Minnesang: The Germanic Vernacular Tradition Jonathan Adam

The 12th and 13th Centuries marked a high point in monophonic secular song traditions in various countries. The songs of the French and Provencal trouvres and troubadours have been preserved well enough for them to be quite familiar even in the present day, and they provide a source of great research and fascination. Less fortunate in the transmittance are the Germanic secular songs, the Minnesange. Incomplete and unreliable sources, omitted music, and lack of clarity on the details of the lives of the Minnesinger have factored into a relative unfamiliarity with the Minnesange; yet the surviving materials do paint a picture of a genre of incredible depth and diversity which is more than worth to be studied. In this paper I would like to discuss some of the historical background from which Minnesang originates and how it has reached the modern scholar; how this background creates problems in researching the material; features of the Minnesang as a genre, and how it was treated by specific individuals; and a brief discussion on some of the issues arising with the performance of Minnesang.

The study of Minnesang is convoluted largely by the sources that have survived to the present day. The problem is not necessarily a lack of documentation: there are texts from about a thousand different songs, representing 150 different

Minnesinger, spread out over about fifty manuscripts.1However, the surviving manuscripts are not as encyclopedic as hoped. Though Minnesang as an art form bloomed in the mid -12th to the end of the 13th Century, the oldest remaining sources date from the end of the 13th century. 2 To further complicate matters, the oldest manuscripts, such as the Old Heidelberg manuscript, compounded by four scribes between the late thirteenth and fourteenth century, do not feature musical notation. 3 Many manuscripts have staffless neume notation, rendering a reconstruction of the melody beyond the grasp of the hypothetical. 4 The sole songs for which melodies have survived have been preserved in manuscripts from the 15th century , if not much later; inconveniently, they are the only written accounts we have of music composed almost 300 years earlier. 5 The loss of the melody is problematic for the study of Minnesang, which was very much an art with both a musical and textual component: from the over 1000 texts, only about 450 or so have some form of musical notation that we can study.6 The reproduction of manuscripts have led to the usual problems of Medieval historiography: mutilation of parchment, distortions in transcription leading to almost unusable passages, notation that has been changed, omissions and additions on later dates.7 A problem that has faced German secular song transmission in particular is the issue of dialect variation
1

Thomas, Wesley, and Barbara Garvey Jackson,

Translations of His Verse,. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1967. 2 Richey, Margaret Fitzgerald, Medieval German Lyrics, Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1958. 3 Thomas. 4 Ibid. 5 Sayce, Olive, Poets of the Minnesang;. Oxford: Clarendon P., 1967. 6 Thomas 7 Ibid

across the Germanic regions: often the scribe, unfamiliar with a particular dialect, would wrongly transcribe or inaccurately translate a text, completely misrepresenting it to the current scholar. 8Further inaccuracies arise due to the fact that a lot of the repertoire was orally transmitted, that the written scores had no apparent notion of rhythmical notation, and that the copyist made flagrant errors issues also well known to the historiographers of other vernacular song traditions. All the factors described above make that the high bloom of Minnesang in the 12th Century cannot easily be studied with complete information on text, origin and music.

The social context of Minnesang is another contentious issue with various possible interpretations. In France, the distinction between the troubadour as composer, often belonging to the nobility, and the jongleur as low-class performer is welldocumented, and at first sight a similar situation is apparent in Germany: the Minnesinger could have been members of high nobility, who would perform their songs in courtly situations but would never have to stoop so low as to play their music professionally. 9 However, unlike in France, there are no documented sources of noblemen having professional singers at their court to perform their works., although there is evidence of professional musicians, the spiliute, who, like jongleurs, travelled from court to court and disseminated Minnesange , accompanying

