Austrian imperial anthems
The Austrian Imperial Hymns , also known as folk hymns , were hymns of the House of Austria from 1797 and from 1826 to 1918 the official imperial hymns of the Austrian Empire , which since 1867 no longer included the countries of the Hungarian crown ( Austria-Hungary ). The hymns were always based on the melody composed by the Austrian composer Joseph Haydn on behalf of Emperor Franz II .
In the Habsburg Monarchy there were no national or regional anthems of individual crown lands . Rather, the text of the imperial hymn was dedicated to the current emperor , so that the text changed with every change of throne. The German song, composed in 1841 by August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben, is sung to the melody of the earlier Austrian imperial anthem , the third stanza of which is now the German national anthem .
The national anthem 1797–1918
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The exchange of the hymn texts with the change of rulers can be traced back to the fact that the emperor - at least in the pre-constitutional period - was not only seen as the head of state , but - like kings and emperors of other European ruling houses as well - as the embodiment of the state itself, instituted by God Before other mortals, he was distinguished with this entrustment by God according to the principles of divine right . That is why it was not the state itself who claimed patriotism or veneration, but the emperor. He did not just represent the state, as he and not the people were the sovereign . It was therefore also the emperor who could claim the loyalty of his subjects . This loyalty to the sovereign later found expression in the various popular anthems of the Austrian Empire (from 1804).
The fact that the hymns vary with the change of ruler can, however, also be observed with other ruler hymns. In its hymn " Heil dir im Siegerkranz " , the German Empire also had a stanza with the following wording: "Be, Kaiser Wilhelm , your people's ornament here ..." In addition, the British national anthem, depending on the throne holder, is called " God Save the Queen." "Or" God save the King "intoned.
Later, on the other hand - although the emperors from the House of Habsburg as emperors of the Holy Roman Empire and then of the Austrian Empire attached themselves to the grace of God until the end - the supranationality of the imperial family as one of the few unifying bands of the Danube Monarchy with its highly diverse regions may have been in the foreground. This is supported by the each of Emperor I. Ferdinand and Kaiser Franz Joseph I decreed paraphrase the national anthem in the various languages of the multinational state . The individual parts of the country also had their national songs , which after 1918 often became the national anthems of the successor states that had become independent or the hymns of their parts of the country. However, as an expression of the House of Habsburg, which is above the nations, the national anthem was always played first on solemn occasions.
Popular anthem under Franz II./I.
The time when the first national anthem was written in 1797 in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation is no coincidence. It comes at a time when against revolutionary France the Napoleonic Wars were performed. In these wars, the Roman-German Empire did not see itself threatened by France alone in the conventional way: the monarchical principle itself was challenged by republican France. Therefore, the Habsburg ruling house felt compelled to strengthen ties to the people through symbols such as a folk anthem to be sung on festive occasions. In this sense, the popular anthem can be understood as an alternative to the Marseillaise .
This genesis and motivation is not untypical for the time, because something similar can be reported, for example, from the Prussian representative song Heil Dir im Siegerkranz , first published in 1793 .
The words - which unmistakably take certain borrowings from the British anthem - come from Lorenz Leopold Haschka (1749-1827). On February 12, 1797, the Haschka hymn was sung in all Viennese theaters on the occasion of the Emperor's birthday , in the Burgtheater in the presence of Emperor Franz II himself. Franz, at that time still German King and Holy Roman Emperor, was satisfied with the composition showed, Haydn rewarded it with the gift of a box with his picture of the emperor.
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1. God preserve Franz, the Emperor, |
3. Flows of thy gifts, abundance |
There are various versions of this popular anthem. On October 1, 1826, due to the “highest resolution”, it was included in the court protocol and thus the official national anthem was not the Haschka hymn, but a version by an unknown poet. It was in use until March 1835. Her fourth stanza refers to the victory over Napoleon .
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1. God preserve Franz the Kaiser, |
3. To adorn himself with virtues |
Folk anthem under Ferdinand I.
Also for Franz 'II./I. Successor Ferdinand I, several variants of a folk anthem were developed. Fourteen drafts existed for Emperor Ferdinand's accession to the throne. First of all, the version “God preserve our emperor, our emperor Ferdinand!” By the Silesian poet Karl von Holtei (1798–1880) was selected. It was in use from April 1835 to January 1836.
