Down in the green meadow

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Down in the green Au ("The pear tree") is a German-language folk song that has been handed down since the 19th century in various text and melody variants from different regions of the German-speaking area.

history

The roots of the song probably go back to the 16th century: an enumerated song with the stanzas “branch, twig, nest, egg, bird, feather” is documented around 1580 by a repositioning by Johann Fischart . A version corresponding to today's song was first recorded by Christian Hohnbaum in the Stuttgart area and printed in Johann Gustav Gottlieb Büsching's Weekly News in 1816 . Ludwig Erk and Wilhelm Irmer print a version from the Frankfurt am Main area1843. From around 1850 the song has been handed down from various regions of Germany, for example from Hesse-Darmstadt, Franconia, Württemberg, Brandenburg and Saxony, but also from Kuhländchen , Luxembourg and Lithuania. In the 19th century it was one of the most widely printed European joke songs. A version in Bavarian dialect with the text Drunt in da greana Au has been handed down since at least 1905. In the Munich area it is said that the song is about a pear tree in the Au district . The folk song researcher Karl Liebleitner (1858–1942) recorded the song in Austria. In the 1930s the folklorist Johannes Künzig recorded the song in Reschitza in the Romanian Banat . The song was also popular as a children's song in the GDR.

text

In terms of form, the song is a swell song , a special form of the counting story in which the refrain "swells" by placing the content of the current stanza in front of the complete previous chorus. As is usual with songs of this genre, the growing chorus part is sung on a constant, repeated note.

There are different high German and dialect variants of the text. Many versions end with an erotic note; when used in children's songbooks, the last stanzas are often left out or changed. In the long version of the Bavarian version the text reads:

(All :) Down there in da greana Au is a Birnbam, Sche blau, Juche. / Down there in da greana Au is a birnbam, sheer blue.
(A :) What is the Bam? (B :) A miraculous branch. (All :) Branch on Bam, Bam in the Au. / Down in da greana Au is a Birnbam, Sche blau, Juche. / Down there in da greana Au is a birnbam, sheer blue.
(A :) What's on the branch? (B :) A wonderful Astl. (All :) Astl am Branch, Branch am Bam, Bam in der Au. / Down in da greana Au ...
(A :) What is it about the Astl? (B :) A wonderful branch. (All :) Zweigerl am Astl, Astl am Ast, Ast am Bam, Bam in der Au. / Drunt in ...
(A :) What's on the branch? (B :) A wonderful leaf. (All :) Blattl am Zweigerl, Zweigerl am Astl, Astl am Ast, Ast am Bam, / ...
(A :) What is the Blattl? (B :) A beautiful nest. (All :) Nest on…
(A :) What's in the nest? (B :) A beautiful oar. (All :) Oar in the nest, ...
(A :) What is in the Oar? (B :) A wonderful bird. (All :) Vogerl in the Oar,…
(A :) What is the Vogerl? (B :) A wonderful springy. (All :) Federl vom…
(A :) What's going on with Federl? (B :) A wonderful bed. (All :) Betterl vom…
(A :) Who is in the Betterl? (B :) A beautiful Maderl. (All :) Maderl im…
(A :) Who is the Maderl? (B :) A wonderful little boy. (All :) Buaberl…
(A :) What kriagn na de both? (B :) A wonderful child. (All :) Kinderl vo de zwoa,…
(A :) What is the Kinderl doing? (B :) Des plants a beautiful pear bamboo. (All :) Birnbam from Kinderl, ...
(A :) Where is the Birnbam? (B :) It's standing in the meadow. (All :) Bam in der Au, Birnbam from Kinderl, ...

The enumeration ends in the repetition of the refrain "Drunt in der greana Au ..." without a break. A pause can be set before the next question.

Modern adaptations

In 1964 the folk singer Georg Blädel released a single entitled Drunt in der greana Au . A political-satirical repositioning of the song by the Biermösl Blosn appeared in 1982 on the album Grüß Gott mein Bayernland . Biermösl Blosn released the folk song version in 2000 on their children's song album Zing Zang Zing . In 1988 Konstantin Wecker published an environmentally critical song on his record Ganz Schön Wecker, entitled Drunt in der Au , which is based on the folk song.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Text on: "Drunt in der greana Au". Folk music archive of the district of Upper Bavaria, accessed on April 28, 2015 .
  2. ↑ Dittker Slark: On Friedrich Rückert tracks in Franconia. Volume 1. Linnig, Darmstadt 2010, ISBN 978-3-925591-28-0 , p. 151 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  3. ^ Johann Gustav Büsching: Weekly news for friends of history, art and knowledge of the Middle Ages. 2nd volume, 1816, p. 66 f. ( Digitized version ).
  4. ↑ Ludwig Erk, Wilhelm Irmer: The German folk songs with their ways of singing. Volume 1, Issue 6. Hermann, Leipzig 1843, p. 48 f. ( Digitized version ).
  5. ↑ Ludwig Erk (Hrsg.): Deutscher Liederhort: Selection of the excellent German folk songs from the past and the present with their peculiar melodies. Enslin, Berlin 1856, p. 402 f. ( Wikisource ).
  6. ↑ Ludwig Erk , Franz Magnus Böhme (Ed.): Deutscher Liederhort . Volume 3. Breitkopf and Härtel, Leipzig 1894, p. 531 f. ( Digitized version ).
  7. ^ Otto Böckel : German folk songs from Upper Hesse. Elwert, 1885, p. 87 for note p. 119 f. ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  8. ↑ Franz Wilhelm von Ditfurth : Franconian folk songs with their two-part ways, as they are sung by the people. Volume 2, Breitkopf and Härtel, Leipzig 1855, p. 297 f. ( Digitized version ).
  9. ↑ Joseph Georg Meinert : The Fylgie. Old German folk songs in the dialect of the Kuhländchen. Volume 1. Perthes and Beßer, Vienna and Hamburg, 1817, p. 221 f. ( Digitized version ).
  10. ^ Edmond de la Fontaine : The Luxembourg nursery rhymes. V. Bück, Luxemburg 1877, p. 50 f. ( Wikimedia Commons ).
  11. ↑ Erich Seemann : German-Lithuanian folk song relationships. In: Jahrbuch für Volksliedforschung, 8th year (1951), pp. 142–211, here p. 161, doi: 10.2307 / 847454 .
  12. ↑ Theo Mang, Sunhilt Mang (ed.): Der Liederquell . Noetzel, Wilhelmshaven 2007, ISBN 978-3-7959-0850-8 , pp. 516-517 .
  13. ↑ Jugendblätter Vol. 52 (1905/06), p. 322 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  14. ↑ An old folk song and its origin. BR, accessed November 23, 2018 .
  15. ↑ Catalog entry at the Association of VolksLiedWerke Austria and South Tyrol, accessed on May 18, 2016.
  16. ↑ Johannes Künzig: German folk songs from the Romanian Banat (= landscape folk songs with pictures and ways , issue 28). de Gruyter, Berlin and Leipzig 1935, p. 74 f.
  17. ↑ Down in the green meadow. Peter Pfeiffer, accessed April 28, 2015 .
  18. ↑ Brockhaus Encyclopedia in twenty volumes. 17th edition. Volume 17, Brockhaus, 1973, p. 187 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  19. ^ Franz Magnus Böhme: German children's song and children's game. Breitkopf and Härtel, Leipzig 1897, p. 266 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  20. ↑ Bayernland CD. Biermösl Blosn, accessed on May 8, 2015 .
  21. ↑ Zing Zang Zing at Discogs (English)
  22. ↑ Down in the Au. Konstantin Wecker, accessed April 28, 2015 .