At the window
There's a song by the City group on the window . It was composed by City in 1974 and released on record in 1977. The arranger was Georgi Gogow , the text is by Hildegard Maria Rauchfuß . The song is considered a classic of GDR rock music .
history
In 1974 City members Georgi Gogow and Klaus Selmke experimented with Bulgarian folk music , Gogow playing the violin that the West German uncle Selmkes had donated to the band. The singer at the time Emil Bogdanow brought the volume of poems Try it with the little love by the Leipzig writer Hildegard Maria Rauchfuß, published in 1970 , which contained her poem Am Fenster . The composition was written and the song Am Fenster was played at concerts. The GDR record company Amiga initially refused to record the song for a single because it was almost seven minutes longer than usual, the violin was considered inappropriate, the refrain was missing and the text was also inappropriate. In 1975 Bogdanov fled to Sweden because he was to be drafted for military service in Bulgaria.
The group's new singer was Toni Krahl , who rehearsed the song. During a test recording in 1976, however, Krahl forgot the text of the third stanza and therefore repeated the second. This recording was passed on to presenters of the Beatkiste and Notenbude radio programs who played it. The version became so popular that it was selected for a single release. This appeared in two versions in 1977: At Amiga with the B-side Mein old Freund and in the same year in the Federal Republic of Germany with the B-side Traudl with Telefunken . 100,000 copies of the Amiga single were sold, there were a total of four reprints. The title was often played several times in one evening in discos. Due to the success of Am Fenster , City was allowed to perform in West Germany from now on. In 1978, Am Fenster was released as a maxi single with the B-side from Aus der Ferne on the record label Pool.
Thanks to the initiative of the West German music publisher and producer Peter Schimmelpfennig, who supported Amiga with 25,000 DM, Am Fenster appeared on a long-playing record for the first time in 1978 . On the Amiga LP Am Fenster the song can be heard in a 17 minutes and 40 seconds long version, which consists of the three parts Dream , Day Dream and Am Fenster . The first two parts were composed by Georgi Gogow, the third part now lasts around ten minutes. The same LP was released in West Germany and Greece under the name City I in the same year. On the English language city LP Dreamer and Dreamland , released in 1980, the song was represented as a window with a length of 7 minutes and 33 seconds. A shorter version is 4 minutes and 3 seconds long.
In Greece, too, Am Fenster was exceptionally successful, apparently thanks to Greek guest workers or tourists who made the song known in Greece. City won a gold record there in 1978 or 1981 as the third foreign group ever . In the Greek-influenced part of Cyprus , the song was used every six hours as background music for a radio station's cultural news.
In 1987, Am Fenster was released in West Germany together with Hiroshima by the Puhdys on a single by Teldec . In 1997, the City Best Of album Am Fenster - The Platinum Album - was released there. In total, more than ten million records with the song were sold.
In the films The Indoor Fountain and The Tower , Am Fenster is used as film music.
description
At the time of recording, City consisted of the musicians Toni Krahl (vocals), Georgi Gogow (violin and electric bass), Fritz Puppel (guitar) and Klaus Selmke (drums).
At the window, the version on the single lasts 6 minutes and 56 seconds. The song is composed in G minor and the single version only has the guitar chords in G minor and F major .
The LP version of Am Fenster contains two parts before the actual song. Traum begins with the softly played solo of an acoustic guitar , which merges into ostinate chord progressions that last until the end of Traum . The violin joins this after about a minute, giving an idea of the melody of the actual song. The piece gets louder and the violin part appears distorted. Finally two or more violin voices can be heard. After 4 minutes and 40 seconds there is an abrupt termination.
This is followed by a sound collage of alarm clock ticking, bells ringing, steps, the opening of a blind and a window, cutlery that is placed on dishes, a single guitar tone, underlaid with the play of bells. The acoustic guitar begins carefully, as in a rehearsal, the bells are also played hesitantly. You can hear street noise in the background, like at an open window. A voice hums softly and apparently uncertainly the melody of Am Fenster. Later the melody is whistled briefly and the guitar plays the notes of the final chord from top to bottom. Meanwhile, the ticking of the alarm clock can still be heard.