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1. God preserve our emperor, |
3. Give him peace! Give him honor! |
The Holtei anthem did not meet the taste of the Viennese and could not establish itself permanently, allegedly because von Holtei was not a local, but a Prussian subject. The people of Vienna are said to have rated this as a serious disadvantage for a hymn, with which ultimately the loyalty to the Austrian ruler was to be celebrated. That is why it was already heard after a few months by the folk anthem of Baron v. Zedlitz (1790–1862) replaced. The Zedlitz hymn, in which the word “Austria” appears for the first time, was in use from February 1836 to March 1854. It has been translated into all languages of the monarchy, i.e. Hungarian , Czech , Polish , Illyrian , Croatian , Serbian , Slovenian , Italian , Ruthenian , Romanian , Wallachian , Modern Greek , Aramaic and Hebrew .
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1. Blessing of Austria's high son, |
3. Let palm trees circle around His head, keep |
Popular anthem under Franz Joseph I and Karl I.
In the first years of Franz Joseph I's reign it was not possible to agree on a new national anthem. A folk hymn composed by Franz Grillparzer on the occasion of Franz Joseph's accession to the throne in December 1848 "God preserve our emperor and in him the fatherland!" Could not prevail and was never used: Grillparzer had submitted this version in 1853 at the request of the court chancellery but distanced himself from his own draft in an attached letter.
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1. God preserve our emperor |
3. Make us agree, Lord of the Worlds, |
A number of drafts for a new popular anthem were officially submitted or unofficially distributed to the people. However, they were all rejected or did not gain popularity. This version from 1849, which turns against greater German efforts, is exemplary :
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God preserve our emperor, |
God preserve our Emperor, |
Finally, time was pressing because a folk anthem had to be found by the time Franz Joseph and Elisabeth married on April 24, 1854. Franz Joseph wanted the text not to become completely obsolete when rule was passed to the next emperor. Finally, the following folk anthem by Johann Gabriel Seidl was declared an authentic text by Franz Joseph's handbook on March 27, 1854.
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1. God preserve, God protect |
4. Let us hold together tightly, |
The reference to the well-known AEIOU motto “Austria Erit In Orbe Ultima” at the end of the fourth stanza was seen as particularly successful . The stanza that refers to the heir to the throne is a later addition, which in practice - but not officially - like the empress stanza with the death of the person addressed in it, was dropped again. This version of the national anthem was sung until the fall of the German Empire in 1918.
Accordingly, no separate national anthem was officially established for Charles I. On May 11, 1918 , Franz Karl Ginzkey submitted a draft for a personal stanza for the incumbent emperor, which consisted of a revision of the previous crown prince strophe. It was intended to keep the previous national anthem. However, this particular stanza was immediately overtaken by the precipitous events of that year and was no longer used.
Versions of the national anthem in the languages of the Danube Monarchy
Since the Empire of Austria, as the entire monarchy was called until 1867, was a multi-ethnic state, the people's hymn was ordered by Franz Joseph's hand-held ticket from 1854 that recognized the Seidl hymn as the new people's hymn - as in the time of Ferdinand I with the Zedlitz hymn happened - translated into numerous other languages of the Danube Monarchy. These versions were also officially referred to as “people's hymn” (Italian Inno popolare , Polish hymn ludowy etc., in Croatian, however, Carevka , “imperial hymn”). Usually this took the form of a more or less free rewrite of Seidl's folk anthem.
The national anthem and the end of the empire
Of course, after the fall of the Austrian monarchy, there were no longer any folk anthems dedicated to an emperor. However, the folk anthem continued to have a determining, benchmark-setting effect on the patriotic songs of the subsequent Republic of Austria , which only came to a standstill after 1946 and probably only later. The national anthem of the First Republic from 1929 - Be blessed without end - was sung to the Haydn melody. Even after the Second World War , efforts were made to make the Haydn anthem the Austrian national anthem again.
A kind of national anthem was also composed by monarchists on Otto von Habsburg , who pretended to the throne from 1922 to 1961:
You are in exile, far from the country , hope of Austria.
Otto, loyally in solid bonds,
we stand by you like a rock.
To you, my Emperor, may you
old glory and new happiness!
Bring peace to the people at last,
return home soon!
