Grandfather dance

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The grandfather dance (or simply the grandfather , later also grandfather song ) is a traditional German dance and folk song whose origins are believed to be in the 17th century.

Tradition as a dance song

The dance was first mentioned in 1717 by the Saxon dance master Gottfried Taubert (1670–1746). Since the record is said to be based on memories of Taubert's youth, the dance may have been widespread in Germany as early as the 17th century.

In the original dance version, the melody consists of three parts. The first part is a slow, stepped dance in three beats. The other two phrases together form a fast round dance in 2/4 time.

{\ time 3/8 \ key g \ major \ tempo "Andante" \ tempo 4 = 80 \ partial 8 \ relative d '{\ repeat volta 2 {d8 g8. g16 g8 gave | baa a4 a8 | b8. c16 d8 dcb | baa a4} \ repeat volta 2 {\ time 2/4 \ tempo "Allegro" \ tempo 4 = 126 s8 d8 bga f sharp g16 (f sharp) g (a) g8 d 'bga f sharp g4 r8} \ repeat volta 2 {d8 gabc d16 ed cis d8 cbga fis g4 r8}} \ addlyrics {<< {And when the grandfather took the grandmother, the grandfather was a brewer - - ti - gam, with you and me in the spring bed, with you and me in the straw.} \ new Lyrics {_ and the grandmother was a bride, there they were both married together. No feet will sting you there, no flea will bite you either. } >>}}

The melody model can also be found in the folk song Es ritten three riders out to the gate , which in turn formed the template for Es rattle the mill by the rushing brook .

The folk dance takes the form of a round dance that is danced in pairs. For many years the song was regularly played and danced at the end of wedding celebrations and known as "Kehrab" or " Kehraus ". The text printed above was also sung in many places.

New textings of the 19th century

At the beginning of the 19th century, two new versions of the song were published: one was written by Klamer Eberhard Karl Schmidt (1794, printed 1802), the other was composed by Berlin writer August Friedrich Ernst Langbein (1812) based on the much older dance style ". Langbein's text tries to humorously criticize the “modern” time and gender relations. Only the slow part of the original dance was left as the song melody.

{\ time 3/4 \ key g \ major \ relative d '{g4. g8 g4 gah | haa a2 a4 | h4. c8 d4 dch | haa a2 d, 4 | g4. g8 g4 gah | haa a2 a4 | h4. c8 d4 cha | agg g2 r4 \ bar "|." } \ addlyrics {When the grandfather took the grandmother, no one knew anything about mum - sell and mum. The bred virgin, the domestic woman, they were genuinely German in their soul and body.}}

Folksong version, with the first verse by AFE Langbein.

Text by Klamer Schmidt (1794) Text by August Langbein (1812)

The grandfather dance.
According to the well-known melody.

And when grandfather took grandmother,
grandfather was a bridegroom,
and grandmother was a bride.

Then the next day lagged;
Grandfather was no longer a bridegroom,
and grandmother was no longer a bride. -

So, bridegroom and bride, all right!
The day is yours, it's all about it!
And after the day comes the night!

The morning day soon lags behind;
Then the young man is no longer a bridegroom,
Then the girl is no longer a bride.

Then no violinist plays, then no dance rustles;
He smiles and parents the wreath;
Ashamed, she lowers her eyes. -

So come on, well for the jump of honor!
The bridal day is only young once:
And - do you know where we will be tomorrow?

The grandfather song.
According to the well-known dance style.

When grandfather took grandmother,
they knew nothing about Mamsell and Madam.
The chaste virgin, the domestic woman,
you were really German in soul and body.

When grandfather took grandmother,
there was still shame, decently veiled.
One wore oneself well, and found it not nice to
walk on the streets in Greek nudity.

When the grandfather took the grandmother,
the economy was no nonsense for her.
She did not read novels, she went to the stove,
And her child was worth more than a lap dog.

When grandfather took grandmother,
it was an honest man she got.
A handshake in those glorious times was
more important than an oath in today's life.

When grandfather took grandmother,
selfishness rested, bound and tame;
She was not broken from the bonds of shyness
like an all-devouring leu now.

When the grandfather took the grandmother,
the men's activity was not yet lame.
The effeminate ornament, the cowardly
dreamer, was mocked and hated even by women.

When the grandfather took the grandmother,
the friend of the fatherland, not in sorrow , exclaimed:
Oh, if the Germans had a lovely fate
The happy grandfather days!

The folk song researcher Franz Magnus Böhme characterized both text versions in 1886 as "long and boring art poems". Carl Gottlieb Hering created a new setting of Langbein's text.

Quotes in other works

Johann Sebastian Bach quoted the fast part of the dance (“With you and me into the feather bed…”) in his peasant cantata Mer hahn en new Oberkeet (BWV 212) in 1742 in the instrumental movement of recitative No. 3 (“Nu, Mieke, give your Guschel always her ").

Louis Spohr used the song at the request of the Elector Wilhelm II of Hesse when he wrote a festival march in 1825 for the wedding of Princess Marie of Hesse with the Duke of Saxony-Meiningen .

