Nu wol uf, knight, ez is tac!

Foreword

The songs set to music here are attributed to a “von Wissenlo” in the famous “Manessische Liederhandschrift”. This points to the place name Wiesloch, whose original meaning may have been “forest, place of the clan of Wezzo”. The poet of Wissenlo is most likely a member of this group, which is responsible for the 12. and 13th century frequently attested family. However, like many of his contemporary colleagues, he apparently left no traces of his life behind. Even the miniature in the Manessische Lieder manuscript, a “conversation picture” – poet, child and lady on a bench – denies any biographical information, and the coat of arms depicted there is not authentic either.

The surviving songs of our minstrel are not typical songs of the “high” Minne, but embody something that could be described as “anti-Minnesang”. Love fulfilled is depicted here: “secret”, “forbidden” love under the cover of night and under the watchful eye of a guardian. It is therefore not so much the happiness of love that is depicted, but the impending pain of separation and the worry of being discovered when the day dawns. At stake is their reputation in courtly society, the êre – a central concept of the Middle Ages. This type of song was called a “Tagelied” or “Wächterlied”. It is a Romanesque import from the Old Provençal of the 11th century.

The “staff” of von Wissenlo’s four songs consists of a lady, knight and guard. The first three songs in Kraus’s edition mainly contain the dialog between the lady and the guard. The knight does not have a say here, and the poet’s narrative part is minimal. The song “Ein ritter der het sînen lîp” is different – it is a completely epic account.

What all the songs have in common is the warm, unadulterated, intimate tone of the language – especially in the lady’s emphatic speeches – and, in formal terms, the simplicity of the stanza structure and the rhyme relationships. It should be noted, however, that medieval poetry is not “experience poetry”. Individual experiences or self-portrayals are not addressed. Medieval poetry is “role poetry”, committed play with popular content and forms. And our minstrel from Wiesloch seems to be an early and hitherto under-appreciated master of this.

The Tagelieder have survived without melodies in two early composite manuscripts held by the Heidelberg University Library. Once in the “Manessische” or “Große Heidelberger Liederhandschrift”, written over a longer period from around 1305-40 in Zurich: six stanzas. On the other hand, in the “Kleine Heidelberger Liederhandschrift”, written around 1270-75 in Alsace: two stanzas under a different poet’s name and three anonymous verses.

Manfred Stange

About the settings

While numerous melodies have survived from the Romanesque role models of the minnesingers – the trouvères and trobadors – as well as their song texts, the music of the minnesingers is largely lost, which unfortunately also applies to the œuvre of von Wissenlo. Although contrafacts have been sought in the past due to the close connection between the French singers and the Germans, i.e. songs that were rewritten by the minstrels while retaining the melody, no historical manner has yet been found that could be attributed to that of Wissenlo.

The third possibility, however, to make a historical song text resound again is the new composition. New melodies based on historical tunes were created for this edition.

Some details on the procedures or special features of the individual settings are explained by the respective author in the appendix. The complete translations can also be found there.

The compositions to the songs of von Wissenlo were commissioned by the town of Wiesloch near Heidelberg, which created a musical monument to its “town’s own” minstrel on the occasion of the 1200th anniversary celebrations (in 2001). The melodies were recorded at the same time by the ensemble “Freiburger Spielleyt” (Early Music Freiburg) and are available as a maxi single CD.

The Middle High German texts in this edition are quoted according to: Deutsche Liederdichter des 13. Jahrhunderts, ed. by Carl von Kraus, 2nd edition, revised by Gisela Kornrumpf, Tübingen 1978. – Manfred Stange [MS] wrote the translations and short commentaries on the song texts of the song written by Wissenlo in the appendix.