The Student Life of Germany Part 23

CHAPTER XIV.

SONG AN INDISPENSABLE REQUISITE TO THE STUDENT, AS TO ALL GERMANS.

Where man sings, lie down--there certain peace is; Amongst the bad, all song of gladness ceases.

Traverse the whole territory of Germany, every where, in the north and in the south, thou wilt hear German songs.

What is the German's Fatherland?

So name me, finally, that land!

"Far as the German's free tongue springs, And hymns to G.o.d in heaven sings,"

That shall it be, while sun doth s.h.i.+ne!

That land, brave German, call it thine!

Serious and deep feeling are characteristic traits of the German, and may indeed distinguish his character, so variously modified as it is, amid all the divisions of the German race, and by its manifold points of contact with its foreign boundary neighbours, and thus becoming tinged with so many colours. He who has the skill to clear the original colour from its foreign mixtures, will continually find it lying as the one ground colour, which always remains the same. To this depth and sincerity of feeling the songs and poetry of the Germans are a necessity. As to the man--when all the chords of his heart are shaken by some mighty sorrow; when they threaten to rend asunder under the excess of agony--as then to him comes a flood of tears as a relief; which, as it were, combines the contending feelings of his internal being, and amalgamates them with the most neutral body--water; so song presents itself as a medium to prevent us from succ.u.mbing beneath an overwhelming feeling, which the sufferer would fain clothe in words, but finds all words too poor to represent. Let a language be as rich as it will, it may possibly express all that man thinks, but not all that he feels. Nature has lent the eye to the understanding that it may serve it, and in which it may wonderfully mirror itself. In this microcosm of the eye, her creative power has marvellously repeated, in little, every part of his masterpiece--man; and has so completely furnished it, that it can answer most admirably to its destination--to conduct man to the truth. But nature has bestowed upon her favourite yet another sense, through which the fibres of his brain can instantly be put into vibration. Through this she has rendered his position in society delightful, and endowed him with sensibility to foreign communications.

But shall these be the only advantages which this sense shall procure him? No; through this shall external impressions enter, which, corresponding with the laws of beauty, shall furnish him with a new enjoyment. Through this, feeling can be constantly and directly acted upon--that portion of the human soul where the animal and the divine nature so wonderfully meet. In vain would he attempt to escape from its lords.h.i.+p; its power extends farther than appears at the first sight; and when sufficiently observed, is found to be the ultimate spring of all human operations. Other nations may, if they please, believe that the ear was given them in order to listen to strange language,--the German is not so cruel as to rend Euterpe and Polyhymnia out of the band of the Nine Sisters. Every where in Germany are altars built to these sisters, and the G.o.ddesses smile down approval on the people, because they deem themselves worthy to scatter incense before them.

The faith in the mysterious might of music and of song, which so beautifully expressed itself in the Mythology of the Greeks, shone forth also in newer Sagas; and even refined Christendom has not disdained to employ music to work upon the hearts of its votaries.

Goethe has done homage to this beautiful faith when, in his Prologue to Faust, he causes Raphael to speak.

The sun, in its old way, goes sounding, With brother-spheres in rival song, And its prescribed course thus rounding, Careers with thunder-speed along.

Thus the Germans rejoice themselves in an affluence of popular songs, although they possess but few national poets. This latter fact easily explains itself, when one reflects how late the German speech arrived at a greater perfection, and that, at the same time that Germany achieved a literary independence and literary greatness, it lost its political freedom, and came out of its captivity a dismembered whole.

Take from Germany its wine, its songs, and we might name yet a third particular of a less middle character,[30] and it will become quite another country. The German expresses the most varied feelings in song, though he does not go quite so far as the opera, in which you cannot, without smiling, hear the Czar of Russia conclude a contract with the English and French amba.s.sadors singing, and ratify the Treaty of Peace in the most exquisite melodies. But the Germans acknowledge the truth of what Goethe has said:

What I erred in, what I sought for; What I lived through, what I fought for; Are but flowers in this bouquet: And the young, the old and ailing, And each virtue as each failing, Speak their language in some lay.

The common man in Germany sings as he goes to his labour; he sings while he works, in order to enliven himself, and when he has concluded he naturally sounds forth his song of satisfaction. A pleasure, without the accompaniment of singing, he does not understand. Thus the foreigner, who has a taste for singing, hears, with surprise, a chorus-song resounding from a public-house, or pa.s.sing along the streets, which might not sustain a very severe criticism, but which does all honour to the uneducated singers. So they establish themselves in the smallest villages into Gesang-vereine (singing companies), and the author recollects with particular pleasure, a serenade, which he heard in returning late one evening from Schriesheim, in the village of Handschuhsheim; and also the delightful choral-song, which a company of peasants and peasantesses, frequently raised in the summer evenings in the castle-gardens at Schwetzingen, and which in the stillness of twilight, when the splas.h.i.+ng of the distant fountains were only heard besides, produced an extraordinary effect.

Thus it happens that songs of simple contents and of simple airs, spread themselves rapidly amongst the people, and by no other means in Germany can you so speedily operate on the popular mind as through the medium of such songs. In almost every different place you hear different songs. As an example of these songs, which are current amongst the people, we may here give a very favourite one, which is sung in a sort of half recitative.

