Ezzo song

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The Ezzo song is at the beginning of early Middle High German literature . With it, after about 100 years, from which only Latin texts have survived, the tradition of German-language poetry begins again. As the vernacular "Cantilena de miraculis Christi", so as a "song about the miracles of Christ" it contains a concentrated rendition of the Christian history of salvation in rhyme and was probably made in the Strasbourg version (Strasbourg hymn) on a pilgrimage of Bishop Gunther from Bamberg to Jerusalem in sung in 1064/65.

It has survived in two versions, the Strasbourg and the Vorauer, with the longer Vorauer version in a preceding opening stanza the clergyman Ezzo as the poet and the composer Wille (possibly the later abbot of Michelsberg Monastery, 1082-1085) and the client Bishop Gunther von Bamberg calls. The latter's term of office from 1057 to 1065 and, above all, the above-mentioned pilgrimage in 1064/65 suggest that the "Ezzolied" was written around 1060 in Bamberg .

Emergence

Research has a wide variety of theories about the origin of the Ezzo song. It is widely believed that the Strasbourg hymn was sung on Gunther's pilgrimage from Bamberg to Jerusalem in 1064/65. But whether it was explicitly intended for this trip or was written for a different occasion is questionable. There is also the theory that it was created as a festival cantata on the occasion of a reform of the cathedral chapter . The inauguration of the regulated collegiate monastery St. Gangolf in Bamberg in 1063 could also have been the occasion for such a festive anthem.

Tradition and content

As mentioned at the beginning, the Ezzo song is available to us today in the form of two manuscripts, some of which vary greatly in length and content. It is also assumed that the longer Vorau variant - in contrast to the Strasbourg variant - was never designed for a vocal performance.

To make a description easier, the common abbreviations (S = Strasbourg, V = Vorau) and stanza numbering (Roman numerals for S and Latin for V) are used below.

Strasbourg tradition (S) - Strasbourg hymn

S is dated as the older of the two traditions at the end of the 11th or beginning of the 12th century. It consists of 7 stanzas - 2 eight-line and 5 twelve-line - and is likely to be incomplete.

The two identically built stanzas SI and II are prologue stanzas : SI addresses the addressees, namely herron (fmhd. For princes, nobles ...) (cf. V2 all ) and gives the topic and sources for S III-S VII. S II reads like a call to prayer to Christ, especially the light of God is emphasized. Leading terms of the prologue stanzas seem to be eron (fmhd. For fame, admiration, deference) and gnadon (fmhd. For grace, blessing, forgiveness ...), while in the comparable stanzas of the Vorauer version of troste (fmhd. For consolation) and genade (fmhd. for grace, blessing, forgiveness ...) the talk is.

Then the creation of man (S IV), the fall into sin (SV) and the subsequent night of sin with the stars heralding the end (S VI) are described. With S VII, the promises and teachings of the patriarchs Abel , Enoch , Noach , Abraham , David , the Strasbourg tradition breaks off suddenly. However, referring to the program given in SI, it is believed that only one or two stanzas are missing. If you add verse 13 of the Vorauer version to the Strasbourg version, all program points are fulfilled.

Vorauer Tradition (V) - Vorauer Reimpredigt

V was created around the 1st third of the 12th century. The Strasbourg hymn probably served as a template and was expanded into the Vorauer Reimpredigt by an unknown editor. Some researchers suspect that the editor's share of V is greater than the Ezzo's himself.

V comprises a total of 34 sections of different lengths. The shortest has only six lines while the longest has 18 lines. The majority, however, are 12 lines.

