A Common European Song Heritage in the Nineteenth Century Songs of Ireland and Germany

Abstract

in the search for a european heritage of folk song one potential source of discovery is the era of the revolution which affected several european countries in 1848 and 1849. particularly in the folk song traditions of ireland and germany in the decades leading up to and after 1848 one comes across many overlapping themes such as nationhood, political emancipation, hunger, exploitation, military service and mass emigration. before focusing on the aspects in common of these two song cultures it is important to outline the parallels and differences in the political and national contexts. ireland, a rural country embroiled in religious conflict, was under control of the british Crown, its peasants in the clutches of exploitative british landlords and further impoverished by famine, its trade dictated to by british markets. germany on the other hand was experiencing its industrial revolution: it had an ascending bourgeois class seeking political emancipation from the ruling aristocracy and a growing proletarian class displaced from the countryside, living in wretched conditions and also intermittently suffering from hunger. a Common european song heritage in the nineteenth Century songs oF ireland and germany david robb This paper deals with thematic similarities between German and Irish folk songs of the nineteenth century, particularly the period surrounding the 1848 Revolution. While clear commonalities can be seen to exist in songs about exploitative masters, hunger, emigration and army recruitment, there are differences in terms of the situation of Germany as a rapid industrialising nation while Ireland was still rural. At the same time the plight of the displaced German craftsmen due to industrialisation does have echoes in the struggles of the craft trade expressed in the Irish songs. Another difference lies in the dimension of religion and national liberation in the Irish ballads, whereas the German counterparts display more of a developing class consciousness. While the German and Irish narrative styles and approaches also differ from one another, there is nonetheless evidence of a common folk language and musical heritage between the two countries, which has been affirmed by the cultural exchange between their respective folk movements since the 1970s. keywords: folk song, folk revival 1848 Revolution, Industrial Revolution, famine, emigration, anti-militarism, drinking ballads, travelling craftsmen. Članek obravnava vsebinske podobnosti med nemškimi in irskimi ljudskimi pesmimi iz 19. stoletja, posebej še iz časa okrog revolucionarnih sprememb leta 1848. Medtem ko lahko opazimo izrazite podobnosti v pesmih, ki pojejo o izkoriščevalskih gospodarjih, emigraciji in vojaških vpoklicih, pa so opazne razlike med Nemčijo kot deželo izrazite indistrializacije in Irsko kot še vedno zelo ruralno deželo. Istočasno pa težak položaj zaradi industrializacije razseljenih nemških rokodelcev odmeva v tistih irskih pesmih o rokodelstvu. Druga je razlika v religiji in nacionalni osvoboditvi, kakor odsevata v irskih baladah, m...

Voices of ambiguity – The GDR folk music revival movement (1976–1990): exploring lived musical experience and post-war German folk music discourses

“…Seeking evidence for a common Irish -German folk song heritage rooted in the mid-19 th century, David Robb 17 has unearthed thematic resonances between German and Irish folk songs dating from the time of the 1848 Revolution in Europe. Initially, Robb delineates important differences between German and Irish cultural contexts in this historical period, focusing primarily on Germany's rapid industrialization and emerging working class consciousness, which contrasted with Ireland's rural societal fabric and the experience of colonial rule at that point.…”