, 1981
  • Workshop weekend in Greven near Münster, October 30 to November 1, 1981
  • Cologne , 30./31. October 1982
  • Workshop weekend in Greven near Münster, March 11-13, 1983
  • Workshop weekend in Greven near Münster, September 16-18, 1983
  • Workshop weekend in Greven near Münster, September 23-25, 1983

Documentaries by AG Song

  • AGS. A workbook for the working group of songwriters. With documentation by the AG Song, contributions to the scene, information, song lyrics. Obernburg 1976
  • How will it go on? 11th nationwide meeting of songwriters. Documentation attempt, Obernburg 1977
  • Songwriter in Adelsheim. 20th nationwide meeting from March 6th to 18th, 1979. A documentation, Frankfurt am Main 1979
  • Songwriter between censorship and starvation. Working meeting of German songwriters in Frankfurt am Main. Documentation with panel discussion. Frankfurt am Main 1979
  • Federal meeting of German songwriters in Aachen. Aachen 1980
  • AG Song meeting in Wiesbaden. May 28 to 31, 1981. Frankfurt am Main 1981
  • AG Song HH. Songwriters. Sheet music publisher Bernhard Tuchel. Norderstedt 1983
  • Working meeting of the AG Song in Unna, June 9th to 13th, 1982. A documentation. Frankfurt am Main 1983
  • AG song documentation. Working meeting of AG Song 1984 in Essen. Frankfurt am Main 1984

Movie

  • German songwriters at Altena Castle. Documentary, WDR television, 1994

literature

  • Philipp Schmidt-Raehsa: On the development of songwriting (web resource) .
  • Michael Kleff: On the history of the songwriters. Lecture at the Liedermacher & Co. Congress, The Tradition and Current Issues of German Songpoets , Evangelical Academy Tutzing, January 13-15, 2006 (web resource) .