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

Abstract

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.

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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, medtem ko nemške balade bolj izražajo razvijajočo se razredno zavest. Tudi pripovedna struktura in slog obeh nacionalnih tradicij se razlikujeta, sta pa kljub temu opazna podoben jezik in glasbeno izročilo, kar je potrdila kulturna izmenjava med irskim in nemškim preporodom ljudskega od leta 1970 naprej.