The bird wedding

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The bird wedding , picture postcard by Alois Broch

The song Die Vogelhochzeit is one of the most famous German folk songs . It is about the marriage of a male thrush to a female blackbird .

Lore history

The text of the bird wedding is already handed down in the Wienhausen songbook , the time of which is dated to around 1470. A "flying sheet" printed in Nuremberg around 1530 and another print, presumably made in Basel in 1613, testify to the spread of the song in the early modern period. From the beginning of the 17th century until the 19th century, the song was spread on various melodies . The melody common today was recorded in Silesia in the area of Bunzlau and Haynau in the first half of the 19th century .

In his collection published in 1778 (which is now known as Voices of the Nations in Songs ) Johann Gottfried Herder reproduces the " Wendish mocking song" The Merry Wedding , which Goethe took over literally in his 1789 singspiel Die Fischerin .

melody

\ relative c '' {\ autoBeamOff \ key g \ major \ time 2/4 \ partial 8 b8 | dbdb | caca | bgd 'b | a [d] d d16 b | g8 gg d'16 b | a8 a a8 d16 c | b8 ga f sharp | g4 r8 \ bar "|." } \ addlyrics {A bird wanted to have a wedding in the green forest. Fi - di - ral - la - la, fi - di - ral - la - la, fi - di - ral - la - la - la - la. }

To the text

The lyrics of the song may contradict the biological system , in which the blackbird is part of the thrush family . It can be assumed, however, that "thrush" in this song means a bird, the "thrush" as part of its name, e.g. B. "mocking thrush", "song thrush", "mistletoe thrush" etc. carries. Of course, only the song thrush comes into question here. Nothing stands in the way of a wedding between blackbird and thrush. However, it remains questionable who is the "thrush" that leads the bride into the closet. According to the current opinion, it is likely to be the younger brother of the bride. The short stanzas describe the behavior of the wedding guests, each of whom belongs to a different species of bird. The wedding night following the festivities is also indicated in some versions of the text.

In their simplicity, the form and content of the song invite you to form new stanzas yourself. The unorthodox understanding of the art of rhyme, which can be found in all versions of the traditional text, also contributes to this: so that they rhyme with "musicians", the "ducks", for example, are called "anten" in dialect . Typical for such new creations among children, which are relatively widespread in different regions, is often a crude, slightly vulgar language. New creations like the owl, the owl, she's got a bump on her ass. belong to the more harmless variants.

The text:

A bird wanted to marry
in the green forest.
  Refrain:
Fidirallala, fidirallala,
fidirallalalala.

The thrush was the bridegroom,
the blackbird was the bride.

The sparrowhawk, the sparrowhawk, he
was the wedding suitor.

The starling, the starling,
braided the bride's hair.

The geese and the Anten, they
were the musicians.

The sparrow that cooks the wedding
meal consumes the most beautiful bites of all.

The eagle owl, the eagle owl,
brings the bride's wedding shoes.

The cuckoo is screaming, the cuckoo is screaming,
he brings the bride's wedding dress.

The waxwing, the waxwing,
brought the bride the wedding wreath.

The sparrow, the sparrow,
brings the wedding ring to the bride.

The dove, the dove, she
brings the bonnet to the bride.

The hoopoe, the hoopoe, he'll
bring the bride a flowerpot.

The lark, the lark,
that leads the bride to the kerche.

Mother of the bride was the owl, said
goodbye with howling.

The wood grouse, the wood grouse, he
was the proud chaplain.

The tit, the tit,
she sings the Kyrie eleise.

The turkeys, the turkeys,
they made broad cuts.

The peacock with its colorful tail
does the first dance with the bride.

The snipe, the snipe,
puts the bowls on the table.

The finches, the finches,
gave the bride a drink.

The long woodpecker, the long woodpecker,
prepares the bride's bed.

The thrush, the thrush,
that leads the bride into the little room.

The eagle owl that closes
the shutters.

The rooster that crows: "Good night",
now the chamber is closed.

The bird wedding is now over,
the birds are all flying home.

The owl blows out the lights
and everyone goes home happily.

Edits

Various composers have used the folk song as the starting material for arrangements: Dieter Wellmann , Helge Schneider u. a. Wellmann, for example, wrote 24 “Choir Variations for Mixed Choir in Music-Historical Style Sequence” - à la Buxtehude , Bach , Mozart , Beethoven , Silcher , Schubert , Johann Strauss , Brahms , Wagner , Distler , Orff , Schönberg and others. a. - composed.

A Singspiel by singer Rolf Zuckowski, written in 1977 and premiered on television in 1990, has the same title as the folk song .

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : The Bird Wedding  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ludwig Erk , Franz Magnus Böhme (Ed.): Deutscher Liederhort . 1st volume. Breitkopf and Härtel, Leipzig 1893, pp. 510-517 ( digitized version ).
  2. ^ August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben , Ernst Heinrich Leopold Richter : Silesian folk songs with melodies. Collected from the mouth of the people. Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig 1842, p. 72 f. ( Digitized versionhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3D~GB%3D~IA%3Dbub_gb_XGE4AQAAIAAJ~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3Dn83~ double-sided%3Dja~LT%3D~PUR%3D ).
  3. ↑ All information on the transmission history according to Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann : Das Buch der Kinderlieder , Atlantis-Schott, Mainz 1997, ISBN 3-254-08370-9 , p. 102 f.
  4. ^ Hugo Suolahti: The German bird names. A verbal study. Strasbourg 1909, pp. 51-68.
  5. ^ Hugo Suolahti, p. 72.