Bavarian Hiasl (folk song)

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The song Bayerischer Hiasl is a narrative folk song about a poacher in Bavarian dialect with a historical core. A text with the beginning of the song in a typical variant, "I am the boarisch Hiasel, the field is mei land ...", and 8 stanzas with melody are in the unpublished collection of August Hartmann, dated around 1870/80. On this basis, a text with 9 stanzas (four-line folk song stanza with end rhymes in lines 2 and 4), which is popular today [1993], was designed.

Start of text and content of a variant

1. Am I the Boarisch Hiasl,
koa Jager has a guts, who obakeit
my pen and Gamsbart
from Hiatl!
[...]

(Verse 1: ... no hunter has the courage to tear the signs of my hunting pride, capercaillie feather and chamois beard, off my hat; Verse 2: the forest is my home, I shoot deer, stag and wild boar; Verse 3: me am the prince of the forests, my kingdom extends as far as the sky is blue; stanza 4: the game is free property; stanza 5: the farmers give me food and money; stanza 6: I protect their fields; stanza 7: none The hunter reaches me; stanza 8: the last hour is coming ...; stanza 9: the game will multiply [after my death], the farmers will call: go, Hiasl, get up! [Come again!] ) - Version of the folk music archive of the district of Upper Bavaria 1993 ( folk music archive of the district of Upper Bavaria ).

Historical background and song editing

Mathäus Klostermaier (see: Matthias Klostermayr ), born in 1736, tried as a poacher and rebel to help farmers against damage caused by game; In 1771 he was executed in Dillingen. A copper engraving, dated around 1771, shows how the Bavarian "Hiesel" was caught in Osterzell. A text “A little song to sing is no business of anyone else ...” with the 2nd stanza “I am the Bavarian Hirsel ...” is on an undated song pamphlet from Steyr in Upper Austria (printed by Menhardt [printed 1744-1772 ]) known with 16 stanzas.

In contrast to the folk ballad in the narrower sense, the song arrangement here is undramatic, without a change of scene and without the use of “epic formulas”; it is based on purely narrative stanzas without a ballad-like design. We are talking about a narrative folk song (in the broader sense). The text does not want to be a fiction, but a factual report (even if subjectively from the poacher's mouth).

“The life of Mathäus Klostermaier has been extolled by folk song singers. His desire for freedom and the plight of the farmers, whose fields were devastated by game, are undisputed. The sympathy of the peasants and common people for the "lawbreaker" and rebels against the rule was known. Mathäus Klostermaier, commonly known as Boarisch Hiasl, was born on September 3, 1736 in Kissing, house number 30. He was executed in Dillingen on September 6, 1771 ”(Folk Music Archives and Folk Music Maintenance of the District of Upper Bavaria, 2009). - The song is very popular in today's folk music cultivation in Upper Bavaria.

Literature (selection)

  • Viktor Zack, Viktor von Geramb: The songs from the Boarian Hiasl in German Austria. In: Bayerische Hefte für Volkskunde 6 (1919), pp. 1–34 (illustrations, texts and melodies; melody concordance).
  • Hans Schelle: The Bavarian Hiasl. Life picture of a folk hero . Rosenheimer Verlag, Rosenheim 1991, ISBN 3-475-52701-4 .
  • Otto Holzapfel : The great German folk ballad book . Artemis & Winkler, Düsseldorf 2000, ISBN 3-538-06840-2 , p. 23 f.
  • Otto Holzapfel: List of songs . Two volumes with CD-ROM. Olms, Hildesheim 2006, ISBN 3-487-13100-5 (entry to "I am there boarisch Hiasl ...") = Otto Holzapfel : Song directory: The older German-language popular song tradition . Online version since January 2018 on the homepage of the Folk Music Archive of the District of Upper Bavaria (in PDF format; further updates planned), see song file “I bin da boarisch Hiasl ...”; see. Lexicon file "Bayerischer Hiasl".

Web links