The popular anthem (in the Francisco-Josephine version) was sung on July 16, 2011 for the funeral of Otto von Habsburg in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna .
In the parish church of Franz Joseph's summer residence in Bad Ischl , the "Imperial Mass" is held every August 18, his birthday, in memory of the Emperor, at the end of which the Imperial Hymn is sung. Likewise, in Vienna, the capital and residence city of that time, there has been the "Kaiserfest" for 25 years on August 18th with mass in the Capuchin Church and wreath-laying at the monument of Emperor Franz Joseph in the Burggarten , musically framed by the "kuk Wiener Regimentalkapelle IR 4 “, With the national anthem also being sung.
In 2018 - to Haydn's melody - a hymn to the last Austrian emperor Karl I was created. It was premiered at the annual festival mass in memory of the emperor on October 20 of that year in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna. The poet of the hymn is the German Germanist, poet and historian Bernhard Adamy (* 1953), Oblate of the Benekdinerstift Göttweig .
Austria's Emperor, King of Hungary,
who carried the cross in his scepter,
Karl, you last ruler of the Habsburgs,
whom fate struck so early:
Faithful to you, in your memory,
who sown so good seeds,
we gather to honor
your mild majesty .
The melody by Joseph Haydn
With every change in the hymn text, the folk hymns were always on a melody by Joseph Haydn (1732–1809), the Kaiserlied ( Hob XXVIa: 43). It is the same melody to which the German national anthem " Das Lied der Deutschen " is sung today. Haydn composed the hymn (in his house "To the Seven Swabians" on today's Neuer Markt in Vienna's 1st district) on the suggestion of Franz Josef Count Saurau between October 1796 and January 1797 based on the text of the Haschka hymn.
It seems that Haydn was inspired by a Croatian folk song that he may have known from his childhood or from field work as an adult and was published in various text versions in Burgenland-Croatian areas under the title “Stal se jesem” (“I am up”) was sung.
In Haydn's work there are melodically similar passages in the aria "Qualche volta non fa male" from the opera Il mondo della luna from 1777, which he later reworked into the Benedictus of the Missa Cellensis (Hob XXII: 8) from 1782, as well as in the slow movement of the Trumpet Concerto (Hob VIIe: 1) from 1796.
As Ernst Otto Lindner in his 1871 history of the German song in the XVIII. Century ... noted, Georg Philipp Telemann had already published a melody similar to the imperial hymn in a music magazine in 1728 ( ), but Lindner did not consider a conscious connection between the two compositions. Melodically closely related to the imperial hymn is also the theme of Johann Sebastian Bach's two-part Invention in D major BWV 774 from 1723.
Haydn's patriotism was of an uncomplicated and sincere kind. During his old age, marked by illness and frailty, Haydn often struggled at his piano to play the popular anthem with a joyful heart, as a consolation in a long and serious illness. He himself put it into words as follows: I play the song every morning, and often I have taken comfort and relief from it in the days of unrest. I feel very happy when I play it and for a while afterwards.
In addition to German and Austrian folk and national anthems, the melody of the Haydn hymn was also accompanied by other, even foreign-language texts, such as "Glorious Things Of Thee are Spoken" by John Newton (1725–1807), the author of Amazing Grace , or " Praise the Lord! O Heav'ns adore Him ”. “Guide me O Thou Great Redeemer” and the hymn Tantum ergo by Thomas Aquinas are also to be sung occasionally to the Haydn hymn instead of more common melodies. In the same year 1797, Haydn used the melody again in the C major string quartet op. 76 No. 3 (Hob III: 77). The second movement consists of four cantus firmus variations on the theme of the imperial hymn. That is why the work was later given the nickname Kaiserquartett .
Long after the composer's death, other musicians also adopted his folk anthem through variations and arrangements:
- In 1799 Antonio Salieri used the melody in the programmatic overture to his patriotic cantata Der Tyroler Landsturm .
- Ludwig van Beethoven quotes part of the hymn in his final song written in 1815 for Georg Friedrich Treitschke's patriotic festival Die Ehrenpforten WoO 97.
- Around 1824 Carl Czerny wrote a number of variations for piano and string quartet (op. 73).
- Similar to Clara Schumann : Souvenir de Vienne, Impromptu pour Piano-Forte op. 9 (1838).