Thomas McMahon, James V, The Music of Early Minnesang, Columbia, SC, USA: Camden House, 1990.
8 9

themselves on harp or lute 10 In fact, the social status of Minnesinger is a lot more subtle than initially perceived. It is almost certain that the first generation of Minnesinger were of the high nobility; but members of lower noble classes soon joined them in the ranks. A particularly large number came from the so-called Ministeriales, landless un-free knights that travelled around from court to court. 11 Often Minnesang was performed after dinners or in social gatherings where different members of the nobility would entertain each other with their pieces (this tradition is documented not by the Minnesang itself, but by Gottfried von Strassburgs account in his epic Tristan), and for these lower noble classes participating through their songs was one of the few ways they could really be perceived as equals in the eyes of the higher classes. 12However, certain Minnesingers social status is incredibly unclear. What to make of a character like Walther von der Vogelweide, one of the most acclaimed Minnesinger? Walther worked at the court of Frederick, the son of Leopold V in Vienna until the death of his patron; he then wandered around for over 20 years, penniless and drifting from court to court.13 Yet surviving manuscripts, such as the magnificent Codex Manesse, refer to him as her (sir) and depict him as a knight in full armor.14 This paradox is an illustration of the problematic chronology between the writing of the pieces and the compounding of the collections: most likely, the gratuitous use of the titles is justified by Walthers strong reputation as a Minnesinger, and not based on Ibid. McMahon 12 Ibid. 13 Thomas 14 Richey
10 11

historical accuracy. The general lackadaisical attitude towards the use of the title of Minnesinger in the surviving sources make for a challenging interpretation as to what exactly the social status of the Minnesinger was.

Looking beyond the difficulties of placing a historical context on the art, the actual tradition of Minnesang is a fascinating one to study, with its own stylistic conventions borrowed from its French counterpart and spun into a highly idiosyncratic tradition. It is possible to construct a relatively continuous timeline from the mid-12th Century onwards through the remaining sources, and it is evident that the tradition of Minnesang hearkens from a moment before French songs could influence their content. The first named Minnesinger is Der Von Krenberg in the middle of the 12th Century, whose name is preserved by one of his own poems. 15 Krenbergs poems consisted of 1 or 2 4-line strophes, which could alternate between male and female perspectives (Mannenstrophen and Frauenstrophen). While the French songs also feature multiple speakers, Krenbergs roles are not in dialogue but rather speak in a unison, and will proclaim their love for each other in equal terms. 16This notion of mutual love is of course quite different from the idea of French courtly love, in which an unattainable female beauty is admired from afar by the poet.

15

Goldin, Frederick, German and Italian Lyrics of the Middle Ages: An Anthology and a History, Garden City, NY: Anchor, 1973. 16 Ibid.

Courtly love finds its entrance to Germanic poetry by ways of Minnesinger from the borders of the French regions, such as Mainz or Maastricht. Heinrich von Veldeke, from current-day Hasselt in Belgium, was extremely influenced by the French troubadours (he wrote the Eneit, a Germanic rendition of the Romance Aeneid) and brought the trope of courtly love to his Germanic Limburg dialect. Courtly love formed the basis of the notion of Minne (a physical and intellectual sensual passion with no resolution) over from French roots: Oh beautiful and faultless/ let me be yours/ and you be mine.17 Other Minnesinger, such as Friedrich von Hausen (c. 1150- 1190), a member of a baronial family and a member of the Third Crusade, elaborated on French and Provencal themes and forms. Ideas such as yearning for the unattainable and the personification of love became inherent to his output : In my dream I saw/ a very beautiful woman/ the whole night long till day / then I awoke.18

The trope of Minne takes a more self-aware turn with the work of Heinrich von Morungen (died 1222), who, under the guise of simple language hides psychologically complex and profound situations. The idea of the liet, in which the singer longingly complains about his impossible love, gets supplemented with awareness of the audience. 19There are calls to the friends of the poet, who hope his sadness is a precursor to incredible joy; there is an acknowledgment of the common people, the lugenaere or merkaere, who cannot believe that he truly is so Goldin Ibid. 19 Ibid.
17 18

noble in his love (Aha! Look at him singing! If he suffered, he wouldnt do that) and wish for a more carnal, lustful turn of ideas. Throughout the lied, the performer has to acknowledge both sides, only to let his true love prevail. The idea of the poet as a torn spirit, trying to appease both camps of the audience reaches its apex in Reinmar (1150- d before 1210), whose songs are less about the actual woman he admires, and more a debate of the nature of his love, and the attitudes of various members of the audience. In a given Minnesang, Reinmar will attempt to alternate siding with either camp, such that everyone can believe at some given point that the poet agrees with them; it is a great skill of the poet to keep this eternal deception going and to finally make his choice often still, he ventures for the noble, courtly love, never consummated, rarely responded to.

