East Frisian songwriter

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East Frisian songwriters are musicians from East Frisia who have been singing folk songs and their own songs in East Frisian Platt , a still very lively dialect of the Low German language with a Frisian substrate , since the advent of folk in the 1970s . The East Frisian Platt is relatively similar to the Groninger Platt on the opposite side of the German-Dutch state border, so that there is a lively exchange between the folk scenes on both sides of the border.

Musicians and bands

Probably the first group with East Frisian musicians to release a long-playing record was the MOIN group in Kiel in 1977 , to which two East Frisian students belonged: Manfred Jaspers and Mense Schwitters. They were musically stimulated by Helmut Debus , who in turn was inspired by Oswald Andrae from Jever .

Gerd Brandt was also inspired by Andrae. Brandt has been writing Low German versions of well-known rock and pop songs since 1974. Soon afterwards, together with Heinz Wibben from Emden, he also collected English, Scottish and Irish songs and folk songs, translated them and performed them with great success, especially among young people. To this end, he founded the Likedeeler group in 1977 .

The Folk-Alternative-Strackholt was founded in 1975; henceforth several folk concerts were organized annually in Strackholt in East Frisia. At the same time, one of the initiators, Helmut Kroon, conducted field studies and discovered old songs and musical traditions in this way. So it was found out that the bagpipes used to be at home in East Frisia. The duo Jan & Jürn , consisting of the brothers Jan and Jürn Cornelius, released their first long-playing record with this material in 1978. The duo split in 1985.

In 1983 the first LP by Gerd Brandt and his new group Laway was released . Brandt was the first East Frisian to receive the German Record Critics' Prize .

At that time, when Jan & Jürn and Gerd Brandt were working on the old Low German song tradition and getting it out of the corner of "home care", there was also another, more commercially successful way: Hannes Flesner wrote and sang songs set to music by Gerd Pundt who dealt with the everyday life of ordinary people. His songs, which he himself called chansons , were often referred to as hits back then . Hannes Flesner brought out four long-playing records that were later released on CD.

The Kranich group had existed in Emden since 1977 and became part of the Spillwark group in 1983 . Spillwark is now a cult band in Emden and only appears occasionally outside of Emden. The Christmas concerts organized by the band every two years have become an event. Another album in Low German from East Friesland is Leevtalligheid by Siemen Rühaak from Marienhafe It was made in 1978 and was re-released on CD in 2008. Also to be mentioned here are Margret Specht and Gitta Franken (née Gitta Mennenga), who appear as Low German songwriters. They can be heard on MCs, but they haven't been released on CD yet. Christine Schmidt-de Vries from Emden performed as a singer with the Dwarslopers or solo. There is also the rock group Van M , who released the maxi CD Wat is dat then? brought out.

Jan Cornelius brought out the first Low German CD in 1990 ( Neje Mörgen ) , with musical support from Klaus Hagemann . He wrote and writes texts and melodies himself or translates Low German poetry (among others by Greta Schoon on the CD En Vögelfeer ) into music. Another field of activity are his new Low German children's songs. For this he received the Bad Bevensen Prize in 1993 and the Keerlke from the Association for East Frisian Culture and Language Oostfreeske Taal in 1996 . Jan Cornelius has now released a number of CDs, the last being Dreeklang in 2008, with the addition of the cellist Christa Ehrig.

Gerd Brandt is also still active in the field of Low German music. He built up the ARTyCHOKE record label and after a break of several years made music again with the Laway group . Laway has been contributing the music to the Störtebeker open-air theater in Marienhafe since 1996 and has released a CD for each. In 1997 Laway and Jan Cornelius jointly produced a CD with songs about Mühlen, Müller and the Wind (wind song ). Laway received the Bevensen Music Prize in 2003 , Gerd Brandt received the Keerlke in 2005 for his diverse activities in the field of Low German music in various media. In 1998 ARTyCHOKE released the CD Wattenseeland with Laway, Jan Cornelius, Spillwark and Helmut Debus. In 2002 ARTyCHOKE released the CD from the workshop of the Bevensen Conference 2000 An de Eck steiht mien Leevsten up Pastor sien Koh with a number of East Frisian songwriters (Jan Cornelius, Laway and Van M) and lyricists ( Gerd Constapel , Carl-Heinz Dirks, Johanna Kastendiek and Georg Wagner).

Otto Groote initially appeared solo - for example on his first CD in 2006 In 't Blaue Lücht van d' Nörden - now he forms the Otto Groote Ensemble together with Matthias Malcher and Ralf Strotmann , which can be heard quietly on the second CD De Tied is. Groote has already performed in many places in northern Germany and the Netherlands.

Herbert Bartmann also makes a name for himself as a solo artist, meanwhile with Laway, who released the CD Temmi in 2007 . Since 2007, Jürn Cornelius has been on the road again as “ Still Jürn ”. The group blau :, consisting of Werner Willms and Günter Orendi, who turned away from the English-language blues and turned to Low German music, released the CD All up Stee sung in Low German in 2008 .

Events

In September 2008 the 1st East Frisian Bardentreffen took place in Remels , to which Herbert Bartmann, blue :, Jan Cornelius, Helmut Debus, Otto Groote and Siemen Rühaak were invited. A second bard meeting was held in Uplengen in 2009 .

For a long time, however, the “Gulfhof You” in Engerhafe has developed into the successor to the “Folk Initiative Strackholt”. In Engerhafe the festival is to be established between the years . The first festival took place at the end of 2008 with the Otto Groote Ensemble, Jan Cornelius and Henk Scholte, Bert Ridderbos and Linde Nijland from Groningen.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ www.folkfruehling.de: MOIN / (D) , as seen on September 3, 2012.
  2. ↑ a b c plattplanet.de: Leedermakers un Volkssingers in Oostfreesland ( Memento from August 6, 2007 in the Internet Archive ).
  3. ↑ Portrait in the Sunday paper of November 27, 2011: "Home is where East Friesland is" (PDF file; 497 kB), viewed on September 3, 2012.
  4. ↑ www.hannesflesner.de , as seen on September 3, 2012.
  5. ↑ www.landesmuseum-emden.de: Dreeklang: A concert with Jan Cornelius , seen September 3, 2012.
  6. ^ Bad Bevensen Prize ( memento from January 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), viewed September 3, 2012.
  7. ↑ www.otto-groote.de ( Memento from June 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive ).
  8. ↑ www.blaumusik.de ( Memento from December 21, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), viewed September 3, 2012.
  9. ↑ www.gulfhof-ihnen.de , as seen on September 3, 2012.