PRINCE EUGENE.[31]

Prince Eugene, that n.o.ble captain, For the Emp'ror fain would back win, Town and fortress of Belgrade, And that they at once might do it, And the army all rush to it, Caused he that a bridge be made,

When this work so far had ran on, That with baggage and with cannon They could pa.s.s the Danube flood, By Semlin struck they their tents all, And to chase the Turks they went all, To chase them far with jibes and blood.

It fell on the twenty-first of August, There came a spy through rain and storm-gust, Swore to the Prince, and showed him then, That the Turks did near him hover, As far as man could them discover, With three hundred thousand men.

When Prince Eugene thou comprehended, He bade that he should be attended By his generals and field-marshals; He caused them to be instructed How the troops should be conducted, And upon the foe should fall.

Through the parole the word was given, That when they count one and eleven At the midnight by the clock, Every man to horse should go then, For to skirmish with the foemen, All who strength had for the shock.

All to horse at once then leaping, And their swords before them keeping, Swift and silent they advance; The troopers and hussars also then, Struck right stoutly, blow for blow then, 'Twas, in truth, a lovely dance.

Gunners to the walls advancing, Play ye music to this dancing, With your cannons great and small; With the great ones, with the lesser, On the Turks! and on the Heathens!

Till they scamper one and all!

Prince Eugenius on the right wing, Like a lion there was fighting, As general and field-marshal.

Prince Ludwig rode to and fro then, "On, be brave, ye German brethren, Strike the foe with dauntless hands!"

Prince Ludwig he must surrender His spirit and his life so tender, For a bullet struck him down; Prince Eugene was sorely grieved Of such friend to be bereaved, And had him brought to Peterwardein.

The Bauer, the Handworker, the Sportsman, in short, each and all have their peculiar songs in abundance, which are never out of their mouths.

Do all Germans then sing, and sing they everywhere? some one may ask.

No, don't fear that you would actually be deafened with singing in Germany. The Bundestag,[32] when it holds its sitting; the Landtag,[33]

when it is in debate; the statesman in the business of his office; the learned man writing his dissertation, and many other people, don't sing; in short, people do not sing in their solemn affairs, though the opera makes them do so. But amongst those who have nothing better to do, the little children who have yet no proper voices, or initiated ears for it, and the very old people who have partly sent their teeth before them into another world, are the only ones that don't sing. The young sing much, the care-free young still more; and the students perhaps most of all.

Singest thou not through all thy lifelong hours?

Yet in thy youth rejoice; We hear alone while lasts the moon of flowers The nightingale's sweet voice.

_Uhland_.

It is this also which gives heart to the student; and how can he who is called the son of the Muses, do otherwise than be obedient to his divine mother? The so-called Commers-Books contain a rich collection of songs, so that the student can be in no embarra.s.sment to find one suitable to the moment. He finds here a song adapted to every occasion, and to every mood of mind. Before all, social songs are in requisition when the students are a.s.sembled at their Kneip for a merry meeting.

As the larger a.s.semblies of this kind are called Commers, so the song-books are called the Commers-Books.

When a song is sung by a number of them in company, it is the duty of the Foxes to hand round these books. The popular songs live, however, without the books, permanently in the minds of the students. An individual student often sings a song solo. The greater portion of them are only what may be called natural singers; but in a large Ch.o.r.e this is not of much consequence. In most of the German schools a portion, but a very scanty portion of instruction in singing is given, and this mainly with the object of preventing the people from too much disturbing the devotions of the congregations in the churches by their dissonance. By this, however, so much is gained, that every one who has afterwards neglected singing, yet still retains a notion of it. There is besides sure to be found amongst such a throng of students, no inconsiderable number, who possess a really fine voice, and which has, therefore, not been neglected. These are they who in the Kneips often execute a solo, or in the choral-songs undertake the solo part, and others endeavour, by the power and steadiness of their voices, to conceal the defects of those who sing with them. When, as often happens in summer, the company suffer their songs to float in the open air, and when the cups have not gone too diligently their round, it is then a genuine pleasure to listen to them. One of the most beautiful songs, and which is most frequently sung at the German universities, is this, in which the effect of the chorus is often strengthened by the accompaniment of instrumental music:--

COMMERS SONG.

From high Olympus comes our pleasures crowning, From thence our dream of youth was sent; Therefore trust brothers, spite of Envy's frowning, Who would our youthful joys prevent.

Solemnly sound ye the jubilant song.

Revelling brothers with beaker clang.

Deep in the sea of youthful pleasure drinking, Joy smiles and beckons from the sh.o.r.e; Till on some evening late the bright sun sinking, Delights us with its beams no more!

Solemnly, etc.

So long as pleaseth G.o.d, thus friends beloved, In gladness shall our life move on; And when, some day, the curtain is removed, We'll join our worthy fathers gone, Solemnly, etc.

Drink, brother, drink! thy loved one,--think upon her, She who thy youth's dream blesseth still; A glorious "Ho!" now sound we to her honour, That through her every nerve shall thrill!

Solemnly, etc.

And of our brethren is there one departed-- By pale Death summoned in his bloom?

We weep, and wish him peace, all saddest hearted, Peace to our brother's silent tomb.

We weep and wish that peace may dwell In our dear brother's silent cell.