Liedkultur des 17. Jahrhunderts als Übersetzungskultur

Abstract

ZusammenfassungIn our paper we analyse translations of Italian and French songs into German from the late sixteenth to the mid-seventeenth century. The methods of translation employed range from a narrow focus on the words and music of the original song to free variation. Analysing the bimedial relationship of words and music is the principal focus of our study. We ask: What consequences does a translation have for the text-sound relationship? In the first part of the study, we develop a heuristic methodology that describes this phenomenon while taking into account the cultural context of each translation. In the second part, we put this model to the test by examining a prominent song collection: Heinrich Albert’s Arien oder Melodeyen (Königsberg, 1638–1650), which contains a large number of as yet unidentified French and Italian originals. Two case studies on the translation of an Air de Cour and an Italian aria, as well as reflections on the digital accessibility of song translation, conclude the paper.