- Around 1853, Johann Strauss (son) composed the “Kaiser-Franz-Joseph-Rettungs-Jubelmarsch” op. 126, which is based on the characteristic refrain of the national anthem as a central motif.
- Bedřich Smetana used the Haydn hymn in his Triumph Symphony in E major, op. 6 (1853–1854), which he dedicated to Empress Elisabeth.
- Niccolò Paganini wrote a series of variations for violin and orchestra (Maestosa Sonata Sentimentale, 1828)
- In 1854 Henryk Wieniawski wrote variations of the Haydn hymn for an unaccompanied violin (Variations on the Austrian national anthem, from: L'école modern, op. 10), which are considered to be one of the most difficult pieces for unaccompanied violins.
- Pyotr Tchaikovsky arranged Haydn's work for orchestral performances in 1876.
- Franz Schmidt took up the folk anthem in his Fuga solemnis for organ and wind parts. Originally conceived for the opening of the main building of RAVAG (Vienna) in Argentinierstraße (1937/1939), Schmidt took this joint into his German Resurrection , which he created from autumn 1938 . A festive song that he left unfinished when he died. Schmidt entrusted his student Robert Wagner to complete the missing orchestration; the premiere took place on April 24, 1940.
- Singer Nico alias Christa Päffgen wrote a version of the Haydn melody for her harmonium for her solo album “The End” in 1974.
- In 2003 Wolfgang Müller composed an organ version of the song for his album “Mit Wittgenstein in Krisivík” and sang the Icelandic song “Sálmur yfir víni”. The text of the latter song was composed in 1898 by the first Danish Minister of Iceland and poet Hannes Hafstein on Haydn's melody and is about the joys of drinking wine.
The popular anthem as a political symbol
Folk anthem and patriotism
The folk anthem became the most important and characteristic part of Austrian patriotic songs, not least because of its use for 121 years from 1797 to 1918 and thus for several generations. With the following devout poem , Franz Grillparzer expressed his feelings towards the well-known and well-known folk anthem:
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When I was still a boy |
Even in the midst of the danger, surrounded |
And now |
During the First World War , Hugo von Hofmannsthal wrote the following poem with the title “Austria's answer” based on a poem by his friend Rudolf Alexander Schröder called “Der deutsche Feldpostbrief”, which contains a German declaration of loyalty to Austria.
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»People colorful in the field tent, |
Our children are united by this, |
Like children, heroes are simple, |
It was inevitable that the folk anthems were also rewritten to include other people who had made a contribution to Austria. After the battle of Aspern and Eßling against Napoleon I in 1809, the people's anthem was also sung to Archduke Karl : "God preserve Karl the hero!"
In the Duchy of Anhalt, on the other hand, the folk anthem was adopted as the "Dukes' anthem" with unmistakable borrowings from the imperial-Austrian text with the same melody:
God preserve us by grace,
our Duke and his house,
who go ahead of their people
on the paths of war and peace
.
May God keep us as a blessing,
our Duke and his house.
The folk anthem as a symbol of the traditional order
As a symbol of the traditional order, the so-called demagogues also turned against the popular anthem between 1815 and 1848. Therefore, it became the subject not only of parodies, but also of counterproposals.
Thus transformed August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben the national anthem on July 2, 1841 its "unpolitical songs" under the title "Syrakusaise" as follows:
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God preserve the tyrant, |
An old woman said |
When I was a young girl, |
Hoffmann von Fallersleben used the meter of the folk hymn for other songs which, in terms of text, are not based on the folk hymn, but together with the Haydn melody reveal the satirical thrust. This is how the song "Creep You and the Devil" came about:
Yes, the great
arrogance and tyranny are forgivable ,
for
the Germans' creepiness is too great and mean.
If a German
sees his prince
extremely poor dog,
he immediately expresses
his admiration for the cattle in beautiful words .
In 1841 it was Hoffmann von Fallersleben who rewrote this national anthem in his exile in Heligoland to the text “Germany, Germany above everything”. Just a few days later, the Hamburg publisher Julius Campe printed the song. It is no coincidence that Hoffmann used the meter of the people's hymn: it is a large German counter-draft to the people's hymn, which is therefore also directed against the supranational House of Habsburg.
Germany, Germany above everything,
above everything in the world,
if it always sticks
together fraternally to protect and defend ,
from the Meuse to the Memel,
from the Adige to the Belt -
Germany, Germany above everything,
above everything in the world.