Van der Vogelweide (1170-1230), possibly tutored by Reinmar, at first continues in this vein, to little success, only to create his own genre. After the hohe Minne, centered on courtly love, he invents nidere Minne, involving the poet falling in love with a girl ready to accept and reciprocate his love. An act of rebellion against the unnatural fruitless devotion and self-deprecation of Minnesang tradition, Vogelweide focuses on the idyllic and pastoral.20 Nature gains a new focus in the songs, no longer a mere mirror of the poets psyche but a topic worthy of discussion itself, provoking a new theme to be explored beyond just the idea of love. However, Vogelweide often also acknowledges the difficulty in obtaining reciprocal love and many of his idyllic romances end with the poet realizing it was but a dream; in his
20

Goldin

rebelling against the stereotypes of courtly love, Walther often finds himself reinforcing them once again.21 The high point of Minnesang is reached by Neidhart (1210- 1237) whose output is quite sarcastic and visceral. Taking Walthers pastoral love as a starting point, Neidhart explores the consequences of removing courtly love from the lovers equations and lets his characters roam in moral degradation: the girls are feisty and cunning, and the men will fight and brawl over the hand of a peasant girl. 22 From Neidhart, the tradition of Minnesang descends into more folksy themes and the notion of Meistersang and folk-songs rears its head: with the idea of courtly love taken to extremes, the genre continued to well into the 15th Century but its bloom was over by the end of the 14th century and Neidharts satirical low comedies are seen as the last of this bloom.

The music associated with Minnesang is yet another matter of scholarly dispute. Theories that some German texts have been modeled on French songs and share the same melody (so-called contrafacta) are debated by musicologists: while some source material seems likely, other matches seem more hypothetical and arbitrary, and have little historical foundation.23 Aside from the paucity in remaining melodic sources, performers are faced with the difficulties of inaccurate and illegible scores. Furthermore, the scores show no notion of rhythm that is easily discernible: ideas about mensural notation, deriving rhythm from the stressed and unstressed syllables from the text or even investigations into isorhythmic practices similar to Goldin Ibid. 23 McMahon
21 22

those of polyphonic traditions have all been fruitless.24 Furthermore, though accounts do have spiliute accompanying themselves on harp or lute, there is no written account of what exactly this accompaniment would entail. 25The performance of Minnesang is therefore paired with the necessity to make a large number of performative decisions, few of which can be substantiated with historical evidence and therefore must be left at the discretion of the performer.

Even with the many difficulties in studying and interpreting the genre of Minnesang, it is clear that this music is worth looking into. Tracing the concept of courtly love, a French invention, through the genre reveals a different direction in treatment, including more critical self-awareness, more variety in the use of tropes hiding behind a deceptive simplicity of tone, and in later years, a humorous and sarcastic approach to romantic woes. Digging through the unevenly documented repertoire, and making personal choices with regards to performance practice leads to a genre of incredibly wealth and texts of great value.

Sources Goldin, Frederick. German and Italian Lyrics of the Middle Ages: An Anthology and a History. Garden City, NY: Anchor, 1973. Print.

McMahon, James V. The Music of Early Minnesang. Columbia, SC, USA: Camden House, 1990. Print.

24 25

McMahon McMahon

Richey, Margaret Fitzgerald. Medieval German Lyrics. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1958. Print.

Sayce, Olive. Poets of the Minnesang;. Oxford: Clarendon P., 1967. Print.

Thomas, Wesley, and Barbara Garvey Jackson. of His Verse,. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1967. Print.