The mouth organ

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The mouth organ is a well-known travel songbook in Germany . It is available as a text and sheet music edition. The mouth organ is published by Mundorgel-Verlag, whose sole shareholder is the CVJM -Kreisverband Köln e. V. is.

Emergence

In 1951, at a summer camp of the Evangelical Young Men’s Association , Cologne District Association , the idea of putting together a handy songbook for tent camp work was born. The four Cologne youth group leaders and students Dieter Corbach (1925–1994), Ulrich Iseke, Hans-Günther Toetemeyer and Peter Wieners created the first edition of the mouth organ, which was first published in 1953. They wanted to ensure that the young people did not stop singing together after the first stanza due to insecurity of the text. It was supposed to be a small songbook in the practical shirt pocket size, which was also so inexpensive that wear and tear due to frequent use was not an obstacle to daily use. The low price was due to the fact that only free music was printed, although this terminology was not yet present at the time. At the same time, there are no copyright fees for the performance of the songs. This property became more and more important with the almost absent but then increasing prosecution of GEMA violations.

However, the YMCA initially rejected the manuscript by the four authors, as the association did not agree to compile the songs. But the authors stuck to their idea. Songs for Bible study should be represented as well as songs for singing around the campfire . The quartet of authors then decided to have the first 500 copies of the “Songbook for Travel and Camp” printed at their own expense, which posed a financial risk for the students at the time. The first copies were intended by the authors for their Cologne circle and the tent camp in Altburg an der Nister in the Westerwald . The YMCA finally gave in and took over the project. The title mouth organ , a literal translation of the English term mouth organ (" harmonica "), was also chosen in honor of the then YMCA district chairman Horst Mundt. The work advanced to become the popular textbook for music lessons in elementary and elementary schools, which contributed significantly to its success. The sales proceeds from the mouth organ go to the YMCA; the four editors receive a share of 0.2 percent. The price for the text edition was 50 pfennigs in the first few years; today it is 3.50 euros and 9.50 euros for sheet music (as of April 2020).

distribution

The book was first published in green - to match the green shirt of the YMCA -, later in purple and finally as a sheet music edition with a red cover. Part of the content are Christian songs because the mouth organ was intended for Christian youth groups from the start. However, the main part of the content is made up of popular folk songs , critical songs and canons .

The selection of songs has changed significantly over time. So initially some things ended up in the mouth organ, which had been taken over by the Hitler Youth (HJ) during the time of National Socialism . Such songs fell out of the revisions as well as texts that spoke of " negroes " or " gypsies " or that came across as overly militaristic . In 1964, in addition to the usual text edition, the first sheet music edition with guitar fingerings appeared .

The song book has now been sold around 14 million times. The text edition accounts for around 11 million copies and the sheet music edition accounts for 3 million. At the end of the 1970s, ten million young people already had the little red book. In the 1980s, the classic saw a decline in circulation. The songbook was last presented in an expanded revision in 2001.

The songs in the music output of the mouth organ are all provided with the notes of the melody part . Above the notes are the chord names for playing the guitar or harmony instruments . On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the first edition in 2013, the text edition was also published in large print in December 2012. A year later it was also published as an “XXL large print” (almost A4 format).

literature

  • Dieter Corbach et al. (Ed.): The mouth organ . Text output. Mundorgel-verlag, Waldbröl 2001, ISBN 3-87571-043-6 .
  • Dieter Corbach et al. (Ed.): The mouth organ . Note edition. Mundorgel-Verlag, Waldbröl 2001, ISBN 3-87571-044-4 .
  • Dieter Corbach et al. (Ed.): The mouth organ . Text output large print. mundorgel-verlag, Waldbröl 2012, ISBN 3-87571-047-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Folk songs archive
  2. ↑ 50 years of the mouth organ , accessed on August 8, 2019