Songwoman

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Historically, especially in Vienna, a street vendor of so-called " flying leaves " for the dissemination of current news about events such as murder, disasters, extraordinary fates, court judgments and songs of various kinds was called a song woman , also judgment woman , urt (h) el woman , fratschel woman , paper woman like the petty song, love song, morality or theater song . Many poets of so-called newspaper songs , who often had religious, political and socially critical content including curiosities and were often performed in song-like form, were scholars who published anonymously, such as clergymen, teachers and also students, whose colporteurs, however, often had a dubious reputation. The term song women became popular in the 18th century for the female portion of this group.

history

According to the Austrian Music Lexicon , the profession of colportage of literary products, initially practiced by both sexes, served the needs of the lower classes since the invention of the printing press and was initially traveling singers, vagabonds, "newspaper singers", "bank singers" and their wives, the news auditioned at weekly or annual markets and offered for sale in printed form. At the beginning of the 18th century, sedentary song dealers established themselves in Vienna, in particular, who delegated their products to their wives or children in charge of “calling out” and selling the leaflets.

This form of reporting was mostly undesirable to the authorities at the time and was the subject of various censorship efforts, partly due to fears that it would violate and undermine public morality, partly because serious literary endeavors were seen as being damaged by it. However, it was not possible to stop the activity through police regulations and penalties. In 1793 "the sale of such papers by calling out and moving around in prison was forbidden" and in 1795 a general ordinance against the colportage of the officially named "paper women" came into force. These in turn formed an association that was in close relationship with the book printers and requested licenses for their trade, which led to a compromise to trade in censored leaflets in certain places in the city to old and infirm people. After the decree was circumvented and the number of hymn women continued to increase, further administrative measures were taken. In 1797 a decree finally relegated the trade to the regular book trade . Nevertheless, authorities had to intervene until the pre- March , until the profession came to an end in 1848.

reception

Contemporary publications such as the Eipeldauer letters reported several times on the women who were judged . They were depicted in various graphic series such as by Georg Emanuel Opitz around 1823 . In 1852 the Theater-Zeitung reported a ban on the sale of the publications. Today the Vienna City and State Library has an extensive collection of single-sheet prints that were written by lyricists such as B. Michael Ambros were designed.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Ernst Weber: Liederweiber. In: Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon . Online edition, Vienna 2002 ff., ISBN 3-7001-3077-5 ; Print edition: Volume 3, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-7001-3045-7 .
  2. ^ Ferdinand Opll, Peter Csendes, Karl Vocelka, Anita Traninger: Vienna. History of a city. Volume 2: The early modern residence (16th to 18th centuries) , Böhlau Vienna 2003, p. 537, online in Google books
  3. ↑ Felix Czeike (Ed.): Historisches Lexikon Wien , Volume 6, Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 2004, p. 234, ISBN 3-218-00741-0 / ISBN 978-3-218-00740-5 (volumes 1–6 ). (Online: Judgment Woman in the Vienna History Wiki of the City of Vienna )