As a parody of the national anthem, the following version was created in the turmoil that followed the First World War in 1918:
God preserve, God protect
our Renner , our Seitz ,
and receive - you never know -
also the emperor in Switzerland !
Karl Kraus wrote a republican parody of the popular anthem in 1920, which he introduces as follows: “The melody [Haydn's] has always been in bad hands since the good Emperor Franz. There is something oppressive about the idea that the divine sounds have been added to the honor of that monster who received hourly reports on the tortures of his patients from Spielberg . If possible, the seventy-year-old insult to Her Majesty by the pious and honest text by Johann Gabriel Seidl, which, as astonished literary historians tell, had to write it 'within a week' […]. "
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God preserve, God protect |
What the citizen's diligence has created |
What God administers belongs to |
The popular anthem: sound archive
- God preserve Franz the Kaiser (text version by Anonymous, mp3; 3.5 MB)
- 1st stanza of the Francisco-Josephine folk hymn, followed by the "folk hymn" to Otto von Habsburg (mp3; 715 kB)
- Carl Czerny: Variations op. 73 on "God preserve Franz the Kaiser" (WAV)
Remarks
- ↑ In other words, the national anthem - to dare to compare it with the USA - was more like the US presidential anthem Hail to the Chief than the national anthem The Star-Spangled Banner .
- ↑ Harry D. Schurdel, “Bismarck's Empire. The way to the 2nd Empire ” ( Memento from April 19, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), in: G-Geschichte March 2002, ISSN 1617-9412 , p. 53.
- ^ Franz Grasberger: Die Hymnen Österreichs , 1968, p. 69.
- ↑ Austria's imperial anthem . In: twschwarzer.de . Retrieved January 18, 2017.
- ↑ Late homage to the Austrian Emperor Charles I .
- ^ Haydn Zentenar celebration: connected with the III. Musicological Congress of the International Music Society. Program book for the festival performances. Vienna 1909, p. 12 (PDF, 2.5 MB) .
- ↑ Glorious Things Of Thee are Spoken. In: Hymnary.org (full hymn text and sound applet).
- ↑ Praise the Lord for Ingeb.org.
- ↑ Guide me O Thou Great Redeemer. In: Know-Britain.com .
- ↑ dessau-geschichte.de ( Memento from April 11, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Complete text cf. z. B. here
- ↑ A similar version is provided by Peter Diem: God receive… ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF) Peter-Diem.at, p. 10, with evidence from Ernst Rüdiger Starhemberg : Memoirs. Vienna 1971, p. 145.
- ↑ Die Fackel , triple number 554–556, p. 57 f.
See also
- List of former national anthems
- Great title of the Emperor of Austria
- German Austria, you glorious country - anthem of the Republic of Austria 1920–1929 (coll. First Republic)
- Be blessed without end - anthem of the Republic of Austria (coll. First Republic) 1929–1934 and the Federal State of Austria 1934–1938
- Land der Berge, Land am Strome - anthem of the Republic of Austria since 1946 (coll. Second Republic)
- Germany song
literature
- Peter Diem : The symbols of Austria. Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-218-00594-9 .
- Rudolf Flotzinger : People's Anthem. In: Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon . Online edition, Vienna 2002 ff., ISBN 3-7001-3077-5 ; Print edition: Volume 5, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-7001-3067-8 .
- Herbert Hopfgartner: The Imperial Hymn - a Haydn work!?! In: AGMOE: Music Education, Vienna 2009.
Web links
- The Croatian folk song "Stal se jesem" - detailed treatise
- Manuscript of the national anthem by Joseph Haydn, 1797
- Score of the Imperial Quartet (op.76 no.3)
- Score of the Francisco-Josephine national anthem
- Franz Grasberger : The hymns of Austria. In: Austro-Danubia (excerpt).
- Peter Diem : "God receive ..." ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 291 kB) Peter-Diem.at (about the national anthem).
- Gustav Spann: flag, national coat of arms and national anthem of the Republic of Austria. (PDF; 4.5 MB) In: Federal Ministry for Education, Art and Sport , Department of Political Education (Ed.): October 26th. On the history of the Austrian national holiday. Vienna undated, pp. 35–50, online in: Demokratiezentrum.org .
- kuk Wiener regimental band IR 4