For Robert Schumann , the grandfather dance was one of his most frequently cited foreign motifs. He quoted him in a number of works including:

  • In the last section of the Papillons op. 2 (1831) and
  • in the last piece of Carnaval op. 9 with the title Marche des Davidsbündler contre les Philistins (1834–35), where he describes the melody as “Thème du XVIIème siècle” (theme from the 17th century).
  • In the Faschingsschwank from Vienna op. 26, the grandfather dance frames a quote from the Marseillaise .
  • In Winterszeit (No. 39) from the Album for the Young, Op. 68, the motifs of the two dance parts appear to be interwoven.
  • Further quotations can be found u. a. in the Intermezzo op. 4,1; Impromptu op. 5,10; Kreisleriana op. 16; Die Stille (No. 4) and Im Walde (No. 11) from the Liederkreis op. 39 ; The minstrel op. 40,4; Poor Peter op. 53,3; Siegfried's aria from Genoveva op. 81; Fairy tale pictures op. 113,2; Album leaves op. 124,3;

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky quotes the melody in the first act of his ballet The Nutcracker (1892). It appears at the end of the Christmas party. Tchaikovsky was a great admirer of Schumann's music, but it is not clear whether the quote was a kind of homage to Schumann or whether he was just trying to mark the end of a happy family event.

More recently, the German composer Jörg Widmann has quoted the grandfather dance in his third string quartet, Jagdquartett (2003).

Trivia

The Austrian cartoonist Paul Flora used a modification of the quote in 1971 as the title for a selection of his drawings: When Grandfather Shot Grandmother .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Keyword grandfather. In: Johann Georg Krünitz : Economic Encyclopedia . Part 20. Pauli, Berlin 1780, p. 143 ( digitized in the Google book search).
  2. ↑ a b Gottfried Taubert: Righteous Tantz master, or thorough explanation of the French Tantz art. Leipzig 1717, p. 87 f. ( Digitized in the Google book search).
  3. ^ A b c Franz Magnus Böhme: History of dance in Germany. Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig 1886. Volume I: Performing part. P. 184 f. ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ) and Volume II: Music supplements. P. 214 f. ( Text archive - Internet Archive ).
  4. ↑ Max Friedlaender: The grandfather song and the grandfather dance. 1918, pp. 29-36, here p. 30.
  5. ↑ August Härtel: German song dictionary. A collection of the best and most popular songs and chants of the German voke; with accompaniment of the pianoforte. Reclam, Leipzig 1865, p. 20, nos. 31 and 32 ( digitized in the Google book search).
  6. ^ Philipp Düringer, Heinrich Ludwig Barthels: Theater-Lexikon. Wigand, Leipzig 1841, Sp. 541 ( digitized in the Google book search).
  7. ↑ Printed in: Latest Berlinischer Musen-Almanach 1802 , ZDB -ID 331678-6 , p. 97
  8. ↑ a b Wilhelm Werner Johann Schmidt, Friedrich Lautsch (Ed.): Klamer Eberhard Karl Schmidt's life and selected works. First volume. Cotta, Stuttgart a. Tübingen 1826, p. 389 ( digitized version ).
  9. ↑ a b First printed in Becker's pocket book for sociable pleasure , 1813, p. 332. Printed in the Würzburger Almanach für's Theater 1816 , p. 116 ( digitized in the Google book search). - In Langbein's Deutscher Liederkranz , Berlin 1820, p. 152 f. ( Digitized in the Google book search) with the heading: “The grandfather song. According to the well-known dance style ”.
  10. ↑ Gustav Wustmann , Anton Kippenberg , Friedrich Michael (ed.): When the grandfather took the grandmother. A song book for old-fashioned people. 5th edition. Insel, Leipzig 1922, p. 420 u. Note p. 575 f. ( Text archive - Internet Archive ).
  11. ↑ Nina Reusch: Popular history in the empire: Family magazines as actors of the German historical culture 1890-1913 (= historical worlds in popular cultures of knowledge. Volume 16). transcript, Bielefeld 2015, ISBN 978-3-8376-3182-1 , pp. 328 ff. ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  12. ^ Franz Magnus Böhme: Popular songs of the Germans in the 18th and 19th centuries. Breitkopf and Härtel, Leipzig 1895, p. 536 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  13. ↑ Sounding home. Edition for accordion by Curt Mahr. Sikorski, Hamburg undated [1952], p. 14.
  14. ^ Carl Gottlieb Hering: Youthfulness in songs with melodies and an accompaniment to the piano or fortepiano. Second issue. Fleischer, Leipzig 1823, p. 28 f. Cf. August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben , Karl Hermann Prahl: Our folk songs. 4th edition. Engelmann, Leipzig 1900, p. 12 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  15. ↑ "THAT" [Dr. Adolf Schubring]: Schumanniana No. 2. Schumann and the grandfather . In: Neue Zeitschrift für Musik , Volume 53, No. 4 of July 20, 1860, p. 29 f. ( Digitized in the Google book search).
  16. ↑ Jörg Widmann: About my five string quartets. Schott Music, accessed January 25, 2020 (PDF; 243 KB).
  17. ^ Asher Ian Armstrong: Jörg Widmann's Jagdquartett. In: Tempo. Volume 70, Issue 276, April 2016, ISSN  0040-2982 , pp. 22-33, DOI: 10.1017 / S0040298215000959 .
  18. ↑ Paul Flora: When Grandfather Shot Grandmother and four hundred and twenty-one other drawings. Diogenes, Zurich 1971 a. ö., OCLC 311619544 .