Corpse

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The corpse (plural traditional corpse , more common, however, is the artificial regeneration of corpses ; from the Germanic * laikaz , play, dance, movement) belongs to the three main types of song poetry of the Middle Ages , along with minnesong and sang poetry , and represents the major and splendid genre of Middle High German Poetry. It was used from the end of the 12th century to the 14th century. The most common texts have come down to us from the period of courtly classical music, the main period of this text genre is between 1190 (the first known to us cross corpse of Heinrich von Rugge ) to around 1350. But Leich is already used as a gloss for the Latin word "modus" (rule ) written down. The German corpse is influenced by the old French Lai , both in terms of its content and its name , but not identical to him in terms of form and content. Typologically related forms of Medieval Latin and Romanesque song art are the Sequence , the Planh , the Conductus , the Estampie , the Lai and the Descort .

The word Leich occurs in Middle High German poems both in the sense of “instrumental music” ( Gottfried von Straßburg , Tristan ) and “vocal piece with instrumental accompaniment” ( Ulrich von Liechtenstein ).

content

In terms of content, the repertoire is divided into two large groups, the first dealing with spiritual subjects and the second with secular subjects.

The spiritual corpses, which only make up a quarter of the traditional stock, are songs of praise to the Trinity , Christ or Mary . Most of the time, all three topics are interwoven. Then they have a predominantly customary arrangement of topics (Trinity - Mary - Christ - closing prayer), sometimes they specialize in one topic. There are also the crusader equals, which call for participation in the crusade in order to serve God. It is also discussed that one cannot serve love and God or the emperor at the same time.

The secular corpses, which are also called Minneichs, deal with the subjects of love , whereby women in general (women's prize) or an individual woman is praised in a particularly artistic representation, and minne lament , in which the woman complains about not hearing .

The Minneleichs treat the subjects in a conventional way, in part they show tendencies towards generalization and objectification, towards learned allegory and complete minnesia. The dance body represents a special type. After the praise of the women, it is finally invited to dance.

shape

The corpse consists of extensive poems, usually over a hundred verses, often particularly elaborately rhymed (the longest known corpse comprises around 900 verses). The corpse is divided into formally different sections ( pericopes ), each of which comprises different groups of verses ( versicles ) or groups of verses, often with richly structured rhymes and each with its own melody.

Overall, the laws of form of corpses have not yet been adequately researched. However, two common basic patterns can be identified.

The religious corpse is divided into verses, each made up of metrically identical halves. Representation of a versicle: 4-a 5b 4-a 5b // 4-a 5b 4-a 5b A // A The corpse forms a sequence of different structural elements duplicated according to the pattern AA BB CC ... VV. Due to the formal proximity to the ecclesiastical Latin sequence , one speaks of the sequence type.

Characteristic of the Minneleich, on the other hand, is the very strict formal disposition into two parts, each divided into three parts, made up of only five paired verses, with one exception:

1st chapter:  Verses 1-14 FROM Part 2:  Verses 67-98 CADE
Verses 15-38 AABB Verses 99-126 DADE 
Verses 39-66  AABB  Verses 127-138 THERE

This type, in which individual versicle shapes recur in a rondo-like manner, is called the Estampie type.

Lore

Like all song poems, the corpses are mainly passed down in the collective manuscripts that were written towards the end of the 13th and first half of the 14th century. In addition, there are a few author's manuscripts to be mentioned, in which the most complete possible collection of the texts of an individual author is written down. Furthermore, one can also find isolated, sometimes accidental recordings of corpses in manuscripts with different types of text, such as Heinrich von Rugge's uniquely traditional Kreuzleich in the Benediktbeurer manuscript N (Clm 4570). This type of transmission is called scattered transmission.

A total of 45 corpses have been preserved, a quarter of them with melodies. The oldest surviving pieces are Heinrich von Rugge's cross corpse and Ulrich von Gutenburg's Minneleich . An older corpse is attributed to Friedrich von Hausen , Hartmann von Aue is also attested as a corpse poet, but the corpse poems of these two authors have not come down to us. Another corpse can be found in the Zurich love letters from around 1400.

There were corpse specialists among the poets. Particularly noteworthy here are: Tannhauser , who wrote no less than six original and lively dance corpses in addition to sangproverbs and Minnelongs, Heinrich von Meißen ( Frauenlob ), who left behind the most complex and almost extensive light poems (a Marien- , a Kreuz-, a Minneleich), and Ulrich von Winterstetten , who composed 40 Minnelies and 5 Minneleichs. Even Rudolf von Rotenburg can be counted among the corpse specialists with five traditional Minne Leichs.

In most cases, however, a poet wrote only one corpse, probably to prove that he had mastered the art, since the corpse was considered the most sophisticated form of Sangver poetry.

literature

  • Hermann Apfelböck: Tradition and genre awareness in the German corpse . Niemeyer, Tübingen 1991, ISBN 3-484-15062-9 .
  • Thomas Bein: German-language poetry of the Middle Ages. From the beginning to the 14th century. An introduction (= Basics of German Studies [GrG]. Volume 62). Erich Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 2017, ISBN 3-503-17167-3 .
  • Karl Bertau: Sang verse lyric. About the form and historicity of Middle High German poetry using the example of the corpse. Göttingen, 1964.
  • Horst Brunner: An overview of the history of German literature in the Middle Ages . Reclam, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-15-009485-2 , pp. 109–110 and pp. 238 ff.
  • Friedrich Gennrich: Outline of a form theory of the medieval song. Niemeyer, Halle 1932.
  • Ingeborg Glier: The Minneleich in the late 13th century. In: Werk-Typ-Situation. Studies on poetological conditions in older German literature. Festschrift Hugo Kuhn for his 60th birthday. Metzler, Stuttgart 1969, pp. 161-183.
  • Otto Gottschalk: The German Minneleich and his relationship to Lai and Descort. Dissertation Marburg 1908.
  • Alfred Karnein: The German lyric. In: Willy Erzgräber (Ed.): European Late Middle Ages . New Handbook of Literary Studies Volume 8. Athenaionm, Wiesbaden 1978, ISBN 3-7997-0139-7 , pp. 303–329, here in particular pp. 311 ff.
  • Hugo Kuhn : Minnesang's turning point . Tübingen, 1967.
  • Karl Lachmann : About the corpse of the German poets of the 12th and 13th centuries. In: ders .: Kleine Schriften 1. Berlin 1876, pp. 325–340.
  • Olive Sayce: The medieval German lyric. 1150-1300. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1982, ISBN 0-19-815772-X . Bes. Pp. 346-407.
  • Hans Spanke: Studies on Sequence, Lai and Leich. Selected by Ursula Aarburg. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1977, ISBN 3-534-04737-0 .
  • Wilhelm Wackernagel : Old French songs and corpses from manuscripts from Bern and Neuchâtel: With grammatical and literary-historical treatises. Schweighauser, Basel 1846 ( digitized in the Google book search).

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