  • V 1 is the already mentioned introductory stanza, which Ezzo names as the poet, Wille as the composer and Bishop Gunther von Bamberg as the client .
  • V 2: All stanzas from version S are incorporated into version V, but not simply taken over. As an example, here is the comparison of V 2 and SI: While V 2 addresses “everyone” and speaks of consolation and grace, SI restricts itself in its direct address to the noble lords and emphasizes knowledge and fame.
SI
[N] v wil ih iv herron. Now I want you, lords (princes),
heina was rede before tuon. present a true report
uon the good. from the beginning (origin),
uon alem manchunne of the whole human race,
uon the wistoum alse manicualt of so varied knowledge,
ter at your service bookin steady that is told in the books
uzer genesi unde uzer libro regum in Genesis and in the Book of Kings,
tirre werlte al ze dien eron. to the glory of the whole world.
V 2
I just want everyone. I want you all carefully
a uil ware speech uor tuon. present a completely true report
uon the minem sense. about my insight
uon dem Rehten anegenge! from the real beginning (origin),
uof the straight so many ualt. of manifold graces,
di us uz the bvochen are marked. that we are told in the books
uzzer genesi and uz libro regum in Genesis and in the Book of Kings,
the werlt al ze genaden; as a show of grace for the whole world.
  • V 3 to V11: The topics and references from S II are slightly modified, rearranged and expanded in V 3 and V 4. V 5 deals with the creation of man and cannot be found in version S in this form. V 6 and V 7 again largely correspond to S III and S IV. A final insert is V 8, in which paradise is painted. V 9 to V 11 again coincide with SV to S VII.

The part of the Ezzo song that has only survived in V begins with V 12:

  • V 12/13: Continuation of the patriarchal series with John the Baptist and the coronation: Christ's appearance on earth brings sun and day.
  • V 14 to 25: 12 stanzas (12 was a holy number in the Middle Ages) about Jesus Christ : praise to Mary, birth, life, death, resurrection and the effect of Christ's salvation
  • V 26 to V 34: After a brief reflection on the great prophets of the Old Testament , an interpretation of the sacrificial death of Christ and a link between the Old and the New Testament follows . The last stanza V 34 praises the Trinity and ends the Strasbourg sermon on rhymes with a creed.

Settings

The original sound by Wille has unfortunately not been preserved, but the Ezzo song was arranged by two Central European composers in the 20th century:

The Swiss Willy Burkhard composed a motet for a four- to eight-part choir based on the early Middle High German text in 1927 (op. 19). Thirty years later, in 1957, the Austrian composer Johann Nepomuk David took up the subject again and created an oratorio for solos, choir and orchestra (op. 51).

literature

  • Günther Schweikle: Ezzo. In: The German literature of the Middle Ages. Author Lexicon. 2., completely reworked. Ed. by Kurt Ruh [u. a.]. Vol. 2. Berlin, New York: de Gruyter 1980, Sp. 670-680. ISBN 3-11-007699-3
  • Horst Brunner: An overview of the history of German literature in the Middle Ages. Stuttgart: Reclam 1997. (= RUB. 9485.) P. 87. ISBN 3-15-009485-2
  • Karl A. Wipf: Old High German poetic texts. Selected, translated and commented by Karl A. Wipf. Stuttgart: Reclam 1992. (= RUB. 8709.) pp. 177-209. ISBN 3-15-008709-0
  • Christoph Lange: The Ezzo song in the Vorauer tradition. Text, translation and commentary. Munich: AVM - Akademische Verlagsgemeinschaft 2014. ISBN 978-3-86924-585-0
  • Stefan Siebke: The travel metaphor in Ezzo's singing. Thesis. Munich: Grin 2003. p. 11. ISBN 978-3-640-46266-7
  • Norbert Kössinger : New beginning or continuity? The Ezzo song in the context of the German-language tradition of the early Middle Ages. With a diplomatic impression of the text based on the Vorau handwriting. In: German texts from the Salier period - new beginnings and continuities in the 11th century. Edited by Stefan Müller. Munich: Fink 2010. (= Medieval Studies of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research into the Middle Ages and its aftermath, Paderborn. 20.) pp. 129–160. ISBN 978-3-7705-4831-6

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Wolfgang Beutin: German literary history: From the beginnings to the present . Springer-Verlag, 2016, ISBN 978-3-476-00813-8 , pp. 19 .