Immediately afterwards, the violin and a keyboard-like sounding electric guitar kick in powerfully with the actual song. At first the ticking of the alarm clock can still be heard. A little later the drums also play, impulsively but quietly and largely based on the even beating of the bass drum . Finally the singer begins expressively, with a slightly hoarse voice, the first two stanzas, each with four lines. Then he sings sequences of syllables, for example consisting of “na” and “nei”. The syllable chant gets louder until violin, guitar and drums take over again. The drums also set accents. The violin is now played pizzicato at times . It is later canceled and played with numerous, partly electronic effects. When returning to the topic , the volume is high. Only after about six minutes does the singer start with the third verse. This is followed by more syllable singing and an interplay of acoustic guitar and violin. The electric guitar plays the ostinato again here . Again the violin plays with electronic effects and then returns to the subject with the electric guitar. The singer repeats the third stanza and the syllable chant, but this time louder. It ends a second above the fundamental . The violin still plays a few bars solo before the three instruments suddenly set the final chord. The violin plays a fifth above the keynote.
The text, characterized by deep melancholy and lyrical encoding, is about a person on the inside of a window who longs for lasting, deeply feeling love instead of intoxicating experiences. He complains about the difficult aspects of his life.
Versions of other musicians
- In 1994 an English version of the song by The Dostoyevskys was released as a single.
- The song was also released in a techno version by Scooter in 2001 .
- In 2003 it was processed by the Puhdys in a medley together with other well-known GDR rock songs and published on their album Undercover .
- In 2003 the song by Martin Kesici appeared on the album Em Kay.
- In 2007 the song by Capitulation BoNn was released
- In 2007 a Greek-language version of the band Nomisma appeared on the album Filika with the title Oneira.
- In 2013 the song by Matthias Reim was released on his album Infinite .
- In 2017, eleven new cover versions were released on the 40th anniversary of the first publication, including by Uschi Brüning and Manfred Maurenbrecher .
Placements
- 1977: 2nd place in the GDR's annual hit parade
- Radio Fritz (listener survey): Most popular pop song of the 20th century
- 2005: ZDF , Our Best - Hits of the Century (audience survey): 13th place
- 2019: Radio Eins , 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall - The 100 best songs from the East (Jury): 1st place
Awards
- 1978: Gold record in Greece (according to other information 1981)
- 1987: Gold record in the Federal Republic of Germany for the LP City with Am Fenster (according to other information 1979)
Outputs (without compilations)
Singles
- 1977: At the window ( Amiga )
- 1977: At the window ( Telefunken )
- 1978: At the window (EPIC, Greece)
- 1987: At the window ( Teldec )
Albums
- 1978: Am Fenster (with dream and daydream ) on Am Fenster (Amiga)
- 1978: At the window (with dream and daydream ) on City I (Telefunken)
- 1978: At the window (with dream and daydream ) on City I (EPIC)
- 1980: Window on Dreamer (Amiga)
- 1981: Window on Dreamland (Teldec pool)
- 1981: Window on Dreamland (EPIC)
Others
- City played in concerts over 5000 hours at the window (as of 2011).
- The 2002 City album Am Fenster 2 does not contain the piece Am Fenster , but the first song is called Flieg 'ich durch die Welt, like the final line of Am Fenster.
literature
- Thomas Otto: City - At the window. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-89602-123-0 .
- 5000 hours at the window . In: Die Welt , April 6, 2002
Web links
- Notes from Am Fenster , arranged by Rolf Hurdeldey (excerpts from books.google.de)
- Lyrics of the single version ( Memento from November 19, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- Report. In: Super Illu
Individual evidence
- ↑ City - "At the window". ndr.de from January 19, 2018, accessed on September 8, 2019
- ↑ 40 years “At the Window”. superillu.de from December 29, 2017, accessed on September 8, 2019
- ↑ Portrait ( memento from March 21, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) at ostmusik.de (archive version), accessed on April 12, 2014
- ^ Press report ( memento of October 20, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) at ostmusik.de (archive version), accessed on April 18, 2014
- ^ Bernd Lindner: GDR Rock & Pop. Komet, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-89836-715-8 .
- ↑ Toni Krahl . Chronicle of the turning point ; Retrieved July 25, 2011
- ↑ Christian Hentschel : You forgot the color film and other Ostrock stories. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-317-9 , p. 177
- ↑ Report at superillu.de (archive version)
- ↑ site of surrender Bonn ( Memento of 14 September 2012 at the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Stefan Maelck: City's cult song turns 40: That's why “Am Fenster” became a classic. mdr (archive version)
- ↑ Götz Hintze: Rock Lexicon of the GDR. 2nd Edition. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-303-9 , p. 322.
- ↑ a b 5000 hours 'Am Fenster' , accessed on July 26, 2011
- ↑ 30 Years of the Fall of the Wall - The 100 Best Eastern Songs , accessed on July 14, 2019