Wanderer

As wandering minstrels are or were wandering street musician and singer called that present their art in public spaces, at fairs or on similar occasions. They live mainly from small donations of money from passers-by or market visitors and are not classified much differently as beggars today . In the past, they often had a higher social status by, among other things, distributing news or acting as storytellers .

The occupation of the wandering singer has existed at least since early Greek antiquity, where they were called Aöden (from ἀοιδός, singing poet). Even before Homeric times, the best of these poet-singers were often active in important royal houses - as for example the Odyssey about Demodokos with the King of the Phaeacians reports - while their nameless guild fellows roamed the streets and probably lived on mild gifts and only occasional engagements.

In the European Middle Ages , the image of the traveling singer or musician was partly mixed with that of the traveling journeyman , of whom the more musically gifted preferred street singing to prolonged unemployment . In the comedies of Johann Nestroy there are often wandering journeymen who also make this change of role clear in its social components.

As street singers and street musicians , young people are sometimes on the road who earn part of the travel expenses through their cabaret . Occasionally they develop into sought-after musicians, such as the Brazilian Embolada or some modern rappers .

Sources and literature

• Wikipedia: Aöde, Barde, Embolada, Johann Nestroy, street music, wandering years , etc.
• New Brockhaus 1959–62: u. a. Music history, traveling professions, street music
• W. Kleindel, Die Chronik Österreichs , Bertelsmann / Chronik, Munich 1994