Luogo e data di registrazione		-
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer / Engineer		-
	Prima Edizione LP		Telefunken - SAWT 9487-A - (1 LP) - durata 50' 09" - (p) 1966 - Analogico * Telefunken - 6.41928 AW - (1 LP) - durata 22' 46" - (p) 1975 - Analogico **
	Edizione "Reference" CD		Tedec - 8.44015 ZS - (1 CD) - LC 3706 - durata 74' 08" - (c) 1988 - AAD
	Cover		"Chinesenpaar m. Serpent u. Drehleier", Porzellan. Höchst um 1763/67. Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg.
	Note		This Compact Disc is the miscellany of two Telefunken publications: one in its entirety (SAWT 9487-A) and one partial to side 2 only (6.41928 AW).

Twelve songs selected primarely from the musical standpoint, clearly cannot illustrate adequately the abundance od Middle-High German lyric. Newertheless, this recording presents a fair impression of the literaly aspect of the German art-song in the thirteenth century. The selection comprises texts from different areas pf language and literature: Walther, Neidhart and Brennenberger are from the Bavarian and Austrian dialect areas, Heinrich von Meißen is from the central region, whereas Wizlaw wrote in the central dialect while employing some characteristics which reveal his North German origin. The span of time covered by this anthology ranges from the golden age of courtly poetry, roughly 1200 (from Walther von der Vogelweide, who crowned the short steep ascent of the early German art-song, and who both hastened and lamented the discruption of the organic, seylized concept of the world and of courtly) up to its deterioration around 1300, at which time Frauenlob took a stand against the imitation of the traditional literary style as continued by most of his contemporaries and attempted through novel speculation and a mannered literary style to form a "modern" lyric tradition. In this collection, several types of Middle-High German lyric are surveyed; to be sure, the point of emphasis has been conditioned by the availability of sources. The largest and best musical sources contain for the most part the so-called Spruchdichtung of Neidhart and his imitators. Spruchdichtung is the name given to a kind of sung poetry composed by itinerant professionals. Their subjects include the praise of God and Mary, the praise of princes, ethics, art theory, political and personal satire, and even begging. Only rarely did they express thoughs on Minne, courtly love, and when they did, it was didactic, Minnesang (song of courtly love) is the term employed to refer to the poetry cultivated within the courtly society, written by noblemen and highranking ministers. The complexity of life and the richness of art tended to confuse the social and thematic differences between Spruchdichtung and Minnesang. Walther, Frauenlob and Wizlaw all cultivated both Minnesang and Spruchdichtung, Neidhart employed Spruch-motives in Minnesang (e. g. Fürste Friederich), while Brennenberger employed the same melody for a Minnesang in which he had composed Spruchdichtung. Within Minnesang various forms can be distinguished, of which only the dawn song (Tagelied) and the lay (Leich) are absent from this collection; they must be reserved for recording of their own. A common form of Minnesang written in the first person and opening with a description of the season, is represented here by two rather late examples: "Meie din" and "Loibere risen". The background of both songs, although schematized and with the problem removed, is the French concept of courtly love (caritas, not amo), German: bobe Minne, for which Walther desperately fought. Here the woman was a married lady of society, who remained inaccessible to her admirer; love was exhausted in fruitless hope, in "serving", which even the highest-ranking men took upon themselves und through which they schieved an inner nobility, and in continual laments sang to the enjoyment of the company. Middle-High German lyric reflected requited love almost solely in the dialogue songs, usually in the form of niedere Minne ("Lowly love", i. e. amo, not caritas), outside the courtly society. Walther's beautiful Under der Linden reflects a kind of love for which the gates of courtly poetry remained firmly closed. In Neidhart's ironical and drastic songs, the longing of a village beauty for the knight, and the rivalry between knight and villager for the girl's attention, become amusing and softly warning antitypes to the finely mannered court. Middle-High German songs had several strophes. In the case of the single strophe of Wizlaw's "Ich warne dich", the scribe has left room for two additionals strophes, perhaps because he knew that there were more strophes or perhaps because he just couldn't imagine a song with but one strophe. Therefore the songs on this recordings are complete and uncus. The nature of Spruchdichtung, however, sometimes requires cutting, because we often have many unrelated strophes for one melody, without any recognizable formal or artistic unity. It is likely that the poet himself sang only this or that strophe, according to the situation. Thus we have selected six, out of nine, strophes of Unverzagten, three of Brennenberger's thirteen, and three of Frauenlob's twelve. There are altogether twelve strophes of Walther's Palestine Song (Nu alrest...) distributed among several manuscripts. Of these, some are established, others were possibly later additions. Our version contains the five considered by Hugo Kuhn to be authentic. Similarly, only those considered the oldest strophes of "Meie din" are sung. In one case a single strophe, complete in itself, and unrelated to the other strophes, is selected from a longer song (Fürste Friedrich). Burghart Wachinger