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"Under der linden" is a well-known poem written by the medieval German
Translation by Elizabeth Siekhaus
{{Authority control Works by Walther von der Vogelweide Medieval compositions
"Under der linden" is a well-known poem written by the medieval German lyric poet
Modern lyric poetry is a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person.
It is not equivalent to song lyrics, though song lyrics are often in the lyric mode, and it is also ''not'' equi ...
Walther von der Vogelweide
Walther von der Vogelweide (c. 1170c. 1230) was a Minnesänger who composed and performed love-songs and political songs (" Sprüche") in Middle High German. Walther has been described as the greatest German lyrical poet before Goethe; his hundr ...
. It is written in Middle High German
Middle High German (MHG; german: Mittelhochdeutsch (Mhd.)) is the term for the form of German spoken in the High Middle Ages. It is conventionally dated between 1050 and 1350, developing from Old High German and into Early New High German. Hig ...
. The song may have originally been sung to the surviving melody of an old French song, which matches the meter of the poem.
Manuscripts and melody
The four strophes of the song are preserved in only two manuscripts: * TheWeingarten Manuscript The Weingarten Manuscript (German ''Weingartner Liederhandschrift'') is a 14th-century illuminated manuscript containing a collection of Minnesang lyrics. It is currently in the Württembergische Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart, with the shelf-mark HB ...
* The Manesse Codex
Neither manuscript contains melodies, and the melody of the song is therefore unknown.
The melody of an anonymous Old French
Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intellig ...
folk song "En mai au douz tens novels" fits the metre of the lyric, suggesting that "Under der linden" might be a contrafactum
In vocal music, contrafactum (or contrafact, pl. contrafacta) is "the substitution of one text for another without substantial change to the music". The earliest known examples of this procedure (sometimes referred to as ''adaptation''), date back ...
of a French original.
Text
Full Poem:See also
* '' Palästinalied'' * " Elegie" *Middle High German literature
Middle High German literature refers to literature written in German between the middle of the 11th century and the middle of the 14th. In the second half of the 12th century, there was a sudden intensification of activity, leading to a 60-year " ...
* Lyric poetry
Modern lyric poetry is a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person.
It is not equivalent to song lyrics, though song lyrics are often in the lyric mode, and it is also ''not'' equi ...
References
External links
Translation by Elizabeth Siekhaus
{{Authority control Works by Walther von der Vogelweide Medieval compositions