13/14 July 2019
The German Minnesinger sang their 'songs of courtly love' for about three centuries, but there were vast stylistic changes. We'll work on the language and it's pronouciation, the poetry and ways to find melodies and actually sing.
For the later poets as Neidhart or Oswald von Wolkenstein there is much music, but for the earlier singers like Walther or Süßkind we need a different approach. It has to come out of the poetry.
From looking at illustrations we also notice, that the instrumentes depictured with the poets change in time. This might be a valueable hint to find a special sounds and colors for each of them. Early poets in Germany are shown with a lira or a flute, sometimes a fiddle. Later one can find a harp. Lutes just didn't exist in medieval Europe and are the wrong instrument for self-accompaniment.
This weekend is for German scholars who would like to perform what they know just as 'literature', and for musicians who want to be less random with a great repertoire that need carefull attention to detail in language and music and changes a lot through the ages.